I start where the logic ends

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"the painful trigger -> we are overwhelmed with emotion -> our amygdala (emotional centre) is activated -> the brain sends a signal to our nervous system -> tears are an involuntary response -> their purpose is to help us regulate -> pain killing chemicals are releasing -> mood boosting chemicals are released".

break up your paragraphs. big paragraphs are scary, your readers will get scared

fuuuuck epithets. “the other man got up” “the taller woman sat down” “the blonde walked away” nahhh. call them by their names or rework the sentence. you can do so much better than this (exception: if the reader doesn’t know the character(s) you’re referring to yet, it’s a-okay to refer to them by an identifying trait)

blunette is not a thing

new speaker, new paragraph. please.

“said” is such a great word. use it. make sweet love to it. but don’t kill it

use “said” more than you use synonyms for it. that way the use of synonyms gets more exciting. getting a sudden description of how a character is saying something (screaming, mumbling, sighing) is more interesting that way.

if your summary says “I suck at summaries” or “story better than summary” you’re turning off the reader, my dude. your summary is supposed to be your hook. you gotta own it, just like you’re gonna own the story they’re about to read

follow long sentences w short ones and short ones w long ones. same goes for paragraphs

your writing is always better than you think it is. you just think it’s bad because the story’s always gonna be predicable to the one who’s writing it

Also, may I add:

Simple is okay. Simple is better than compicated.

If you don’t know the fancy word, there’s a 90% chance the reader won’t know the fancy word.

If you’re writing in your second/third/etc. language and you’re shy about it, don’t be! Be proud! You’re doing something amazing and your words matter

Names will come at some point. Having [character B] retrieve [McGuffin] from [location] during [holiday] is a-okay, don’t worry about it!

You’re still a great writer, no matter how many typos you make of what your writing speed is.

That’s it. Here. Have a quill for good luck.

Frodo: that’s right

Boromir: and Merry is for Meriadoc

Frodo: correct

Boromir: what about Frodo?

Frodo: what about me?

Boromir: is it short for anything?

Frodo: oh, it’s -

Merry: Frodomulent. It’s short for Frodomulent.

Merry: hey Frodo

Frodo: yeah

Merry: did you ever tell Boromir your name isn’t actually Frodomulent

Frodo:

Frodo: and what’s that

Pippin: you’ll just have to change your name to Frodomulent effective immediately

Pippin: to save face

Frodo: …………….

Faramir: if you do not change your name to Frodomulent, I would consider that a most grievous insult to my brother’s memory

Merry: don’t worry, we’ll still call you Frodo for short

Gandalf: I shall only call you Frodomulent

“i couldn’t help it, i was having a bad episode” is a justification, not an apology.

“i’m so fucking sorry, i fucked up, i don’t deserve to live, i should stop talking to anyone ever, i should die” is a second breakdown and a guilt trip. it is not an apology.

when you apologize, the focus should be on the person you hurt. “i’m sorry. i did something that was hurtful to you. even if i was having a rough time, you didn’t deserve to hear that,” is a better apology. if it was a small thing, you can leave it at that.

if you caused significant distress to the other person, this is a good time to talk about how you can minimize damage in the future. and again, even if it is tempting to say you should self-isolate and/or die, that is not a helpful suggestion. it will result in the person you’re talking to trying to talk you out of doing that, which makes your guilt the focus of the conversation instead of their hurt.