Mabeiro

One of the things that really winds me up about my own writing is looking back and seeing a multitude of sentences beginning with “I” or “And” or “But”. I’m a messy first-drafter as it is and I do a lot of line edits, but it’s still takes up a significant portion of my time going back to change things. 

So, I’m here today to share with you the ways I try to vary my sentence starters and some tips and tricks for drafting and edits” 

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We all know why it’s important to vary your sentence structure, and by extent, your sentence starters. Besides obvious intentional things such as creating tension, or specific mood/tone/atmosphere, we should be aiming to vary how we start sentences to keep the reader engaged and not it being repetitive.

This is especially important if you, like me, write in first person and begin a lot of sentences with things like “I was” or “I am” etc. Or if you have a habit of beginning sentences with characters’ names. But what other options do we have? Here are five general categories that I like to use:

ING WORDS Coughing, she pushed her way through the blaze.  Smiling, he leaned in for a kiss. 

SIMILIES (and other techniques) Like the chattering of a typewriter, their eyes flittered over the group in front.  Sweeping in like a dove, she cut through the awkward conversation.

PREPOSITION (beside, near, with, across, around, out, at, in, etc.)  On the starter’s whistle, I pushed forward.  Under the heavy fog, the streetlamp glowed valiantly 

CONNECTIVE (Because, but, and, despite, after, before, etc.) After he left, I slipped the dagger back into its brace.  But I wasn’t about to give in now.  ED WORDS Distracted, she let the ice cream fall from her hands.  Stunned by his words, they stopped in their tracks. 

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Obviously you can make these examples much more complex and attuned to your own styles! There are lots of other ways you can vary your sentence openers, these are just what I personally use - so hopefully you can get some use of them! 

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Hints and Tips!

Use the highlighting treatment! Go through your WIP and focus on your sentence openers. Select a different colour for each category (Blue for She/He/They/I starters, red for ED Words, yellow for ING words, as an example) and use it to help you see where you may need to add some more variation! 

This also is a great exercise to do with a published book you really enjoy or by an author you admire - it’s a great learning experience!

Use a good mix of short, long, and medium sentences! If you find that your writing feels a bit samey or dry, even with varied openers, try changing the structure of the whole sentence itself! 

Experiment and play around with word order and structure - free write for a few minutes every day and try something new! It’s all practice and even if it never sees the light of day in your WIP, it’s still a worthwhile thing to do! 

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I hope you’ve enjoyed this guide and/or found it useful!

Flaws are just as important a trait as the fine points in a character. Without flaws, no being is a person. And being a person means not being perfect. Being perfect is ... Annoying. Which is why majority of readers and watchers hate Mary Sues.

But what is a Mary Sue

A Mary Sue is a character that unrealistically lacks any and all flaws or weaknesses, which does not make them a strong character, just a really bland one.

A good example of a Mary Sue would be Bella Swan from Twilight, or Anastasia Steele from the 50 shades (just don't- just- shh). Superman and Captain America (Chris Evans') could be good examples as well.

How to avoid writing a Mary Sue?

To avoid writing a Mary Sue is simple, really. Give your character well thought out flaws that go with their personality.

Now FLAWS does not mean clumsiness that's found cute or brooding which draws in a love interest. I mean actual flaws like pessimistic nature, anger issues, controlling nature, laziness, judgmental nature, arrogance, naive, addiction, greediness, impatience, obsessive nature, selfishness, etc etc.

Boa noite ☺️

Hoje eu estou morrendo de preguiça de fazer um post super longo como eu fiz nas 4 dicas anteriores, então o assunto da dica de hoje será rápida e espero que muito útil para, escritor.

Desde que eu comecei a postar meu livro, Portal das Almas, no wattpad, eu venho reparando em uma coisa: os escritores amam criar criar um cast para os seus personagens, inspirando-se em pessoas reais para criar nossos amados personagens.

Dar um rosto aos personagens sempre atraiu leitores, isso é verdade, mas, por causa de direitos autores e vinculação de imagem de uma pessoa pública, quantos autores iniciantes tiveram que reescrever tudo depois que a história fez sucesso ou depois que uma editora manifestou interesse?

Com o mundo digital, as editoras estão cada vez mais próximas de seus futuros investimentos, sempre de olho na internet e quem faz sucesso nela. Então por que ter trabalho extra de reescrever por causa de um detalhe aparentemente sem importância?

É pensando nisso que eu trago a dica de hoje:

Artbreeder, a nova forma de se inspirar

Clique na imagem abaixo e continue comigo.

Disclaimer: this is a harsh and mean informative post on mistakes that make your writing amateurish or fanfiction-like. In the professional world, editors will call you out on them in a much harsher way that here.. but hey, they’re easy to fix! Of course, the quality of writing is often a matter of individual taste and experience, though there is a theory to it and ways to make your work clear and interesting to your readers.

And yes, as cruel as it sounds to admit—most fanfiction writers are amateurs who will not help you improve your own writing. You might have to close your Good Omens AO3 fanfic for a few hours to read the actual work by Neil Gaiman. That said, fanfiction is an amazing gateway to becoming a pro author because it gives you insight on what the audience likes, and the practice you need to improve! There are many fanfiction writers who’ve taken the time to learn from professionals about their craft, and are in a place where they could become successful published authors themselves.

That aside, here are 7 writing mistakes that hinder your writing!

1 – Dialogue tags

This is BY FAR the most common mistake that amateur writers do, and particularly prelevant in fanfiction. Alternative dialogue tags (whisper, shout, murmured) should be used VERY sparingly. “said”, “replied”, and “asked” should build up the majority of the tags you use.

Oftentimes, the reader will understand the tone based on what the character says or by their actions.

