My toxic writer trait is my vocabulary, and possibly not in the sense you think.

It’s rather expansive. This isn’t good or bad, it’s just a result of my particular interests and background. I’ve always been a VORACIOUS reader, I have a particular affinity for the 16-19th centuries, I have studied multiple languages in grad school, and I made vocabulary flashcards for the GRE when I applied to grad school. I also have an incredible memory for trivia and facts.

For all of these reasons, I have a large vocabulary. And I use it in my fiction. I’m not trying to be pedantic or erudite or anything like that in my writing. I just use the words that come to mind, and sometimes–as my editor and beta readers like to remind me–they aren’t necessarily words the bulk of my readers will be familiar with.

It doesn’t help that though fictional, Herezoth’s culture reminds me of the 16th or 17th century quite a bit (minus guns), and many of my characters are nobles. So they’d be well educated.

Being familiar with 19th century literature, I also tend to like complex sentence structures (they feel normal to me) as well as semicolons.

My editor is always removing my emotional support semicolons.

If you write, what’s your toxic writer trait?