shirai

Here are a handful of quick tips to help you write believable characters! 

1. A character’s arc doesn’t need to grow linearly. Your protagonist doesn’t have to go from being weak to strong, shy to confident, or novice to professional in one straight line. It’s more realistic if they mess up their progress on the way and even decline a bit before reaching their goal.

2. Their past affects their present. Make their backstory matter by having their past events shape them into who they are. Growing up with strict parents might lead to a sneaky character, and a bad car accident might leave them fearful of driving.

3. Give reoccurring side characters something that makes them easily recognizable. This could be a scar, a unique hairstyle, an accent, or a location they’re always found at, etc.

4. Make sure their dialogue matches their personality. To make your characters more believable in conversation, give them speech patterns. Does the shy character mumble too low for anyone to ever hear, does the nervous one pace around and make everyone else on edge? 

5. Make your characters unpredictable. Real people do unexpected things all the time, and this can make life more exciting. The strict, straight-A student who decides to drink at a party. The pristine princess who likes to visit the muddy farm animals. When character’s decide to do things spontaneously or in the heat of the moment, it can create amazing twists and turns.

6. Give even your minor character’s a motive. This isn’t to say that all your characters need deep, intricate motives. However, every character should need or want something, and their actions should reflect that. What’s the motive behind a side character who follows your protagonist on their adventure? Perhaps they’ve always had dreams of leaving their small village or they want to protect your protagonist because of secret feelings.

pressing their forehead into something cool or comfortable (this could be an array of things. the table, the floor, someones leather jacket, their water bottle, the countertop)

warm to the touch, or heat radiating from them (could be noticed if someone’s gauging their temperature with their hands, hugging them, or just generally touching them)

leaning into people’s touch, or just spontaneously leaning on them (like pressing into their hand when someone’s checking their temp, or just, like, literally walking up and laying their head on them from fatigue. bonus points if the character is usually feral and the other is scared to engage™︎)

falling asleep all over the place (at the dinner table, on their homework, in the car, in the bathroom — just being so exhausted from doing literally nothing)

being overly emotional (crying over things that don’t usually bother them, like their siblings arguing, or their homework, or literally just nothing)

stumbling/careening/staggering into things (the wall, furniture, other people. there is no coordination in feverish brains. running into chairs, hitting the door, falling over the couch, anything and everything)

slurring their words (could be from fatigue or pain. connecting words that shouldn’t be connected, murdering all of their conversations with the excessive use of ‘mm’ and ‘nn’ in place of words) (this is my favorite thing ever)

being overly touchy (basically like a sick kid — just hold them, please. do that thing where you brush their hair back out of their face, or rub circles on their back, or snuggle them. they won’t care. bonus points if this is also the feral character and they refuse to believe it afterwards)

being extremely resistant to touch (flinching away when they usually don’t so someone can’t feel the fever, not letting themselves be touched because they’re so tired they just know they’ll be putty in their hands if they do)

growing aggressive or being extremely rude (it’s a defense mechanism — they feel vulnerable and are afraid of being manipulated or deceived while they’re ill)

whimpering/whining/groaning (this was in my “characters in pain” post but it’s so good that i’m putting it here too. this shite is gold, especially if it’s just an involuntary reaction to their symptoms)

having nightmares caused by a fever and/or delirium (crying and murmuring in their sleep, or being awake but completely out of it and convinced they’re somewhere else)

making themselves as small as possible (curling up into a ball everywhere they lay, hunching over slightly when standing, wrapping their arms around themselves)

TW for vomiting below cut !!

Into a more sedately paced paragraph of comfort or realization.

I go so insane for works that vary the length of their sentences to show emotion or character or atmosphere (usually all three)! The horror genre is impeccable with this. The build up of fear as the protagonist notices an open door that was not open before, they’re sure, they remember closing it and feeling the tough wood grain on their fingers. They force themselves a trembling step forward, reaching for the doorknob to—what? To push it further open? To listen to the crawling dread they can barely keep locked behind their teeth and close the door without checking?

