The Ys That Make Writing Hard

Here are some words starting with Y that cause problems in a story.

First off is the word Yum. Yum as in tasty food and this is something I must be careful about when writing, especially when it is a story full of adventure. What I mean is that I sometimes forget to feed my characters, so thus they will at times go days on end without food. Thankfully for me they don’t complain much, but this is definitely a problem I have to fix in the editing stage.

Another word is yea, as in “O Yea!” This is one of those revelations that hit you all of a sudden in the middle of writing. For instance when you have your character perform some elaborate stunt then remember, “O yea, this character just broke his leg in the last chapter.”  This definitely causes problems, but then Hollywood seems to get away with it all the time.

The next word is You. For example when you have to ask one of your characters, “Who are you again?” This happens when you throw in a minor character somewhere along the way then have to recall their name later on in the story. Often times I forget what the characters name was and end up getting it messed up. This is another editing chore that can prove problematic if not taken care of.

Then finally there is the word “Why.” Now this does not start with the letter Y, but it does make the sound. This is the problem you encounter when you need something to happen, but you don’t know why it would happen. Maybe you need one of your characters to do something but don’t know why anyone in their right mind would do it. This is a problem I often face, and it is something that can at times take me a while to figure out.