2 - Tense changes

Pick a tense and stick to it. Many times, amateurs waver between past and present which leads to awkward reading. Choose which tense you prefer and stick to it. An extra caution should be taken when using past tense, however, to correctly use past preterite (I ate) vs past perfect (I had eaten). While both can be used, they are different so make sure you understand when to use which.

3 – Pointless dialogue

It’s time to cut the small talk. While chitchat and banter may be fun to read, particularly in fanfiction, editors will ask that you remove it if it doesn’t advance the plot. What you want to do is cut down on the filler in your story, and if that means your characters NOT having an argument about macaroni cheese, then so be it. Save dialogue for important and meaningful conversation only—your readers will prefer it, I promise.

4 – Pointless description

Hand in hand with the previous point, description should be kept consise and relevant. We don’t need to know what your character is wearing or the details of their “black, leather, zebra-print sofa under the wide windowsill in the master bedroom”. Keep the descriptions short, fed into the plot little-by-little and relevant to what is happening. Your readers are smart—they can imagine the rest for themselves! That’s what makes reading fun!

5 – Use the character’s name

The blue-eyed boy has a name for the great purpose of you using it! Literal writing, nine times out of ten, is better! Green orbs are distracting, but green eyes are to the point and clear. It’s the same with names! The name, title, role (butler, governess etc), or pronouns should always be the default. Any other term should be used sparingly when there is no other alternative.

6 – Abandon the pet names

Yes, pet names are cute and fun, but not when they’re in every sentence of conversation. Things like “babe”, “baby”, “sugarpuff sunshine fairy” should be used SPARINGLY. I can assure you, the love interests saying it once or twice in the novel will have a far greater impact on the reader than if they say it every time they call their partner. An overuse of pet names becomes distracting and make the character seem both immature and a caricature. It also has a similar effet to repeating the other person’s name during a conversation—it leads to unnatural dialogue as we only really say the other person’s name to them in order to get their attention.

7 – Immature characters

This is a biiiiig one in fanfiction. You may see characters who are adults in their mid to late twenties but who still behave like teenagers. Granted, if you are a teenage writer, this can’t always be corrected, though it does become apparent to any reader over the age of eighteen.

Truth be told, adults mature and don’t react as overtly as many poorly-written characters do. A twenty-eight year old is very unlikely to tell two teenagers who are making out at the kitchen table to “get a room”, nor are they likely to be victim of some horrible miscommunication that leads to a lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers situation. Of course, it is still possible, though it does read as unrealistic and makes it apparent that the author has not yet reached the age of the character they are writing about. Take reference from real people around the age of your characters and if all else fails, you could always look for the possibility to age them down.

The point of correcting these mistakes is to create a novel that is easy to understand without the reader feeling as though they're swimming through mud. Publishers look for clear, consise books that tell one story from start to finish!

1.- Talking too much. Specifically, with adults. I see this a lot with hyperactive children. But a lot of us don’t grow out of this and I want my representation! Plus, this can be very fun and useful! You can use it for exposition and world building. It leaves plenty of room to hide small details. It also can give a lot of context about other character’s around them. 

When they start talking word after word for about a hundred words more than necessary to say they  are happy, do the other character’s seem entertained? Annoyed but say nothing? Annoyed and say it? Do they look like they’re not listening? Do they look like they’re listening but later on we find out they’re just really good at pretending to listen? So many possibilities! And how does the original character react to this? 

2.- Being terrible with names. I mean, as someone who once forgot the name of a co-worker I saw every day and had been working with for years, it’s kinda upsetting when character’s in books just hear it once and remember. 

Especially when I’m just dying to be reminded this character’s name because I forgot. It’s not only a very relatable character flaw, it’s useful for reminding readers of who’s who! Something a lot of authors don’t do enough of (including me, I know my characters better than my co-workers, so of course it’s obvious to me). 

3.- Hoarding. Not like to the point where’s it’s dangerous and a problem that needs to be solved, but to the point where you have a shoe box full of receipts from seven years ago for stuff that never had a guarantee. To the point where you have leaflets from concerts you went to at the age of ten and can’t throw away “because of the memories!” To the point where you have magazines because, “look at the pretty pictures! I can use that in scrap booking somewhere… some day.” Or stickers from when you were five years old that won’t even stick anymore. 

Again, lots of people do this, it’s relatable, but also, it gives you lots of opportunities to show us stuff about the character, about their past and how they’ve changed with time. Natural exposition baby! 

4.- Gets anxious when there’s too much noise, or too many people. Not as a plot point, not as a symptom of autism or something. Just normal, over stimulation. Because over stimulation can happen to anybody, and our ability to withstand it is different. 

This too can be useful, it can be a good way to separate two characters from the group. “Oh, I’ll go with her, you guys stay, don’t worry!” 

Also, it’d be nice to see a character realise the environments not good for them, communicate that calmly and leave before over stimulation. Like, you think after years of this shit I don’t know before things get too bad? You’d be right sometimes, but not all times. Sometimes I know my limits, and I never see that in media (if you know any media that does do this, tell me!). 

5.- Having zero sense of direction. Because after four years I still manage to get lost on my own street if I come in from a direction that isn’t the one I use every day and again, I want representation. 

Plus, you can have character’s get lost (especially in fantasy worlds with no GPS) as a way to discover new locations or send other characters to find them. 

I hope you found at least one of these ideas useful. Or, they inspired you to think of other good and not often seen character flaws. 

I want to state that I’ve used the word character “flaw” but that might not be entirely accurate for some of these I just can’t think of a more accurate word right now. 

As usual,  check out my book, stories I’ve written plus other social medias: here.