They haven’t decided on the best course of action when the wind shudders through the house again, wailing down the chimney and through the fireplace at their back. The icy air slams into them a beat before their outstretched fingers touch the doorknob.

The wind pushes the door open further.

And when you say my name

Like white horses on the waves

I think it feels the same

“And I’ll bleed in your bed

Turn it red

Like the ground outside your window

[Note: you don't have to take literally any piece of advice. It's just there for your consideration. If you hate it, leave it and do things the way you want. But the reason all of this advice is regurgitated so often is because it has helped a lot of people, so it's okay if it's not for you, but it may still be life changing for someone else.]

Write Every Day

"Write every day" is NOT supposed to be a prescriptivist, unbreakable rule that dictates anyone who doesn't write literally every day isn't a real writer. It's supposed to be a shorthand way of saying "establish a writing routine. Get used to writing at certain times or in certain places or in certain patterns, both so that you can trick yourself into writing even when you don't feel like it by recreating certain conditions, but also because if you only write "when you're in the mood", you may never get around to finishing a project and you likely won't be able to meet publishing deadlines if you decide to pursue publication."

The point of this advice is basically just to get used to seeing writing as part of your daily routine, something that you do regularly. But if you decide you can't write on Tuesdays or weekdays or any day when you have certain other activities, that's literally fine. Just try to make it a habit if you can.

2. Show Don't Tell

"Show don't tell" DOES NOT AND HAS NEVER meant "never state anything plainly and explicitly in the text". Again, "show don't tell" is a shorthand, and its intended message is "things tend to feel a lot more satisfying when your reader is able to come to that conclusion on their own rather than having the information given to them and being told they just have to accept it." It's about giving your reader the pieces to put the puzzle of your book together on their own rather than handing them a finished puzzle and saying "there. take it."

So if you have a character who's very short-tempered, it's typically more satisfying that you "show" them losing their cool a few times so that the reader can draw the conclusion on their own that this character is short-tempered rather than just saying "He was short-tempered". Oftentimes, readers don't want to take what you tell them at face value, so if you just state these sorts of details, readers will push back against that information. People are significantly more likely to believe literally any information they are able to draw conclusions on without being told what to believe, so that's where this advice comes in.

3. In Medias Res

This one is so often misunderstood. "In medias res" or "start in the middle", DOES NOT MEAN to literally start halfway through your plot. It also DOES NOT MEAN that you should start in the middle of an action packed scene. It just means that when you start your story, it should feel like the world and the characters already existed before we started following them. It shouldn't feel like everything was on pause and the world and characters only started acting the moment the story begins.

This is why starting with a character waking up or something similar can feel jarring and slow. We want to feel instantly compelled by your character, and the most efficient way to do that is [typically] to have them already doing something, but that something can be anything from taking a shower to commuting to school to chopping off a dragon head. We just want to feel like the story is already moving by the time we enter.

4. Shitty First Drafts

The idea that you should let your first draft suck and not revise it as you go is a tip presented to combat the struggle a lot of people have with not being able to finish a draft. If you find you've been working on the same first draft for five years and barely gotten anywhere, you might want to try this advice. The point is to just focus on getting to the ending because finishing a draft can give you renewed energy to work on the book and also makes it easier to get feedback from readers and friends.

That said, if your story is flowing fine even as you go back and make edits, then don't worry about this. This is advice specifically designed to target a problem. Likewise, this doesn't mean that you can't clean up typoes when you see them or even make minor edits if you want to. It just means not to let yourself get completely bogged down by making changes that you never move forward.

A "shitty first draft" also doesn't mean that your story has to be completely illegible. It just means that you shouldn't let perfectionism stop you yet. I see a lot of people say "well, I can't keep going until this first part makes sense", and that's totally reasonable! Again, the point of this advice is just to get you out of that rut that keeps you from making progress, but if you spend a couple weeks editing and then move on or you find the book is still making forward strides while you edit, then you're fine. You don't need this.

5. Adverbs

The idea that you "shouldn't use adverbs" DOES NOT MEAN that any time you use an adverb, you're ruining your story. It just means that you shouldn't *rely* on adverbs to carry your story, namely in places where stronger verbs or nouns would do a lot more heavy lifting.

