Oh my goodness, I relate to the arguing thing so. Much. For some reason, I just LOVE making my characters get into huge blown-up fights. Oh, and the crying thing, too! I adore making my characters cry. Oh, and capes. Yes. Capes and cloaks are so epic.

• Blacking out. I feel like I use this one too much, but I really enjoy having my characters go unconscious for some reason, especially when I end a chapter with something like 'and everything went black.'

• Character descriptions. I really like describing my characters' appearances in depth, although I always worry that I go over the top, especially when it comes to clothing. For some reason, I always feel the need to tell my readers what my characters are wearing, and this where I feel that I go too far and maybe ramble on.

• World building. Oh my goodness. I don't know what it is, but there's just something so amazing about creating worlds and delving into them. It's so refreshing for me when I can let myself develop everything I possibly can about a world. It's one of my favorite things about writing.

• Ships. 

• Awkward romance scenes. They're so satisfying. 

I'm technically not on here's anymore except for a select few threads, but I was reading this and realized how many of these I have. Here we go.

1-I love writing the protagonist as not strictly good and not strictly evil. I find the inner conflict so interesting to write.

2-Self inserts. oh dear. At least two of my OC's are basically me personality wise with a few changes.

3-I love writing villains that make the reader question if they really are the villain of the story. For example, their goals may seem good, but their tactics are… questionable at the very least.

4-Characters that make the readers torn between adoring and hating them.

5-I for some reason [probably because of Voltron, but ya know] love writing clones in my sci-fi stories. The aftermath of the other characters finding out is so fun [??] to do for some reason.

6-Soulmate Aus. they are one of the most cliche things, but I love them anyway.  

7-Mental breakdowns. ok, hear me out. I find it interesting to write characters at their wits end and at the point where they're ready to just give up and be overtaken. Most of those times include the character screaming, whether at others or just in general, some form of crying, and possibly getting violent. I find a lot of storybook heroes are just like, "Yup, we're saving the world, let's go!" with barely any true mental strain that eventually does take a huge tole on them and the others.  

8-I love character studies. I like to know my character almost a story if they were real and a friend or someone involved in my life. [probably explains why i've had dreams with my OCs in them…] 

I prefer cloaks, myself.

I also like mundane characters! It's like saying literally anyone can be the main character! GO INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES! That's why in my world literally anyone can do magic, if they train hard enough.

I also have a serious weakness for a villain who is…. just her emotions are toned down to like, three percent of the usual emotions. So then when she gets REALLY mad, her super emotions are super super emotions.

LIKE EXPLODING WITH A SCREAM OF RAGE AND THEN KILLING THE PERSON WHO MADE HER MAD! ALSO! OVERPROTECTIVE-NESS! LOVE THAT WITH OLDER SIBLINGS!

Wow Quirker! I like that too! Horryifying things I love. That sounded…. wrong… in…. so many ways…

Cockleburr (Cool name) Yeah! I like to make long dscriptions too. Just so your reader KNOWS where they are. I hate books where the descriptions are never enough. But then, sometimes just one sentence is actually enough to make the feel of the story right. I usually go overboard with descriptions.

YES YES YES LEELI! Worldbuilding is so fun!Sometimes I talk out loud to figure things out, and then, oh yes, when everything clicks into place, and it just makes SENSE! It's probably my favourate thing about writing.

Nighthawk…. This is a bit surreal. I also love inner turnoil about what is actually RIGHT and who is bad here? I love to write things from the villain's point of view. I want it to be equal, so you really don't know who is bad and you think all parties have good reasons and if everyone just sat down and explained things everything would be all right, and you can't just root for one, and you don't want just one to win. Yes, and characters that I want to be real. I loooove moral ambiguety.

I absolutely have to put in loads and loads of detail. No escape. I must put you through the exact wispy sheen of a character's hair in the light of sunset, the types of plants growing on the riverbank, the quality of their voice as they lay out their thoughts.

I love a slow pace. I can't hurtle ahead with the plot, I don't know where it goes! I have to have reasons, and motives, and explanations for how, and long conversations about what to do next.

Apart from these, I'm not quite sure. I am not a prolific writer. 

