Where are your weak spots?

[inkdust]

I've known for a while now that I struggle with grounding my scenes with setting details. I'm so wary of drawn-out descriptions of places and people that I run the risk of writing scenes that read more like dialogue scripts. So one element of tackling my second draft is consciously adding in more background details.

Where are your writing weaknesses? What do you do to try to overcome them?

Comments

[inkdust]

I know what you mean. I've gotten a little obsessive about avoiding dialogue tags whenever possible and just using action tags, and I run out of actions pretty fast if there's no outside activity involved. I have a bad habit of frequently using action tags to mention what the characters are looking at, because in my head that's very important to the dialogue but I think on paper it's often tedious and/or unnecessary. But dialogue is also an area where I make a point go back in and see where setting details might fit, since those can break up the " " [frown] -" " [shrug].