For instance, you can write "she spoke quietly", but generally speaking, that "quietly" there is a lot weaker than just subbing out this clause for "she whispered". You probably have the word "spoke" all over your draft, so subbing out one instance of it here for a stronger verb in place of the same verb + an adverb makes for stronger prose. This doesn't mean that you'll never want to use the phrase "spoke quietly" over the word "whispered". For instance, if I write, "When she finally spoke, she spoke quietly, like that was all the volume her weakened lungs could muster." In this case, I'm using "spoke quietly" specifically *because* it echoes the previous spoke earlier in the sentence, and it evokes a certain level of emotion to have that repetition there. I also used it because she's not actually "whispering", but trying to speak at full volume only to come off sounding quiet.

So when people tell you to cut adverbs, they're saying this because people often use adverbs as a crutch to avoid having to seek out stronger verbs. If you're using your adverbs intentionally, having considered stronger verbs but ultimately deciding that this adverb is what does the job properly, then there's nothing wrong with using them. This is just a trick to help you spot one common weakness in prose that a lot of authors don't even realize they have.

6. Write What You Know

This is potentially the single worst-underestood piece of writing advice. "Write what you know" DOES NOT MEAN to write only what you know or that you have to put all of your life's knowledge on the page. It just means that drawing from your own experiences and already there knowledge will help you craft a better story.

So, for instance, being an eye doctor doesn't mean you have to write a story about an eye doctor. It doesn't even mean you need to write a story that directly deals with any eye knowledge. It just means that there are likely things you've experience as an eye doctor that can help inspire or inform your story. Maybe you remember a patient who always wore the same yellow shoes, and so you include a character who does exactly that. Maybe you spent a lot of hours dealing with insurance so you decide to write about insurance agents. Maybe your practice was located next to a grocery store so you decide to write a zombie apocalypse story that takes place in a location inspired by that shopping center.

The point is that, as people, our lived experiences allow us to relate to other people and craft more believable worlds. So don't limit yourself to your lived or experience or feel obligated to only write the things you've done, but when you find yourself wondering what to write about next or how to give a character more depth or how to describe this random location, pull things from your life and let what you already know bring a certain level of unique you-ness to your writing.

And the MOST important advice I can give you is to stop looking at writing advice as some holy, unbreakable rules passed down by the gods that you cannot ever deviate from. And if a piece of advice sounds totally bonkers, do some research on it. There's a good chance that whoever's passing it to you has no idea what they're talking about. But even if every other writer swears by a certain piece of advice, you absolutely do not need to take it. Try it on if you want, and throw it away if you don't, but stop making yourselves miserable by letting random internet people dictate your life. Most people giving advice on the internet aren't where you want to be anyway, so don't expect them to be able to guide you somewhere they've never been.

The Wikipedia page literally describes it in the first line as "opens in the midst of the plot." Oxford dictionary also describes it as "in the middle of the narrative."

The way I always understood it, In Medias Res describes a type of story opening that begins after the inciting incident has already happened (i.e. Hamlet beginning after his father's murder, Claudius usurping the throne and marrying his mother), as opposed to the more common type of story beginning where we meet the main characters before they make the decision that kicks off the plot (before Frodo leaves the Shire, before Luke leaves Tatooine, before Katniss volunteers etc.).

Stories that use in medias res have the advantage of creating mystery, suspense, or tension by throwing the reader into a scene with no prior background knowledge that might "ruin the fun" so to speak. They can also be used to skip straight to the action if the inciting incident itself was not something the main character had a lot of agency or was very interesting during (à la Hamlet and Oedipus Rex).

Such stories generally fill the reader in on what happened by using flashbacks, characters referencing past events in dialogue (or soliloquies), or even by telling the story out of chronological order, putting the inciting incident and beginning scenes later in the story (the classic *record scratch; freeze frame* "I bet you are wondering how I got here" trope is a perfect example of this.)

I always chuckle when I see writing advice saying to start the story "in medias res" because you keep using that word, it doesn't mean what you think it means.