Oh, and I have another one! I just ADORE having my stories end nicely, prettily, perfectly, with all the loose ends tied up in one big, pink bow. Everything neatly packed together… I'm getting rid of this by making some things I write more mysterious, but when I write/plan out a huge long story, I always have to have things fit together. For example, when I was about 9 or 10 years old, I wrote this story about these six kids (three girls, three boys) with two dragons (one girl, one boy). There was intense worldbuilding (with really, really stupid names like Stoneyville, Magical Mountains, The Village, Dragon Country…), but (surprise, surprise), the three girls ended up marrying the three boys, and the dragons got married. The epilogue was of them and their children… how nicely it all wrapped up (and how cliché, too!) That's just something I can't resist doing.

Also, overplanning certain parts! For example, I always plan a grand finale for the ending, and I obsess over the details! Does anyone else do this??

I’m definitely in the introspection/character analysis category. Seriously. The main novella (not really a short story, too short for a novel) I’m working on and am hoping to get published is literally just backstory. Seriously.

I have this thing to get the MC to describe themselves. It’s brushing their hair out of their eyes. I start describing their hair, and then transition to the rest. I need to find a different way. (And not getting changed or looking in a mirror, please, that’s just cliche). 

Open endings. You don’t know what’s going to happen, and I write standalones so you never will. The before mentioned novella ends with the characters about to be killed, but then they do one final act of defiance yaaay and it ends just as they decide to do it. 

I also love ending books on sadness. Like the MC dies (or the eight MCs die, as in my novella) or the mission fails, or…

I also like leaving holes for people to fill in. One sentence is literally just “Flames.” But then the reader fills in what the heck happened, and it may be quite different from what I was thinking.

SAD PEOPLE WITH HORRIBLE BACKSTORIES. I LOVE THEM. THATS WHY I’M WRITING A BOOK ON THE BACKSTORIES OF SAD PEOPLE. THAT’S WHY QUINN IN MY BOOK IS MUTE. THAT’S WHY I OBSESS OVER ZUKO.THATS WHY I LIKE WINGS OF FIRE. I NEED MY DEPRESSED PEOPLE, ALRIGHT? 

Okay, I thought of an opposite thing: something that I absolutely cannot stand to write or read about (mostly reading).

Really, really embarrassing situations. The kind where there's a misunderstanding or something and you can FEEL the embarrassment for the sake of the character. 

I hate that so much. It makes me want to scream and throw the book against the wall. That's why I literally cannot stand those middle school novels about some "endearingly awkward girl"— no. That is not endearingly awkward. That is highly painful.

You all are making me want to get back into writing. Help.

@Abigal, Cockleburr. YES. It's just s00oo0000o painful, and I literally groan when I read it. YES, WE GOT THAT YOU TOTALLY WANT TO IMPRESS YOUR CRUSH. YES, WE KNOW THAT YOU ARE TOTALLY GOING TO GET EMBARRASSED RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM. DUDE, DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT ACTUAL LOVE IS ABOUT?! LIKE, YOU SHOULD ACTUALLY FEEL COMFORTABLE AROUND THEM. NOT. AWKWARD. GOT THAT? AND, LIKE, TO HAVE A STABLE RELATIONSHIP, ONE MUST ACTUALLY KNOW THE CHARACTER-CRUSH IN QUESTION.

However, if executed well, the classic "He loves this girl but she's a total jerk" can be really good, like in Stardust. Great movie, great book. 

However… just… ugh, people. Uhg, ugh, and guh, and also hug. Because, no one seems to ever write about ACTUAL love. No, not that STUPID bit about 'true love' and how beauty 'fixes everything' and getting a makeover to impress a prince TOTALLY doesn't say quite about the prince in question. I mean, if you need a LITERAL magic makeover to get noticed by him, maybe he's not the best guy to go out with…?

I would love to actually read about an actual, stable relationship where they really love each other. Like, REAL ACTUAL, ACTUALLY-UNCONDITIONAL love. Well, to a reasonable extent. I mean, i would totally jump off a cliff to save my family's lives, but, uh, not to make them happy.

(I mean, if they're happy because I just jumped off a cliff, then, uh, I don't know why they even bother keeping me alive….) 

I enjoy writing novels where the main character DIES at the end. My favorite story I've ever come up with has… Lots… Of death. Let's see… One, two, three… Four… Five, six… I'm debating a seventh but then I'm just like GAH NO I CAN'T KILL HER… And then there's two more I forgot… plus villans it would be even more… Um yea.