Literary Perks!

[Daigoro]

Perks
Walking Dictionary
Your vocabulary is the size of a baleanopterum. Get +2 when you need to use exactly the right word or to win pub trivia nights.

Walking Thesaurus
You know a hundred different ways to say big. Must be useful somehow.

Style Master
You have internalised all the rules of a particular style guide, such as Strunk's Elements of Style or the Chicago Style Manual. Get a +2 reaction from your editor and the editorial process takes 10% less time.

Viral Hound
You're the source of the latest Tweet that has become an instant meme, or the heartfelt Facebook post that everyone has to share. Get +1 on Propaganda rolls if you're aiming to get a particular message out.

Quirks
Overly Excessive Verbosity in Combination with Extremely Wordy Verbiage
Why use two words when twenty would suffice? Many people give up reading before they get to the end of your text, or your meaning is lost in the word forest. Get -2 for trying to communicate a specific idea. Also, your editor groans when anything of yours lands on his desk: gain a -2 reaction from your editor, and +20% time to edit something you've written down to a reasonable publishable length.

Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophilia
(No, not pedophilia).
You have an excessive like for long words. This usually alienates your reader, or they have trouble understanding your meaning due to overly technical lexis and the need for an open dictionary to get through a text. -2 to influence readers, +2 reaction from other language nerds.

Cliche Hound
Like a dog with a bone, you can't be separated from the use of cliches in your writing. Generally a -2 reaction, but you might get a bonus writing pop songs, working in advertising or for tabloid newspapers.

Mr Malapropism
For all intensive purposes, you can write. Readers can usually understand your meaning clearly enough, but the use of slightly wrong words can be jarring, and sometimes actually leads to complete misunderstandings. -2 reaction from educated readers.

Grammar Klutz
Punctuation Klutz
You really, should of paid more attention in school. Your computer's grammar corrector underlines every other sentence you put down, but your to busy to check everything. -2 reaction from grammar snobs, who will decry the collapse of modern English language education in the face of your writing onslaught.

Spelling Bie
You have trubble spleling teh wrods rite. You can sometimes get away with blaming your phone's autocorrect, but generally people see through that excuse. -2 from readers, also -2 from computerised Research rolls as your misspelt keywords never return any search hits.

Probably more disadvantage level:
Secret: Magnum Kleptus
The piece of writing that got you started or that you are most famous for wasn't yours. You stole it from your dead roommate's writing drawer or you're Mia in Season 1 of Californication. Could turn into loss of reputation or lawsuits if the secret is revealed.

Secret: Serial Plagiarist
You don't write much yourself, instead it's all compiled from a bunch of online sources you've manipulated into a semblance of cohesiveness. Risk of loss of your job or expulsion from university if found out.

Secret: Magnum Fraudulus
The piece that you're most famous for purportedly relates real-life events that you experienced, but is in fact largey untrue. Prepare to be hounded by internet sleuths and investigative journalists interviewing everyone from your past. See season 5 of The Wire or Helen Demidenko for examples.

Laziness: Writer's Block
An aspected form of Laziness- when faced with a writing task or looming deadline, if you fail a self control roll you end up doing something unproductive or unrelated instead.
(Not sure if this is the best fit for writer's block, but it is at least one aspect of it.)

[Phil Masters]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophilia
(No, not pedophilia).
You have an excessive like for long words. This usually alienates your reader, or they have trouble understanding your meaning due to overly technical lexis and the need for an open dictionary to get through a text. -2 to influence readers, +2 reaction from other language nerds.

Note that if your style or your grasp of your subjects are good enough, you may actually accumulate a modest but devoted following with this - and not just from those language nerds. And if the quirk needs a shorter name, I'd call it "Clute's Syndrome".

Mr Malapropism
For all intensive purposes, you can write. Readers can usually understand your meaning clearly enough, but the use of slightly wrong words can be jarring, and sometimes actually leads to complete misunderstandings. -2 reaction from educated readers.

It feels terribly appropriate to point out that this isn't quite what a malapropism is. Mrs Malaprop didn't use slightly wrong words; she used completely wrong words that sounded like the word she meant.

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

Note that if your style or your grasp of your subjects are good enough, you may actually accumulate a modest but devoted following with this - and not just from those language nerds.

Would that be a fit for the corresponding Walking Dictionary perk then?

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

It feels terribly appropriate to point out that this isn't quite what a malapropism is. Mrs Malaprop didn't use slightly wrong words; she used completely wrong words that sounded like the word she meant.

Actually, I didn't realise it was a reference. I was thinking of Tony Abbot's "suppository of all wisdom" comment, but that is indeed the completely wrong word that sounds slightly different.

[Phil Masters]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

Would that be a fit for the corresponding Walking Dictionary perk then?

Yes, combining the perk and the quirk fits some writers very well. "I have a huge vocabulary and I'm not afraid to use it!"

Actually, I didn't realise it was a reference. I was thinking of Tony Abbot's "suppository of all wisdom" comment, but that is indeed the completely wrong word that sounds slightly different.

Look out Sheridan's The Rivals some time. It's still a very funny play.

[Daigoro]

Voice (Writer's Voice)
As per the Voice advantage, but only in a written context. Substitute Public Speaking and Singing for Propaganda, Writing and Poetry. I'm not sure that Fast Talk can't be reimagined into a related writing skill.

[cdru]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

Voice (Writer's Voice)
I'm not sure that Fast Talk can't be reimagined into a related writing skill.

Fast-talk is usable for writing. Social Engineering has penalties for that: -2 for fast two-way channels (Texting, for example), and -5 for one-way messages

[Phil Masters]

Bruce Sterling's Workshop Lexicon could be a useful reference here, mostly for terms for quirk-level bad habits, but also for (mostly SF-oriented) techniques like kuttnering and heinleining.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

Voice (Writer's Voice)
Substitute Public Speaking and Singing for Propaganda, Writing and Poetry.

I think maybe you mean "Replace Public Speaking and Singing with Propaganda, Writing, and Poetry"? "Substitute" has the opposite meaning of what you seem to mean here.

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I think maybe you mean "Replace Public Speaking and Singing with Propaganda, Writing, and Poetry"? "Substitute" has the opposite meaning of what you seem to mean here.

Oops, perhaps. Or changing "substitute for" to "substitute with" should also suffice.

ETA: Or perhaps I was succumbing to a recent trend in British English to reverse the sense.

[(E)]

Master of subtext
You have knack for blending in hidden meaning and layers to the works you write.

work it in
You can plug an advertiser's product with great subtlety.

Make it fit
You can make a work that contains hidden codes and cyphers quite readable.