OP is not wrong about the whole "you don't have to start the story in the middle, but the world does need to feel lived in." It's just that, "make the world feel lived in" is not the same thing as in medias res, and any writing advice to start a story in medias res is using the term incorrectly in start with.

You can't negotiate with someone who isn't respectful of you and your perspective. It takes both parties to make a relationship work. That said, regardless of how others treat you, you always have the choice to be the person you want to be, rather than get drawn into drama and become the worst version of yourself. You always have the option to be an independent adult and take responsibility for yourself, your perspective, your feelings, and the consequences of your behavior.

Do you want to sign up to a course in learning German? Then I have gathered a few places to look!

Goethe Institute 

DeutschAkadamie  

Deutsch-lernen

Deutsch-uni

Free German Lessons Online

Deutsche Welle

Lingohut

Thegermanproject

Learn German Easily

A simple yet quite important theme to know about.

Verwandte Begriffen:

der Tropfen - the droplet der Wassertropfen - the water drop der Regentropfen - the raindrop der Neuschnee - the “new snow” (the thin and airy type of snow) der Nassschnee - the “wet snow” (the wet snow that remains as it’s melting)

der Sonnenstrahl - the sun ray der Regenbogen - the rainbow die Schneeflocke - the snowflake die Blüte - the bloom

Die Jahreszeiten:

der Sommer - the summer der Herbst - the autumn der Winter - the winter der Frühling - the spring

Das Wetter:

Es ist sonnig - It is sunny Der Himmel ist klar - The sky is clear Es ist wolkig - It is cloudy  Es regnet - It is raining Es donnerte - It is thundering Es ist windig - It is windy Es ist stürmisch - It is stormy Es blitzt - It is lightning ([There is] lightning) Es schneit - It is snowing Es ist warm - It is warm Es ist kalt - It is cold Es ist eiskalt - It is ice cold (freezing) Es ist schwül - It is (humid/clammy [in the air])

Let’s start somewhere shall we?

The German language is generally considered quite hard because of it’s grammar - which is understandable. If you are a monoligual English speaker you have never encountered the different complexities that are going to show up. But have no fear-! All of these things have been learned before and can be learned by you if you aspire to. I am not going to make this blog a step-by-step blog to learn German - I simply don’t have neither the time nor the patience to do that. But I will guide you to some free sources to get started to be able to follow along with other things I’ll be talking about in the future, and these are both things I’ve come across in my studying and also things I wish I had found earlier.

BOOKS (pdfs)

german language course - Simply named German Language Course is a pdf book that is written by several collaborating authors in an effort to create a beginner’s guide to the German language. It’s constantly being improved but the newer version here is lacking a bit and the original release from 2006 linked above is a bit more put together but choose from your own accord.

basic german - Basic German, a text/work book for grammar! Really- there’s a lot of grammar in there but it’s quite easy to navigate and can be useful for anyone learning the language or the grammar. 

mein-deutschbuch.de - Mein Deutschbuch is technically a website but nevermind that. It offers lists of different grammar rules and gives you excercises to practice your grammar. The only downside is that everything is in german. It’s great for more advanced learners though.

pdfdrive.com/german-language-books - And here’s a link to many other free books that can be downloaded.  

YOUTUBE CHANNELS (for language learning)

Get Germanized - A youtube channel dedicated to teaching it’s viewers German and also about the German culture. There are full course German videos only focusing on exposing and teaching as well as shorter videos with cultural comparisons and entertainment. 

Easy German - Easy German publish videos for both advanced learners and beginners. They focus much on teaching spoken German but also talks about grammar,  and they offer new vocabulary. 

Learn German - A channel that uses a simple artstyle to explain different parts of the German language. The channel also sorts their videos after language level so even for someone in level C1 might find something useful in there.   

Learn German with Herr Antrim - Herr Antrim wants to teach you German for free. His videos brings up grammar, pronounciation, and tak about the German culture.

Besides these channels you also have plenty of videos repeating german phrases and vocabulary for when you sleep (can’t really recommend to sleep while you listen to them) and you can sit down and take a few notes from those too if you want to become familiar with the sounds and some of the phrases.

YOUTUBE CHANNELS (for entertainment and exposure)

Hi From Hamburg - Lila is an american who moved to Hamburg and is making videos talking about her experience with it and she makes a lot of videos for simple entertainment. Her channel is one of the few English ones I’m going to include in this list. 

Dinge Erklärt - Kurzgesagt -  Kurzgesagt is a channel with pretty animation explaining different concepts, ideas, and myths in our modern society today. They talk about philosophy, science, religious ideas, psychology, and more.

maiLab - MaiLab is a scientific channel in German. In their videos they talk about various topics within biology, chemistry, psychology, or of different concepts and myths in society today.

Related to maiLab are also channels like Quarks and MrWissen2go.

100SekundenPhysik - For those who are into physics, this one can be intresting for you. 100SekundenPhysik brings up and explains physics, but in German and in short comprehensible videos. 

Dagi Bee - For those not as interested in science, here’s an entertainment channel (and a few more after this). Dagi Bee is a channel created for entertainment, she features music videos, make up and hair turtorials, reaction videos, vlogs and more.

Marvyn Macnificent - Marvyn makes entertainment and vlog videos; challenges, make up tutorials and reviews, collaborations (and videos with friends), and also different types of discussions of other social media figures.

Alycia Marie - This channel is for any make up and cosplay fan. Alycia’s channel is made up of make up tutorials, make up reviews and comparisons, as well as cosplay displays. She also have a second channel for her music.

Other channels like Dagi Bee and Alycia Marie is for example Luisa Crashion and Jasmin Azizam

DoctorBenx - A look into the gaming part of youtube and we have DoctorBenx as a prominent figure on the list. His videos consist of him playin games such as Minecraft and Roblox but also GTA5 and simulator/indie games. He works closely with the youtuber AwesomeElina.

Vlesk - If anyone’s still into Among Us you’ll want to check out Vlesk who almost exclusively makes videos of said game at the moment. His channel is rather young still but the older videos are him playing TTT in Garry’s Mod. 

Zombey - For those more intrested in playthroughs, Zombey is more appropriate. His channel features many different games such as Demon’s Soul and Fall Guys. 

APPS

Duolingo - Duolingo is always mentioned when it comes to these things, but it’s a good app. It provides a simple, almost game-like, format that helps you practice different concepts in your target language.

Memrise - Can’t forget Memrise on this list. Memrise uses video clips of real life people using the language to get you to associate the phrases with the situation and to get you to immerse yourself with the language. 

Drops - Drops focuses on visual learning, getting your brain to associate the vocabulary you’re exposed to with the pictures and symbols on the screen. The app is great for learning new vocabulary and you can choose yourself which topic to start with.

Wordbit German - WordBit German is useful for vocabulary exposure. You download it and every time you open your phone a German word is shown on the screen and you can mark different word by familiarity.

HelloTalk - This app helps you to reach out to native speakers of your target language and you can also help others seeking to learn your language. You can send voice messages, make corrections and translate the messages directly. The app can be used for free, but there are many functions that are limited without paying. Other similar apps are also available (often with lower quality but they are free). 

PODCASTS (language learning)

Slow German - The journalist Annik Rubens talks about everyday topics and phenomenons in the german culture and society in short recordings. Perfect to practice your listening comprehension as a beginner and get used to the new parts of the phonology - and it’s available on Spotify. 

Easy German - They also have a podcast! They also talk about the german culture but also topics relevant to the rest of the world, though in a bit more natural speed and with a bit more relaxed manner. (Available on Spotify)

Radio D - Unfortunately not available on Spotify but it is easily found with just a google search (and by the attached link). The podcast is made for complete beginners, guiding you throughout different scenarios and settings and building up your understanding and basic knowledge of the language. Transscripts are also available for download.

Coffee Break German - A series of lessons where the listener, together with the English speaking host Mark, gets to learn German phrases and vocabulary from scratch with the help of Thomas. Each episode is between 20 to 30 minutes so get your pen and paper out to take effective notes. (Available on Spotify)

 You will come across many other podcasts, these are just a good place to start.

PODCASTS (for entertainment)

Eine Stunde History - With new episodes every Friday this podcast takes events throughout history and compare their relevance to today and the future. Perfect for those who have an interest in history. (Available on Spotify)

ZEIT WISSEN - Woher weißt Du dass? - The central theme being science, this podcast gives you a scientific perspective on a new question that is being explored every week. You want to know if humans can hybernate or what the consequenses of having sex with the neanderthals were? Not necessarily! But now you can! (Available on Spotify)

Verbrechen - This podcast features true crime, being led by Andreas Sentker and Sabine Rückert. Sabine is the one talking about the cases she’s been met with throughout her career in law enforcement. (Available on Spotify)

Biologie Passion Podcast - If you have a biology test coming up, if you want to repeat some long lost knowledge from school, or maybe you just have a passion for biology - then this is a good podcast for you. Christian Schweda is happy to teach (or reteach) you some biology. (Available on Spotify)

Eli’s Abitur Crashkurs - For those of you who are study freaks in general, you can visit Eli on Spotify! She has made a podcast on everything she has to study for during her Abitur. And the best thing is - they only come in 10-20 min episodes. But be aware for speedy speech. (Available on Spotify)

Die Copycats - Both on Youtube and on Spotify these guys talk about all sorts of nerdy things from video games to bad music and give their opinions on many other things. They’re quite small so go and give them a bit of love. (Available on Spotify)

#QueerAsBerlin - Not available on Spotify unfortunately. But as the title suggests is this podcast a commentary, interviews and a view on different aspects of social problems through the lens of the LGBTQ+ community in Berlin.  

Bin ich Süßsauer? - For my fellow asian LGBTQ+ people out there; this underrated podcast features an asian host in Germany, talking about different parts of LGBTQ (from what I understand the host themselves are trans and therefore the general theme) with different guests. Of course this can be enjoyed by anyone, just a small shout out for diversity. (Available on Spotify)

Schnapsidee - der Podcast über Liebe, Love & sexy sein - From the name alone you are most likely able to deduse the theme of this podcast. Anna and Paula talks about their love life, relationships, and sex! Their content is lighthearted and enjoyable to listen to. (Available on Spotify)

Dick und Doof - Without any real theme to their podcast, the two friends Sandra and Luca is having a great time, and we get to listen to their conversations about anything and everything. The both of them focus mostly on humour, sprinkled with an insight in their private lives. (Available on Spotify)

preparation

choose a specific notebook for everything you learn. having one place to put everything down helps with organising your own brain. it doesn’t matter what your notebook looks like, but I would recommend finding a pretty or good quality one - it helps you see your language practice as more valuable and significant to your life

create a system to keep track of your progress, and DATE EVERYTHING. this is big in self-motivation and encouragement. if you have tangible evidence of how far you have come, it is easier to convince yourself, your self-doubt and anxiety, that you ARE doing good

put together or find a few playlists of songs sung in your chosen language to listen to, while you study or in your free time. this is called immersion. regardless of whether you understand the words or not, this gets you used to hearing your chosen language. the music itself can be catchy or chill, but most importantly, music in general trains your brain to focus (esp for us peeps who struggle with studying in silence). alternatively, podcasts or youtube videos are great resources!! listening to how native speakers pronounce the language will train your brain to pronounce the words the same as you study and practice - just like how when you were learning your first language, the pronunciations of the people around you molded the way you speak. side note: if your executive functioning is making it difficult to study, listening to your chosen language can keep your brain in the mode of learning without the stress of sitting down to study.

beginning

learn the personal pronouns first. words like I, you, we, me, they, she, he, etc. are immensely helpful when writing simple sentences. once you learn the most commonly used verbs, you can use both to begin expressing yourself and things around you.

find a list of the top most commonly used verbs. study these using whichever method fits your learning style the best. try to master 10 first, then move onto 20, gradually increasing the amount of words you study/memorize. make sure you adjust to your own capabilities; don’t overwhelm yourself, but don’t forget to challenge yourself a little.

HANDWRITE your chosen verbs. this will aid in muscle memory. you can copy the words down once or a hundred times, whichever works best for you, but writing it in your own handwriting imprints the image of the word into your mind. once you become familiar with the look of the word, it will be easier to read and recognise it.

learn how to conjugate your chosen verbs. conjugating is probably the most difficult, BUT once you figure out the basics, it’s smooth sailing (aside from the irregular verbs. they can sink into the abyss).

balance learning verbs with learning easy vocabulary. for me, learning words such as flower, tea, and forest are somehow much easier to remember than most verbs. that’s because these are things that you can SEE. you have an object to connect the word with - bam! automatic association technique.

begin writing your own sentences. it doesn’t matter if the sentences don’t make sense, it’s even better because the stark ridiculousness of your imagination will help you remember your vocab.

learn the lyrics to songs in your foreign language. this will help you practice the speaking skill of language learning. and we all know lyrics are much easier to memorise than lists of vocabulary. side note: singing along to songs is an effective way of learning if you don’t have time to sit down and dedicate an hour to studying. it’s also super fun!

IMPORTANT!!! continue to record your progress, whether it be in a notebook or a digital platform. i can’t seem to keep up with a bullet journal, but whatever system you create to keep track of your improvement, update it OFTEN (every day, every other day, or every week). you might even have fun recording your pronunciation (on video or audio) to look back on a few months down the road.

maintaining

study as often as you can, but DO NOT pressure yourself to do so every day. if you physically cannot study every single day, try the two day method. keep up the habit of studying your chosen language as much as you can, but if you need a break day, TAKE IT. but don’t allow yourself to go without studying a second day. this will be a challenge, but depending on how you schedule yourself, there is plenty of time for rest and recuperation. side note: there are challenges that you can do to externally motivate yourself to study often, such as the 30 days of studying or 100 days of productivity trends.

begin a journal in your chosen language. writing little things about your day, your thoughts, your life will advance your language learning process. you will become more familiar with everyday expressions, verbs, nouns, and you will practice conjugating in a low-stress, low-pressure environment. AND if you write often, even if it’s just a few sentences or words, you will train your brain to think in your chosen language in a way that is personal and memorable.

start a quote book. translate quotes from english to your foreign language, or find quotes already in your foreign language, and WRITE THEM DOWN. this will expose you to new vocabulary and motivate you to discover new sentence structures. this way you can meld language learning with your favourite interests and self-motivate

translate the lyrics to songs you love. whether it’s from your first language to your second or your second to your first, translate the words that make you happy. this mixes your passion with something that is a little more challenging and builds motivation and self-esteem.

IMPORTANT!!! continue to keep track of your progress. update that system you created in the beginning. maybe even once you’ve become comfortable enough speaking simple sentences, you can record yourself on video or audio. and if it’s not too anxiety inducing, maybe you could share your video/audio to ask for critique

1. Always learn the article / gender with the noun and don’t assume the gender only basing on the word’s form. It’s true that many words that end on -e have the article “die” and are female, but not all! - “der Affe”, masculin and “der” But also learn the general rules that exist for the articles, like: Every noun ending on “-heit” goes with the article “die”: die Krankheit, die Freiheit, … Every noun ending on “-ung” also goes with “die”: die Heizung, die Versammlung, …

2. Always put new words into sentences to see them in context. That’s actually my advise for every language. I never only study words, I always try to put them into easy sentences. In German you can train the form of the words like that, since they change a lot due to genders: “Ich habe einen Vogel”, aber: “Ich habe eine Katze”.

3. Learn Modal Verbs first: can, must, might, may. With those verbs you will be able to communicate a lot of things.

4. Learn with texts. Take a German text and underline the different kinds of words in different colors, for example nouns in red, verbs in blue and adjectives in green. Get familiar with the forms of those words until you recognize them and how they work in sentence structure. 

5. Get familiar with sentence structure and word order. Look at sentences and translate / repeat them.

6. That’s kind of obvious, but watch German movies / shows and listen to German music, to get used to hear the language.