5 Ways to Improve Your Writing
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- Опубликовано: 2 авг 2024
- I'm sharing 5 ways to improve your writing. These should be helpful for writers at all levels, but especially those who are a little bit more advanced and ready to really dig in and get better.
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Хобби
The eyeshadow with the shirt, yes ma'am. Alexa giving us the good tips with the good looks
BooksNChili Nothing looks better than green on redheads. Any cool tone color, really.
Truth
yessss loooove it
Vince Knox Wow, never realized how true that was.
I was like dang she the only way that can get away with that lol
I had "white room syndrome." I studied "descriptive writing" to get over it. Plenty of good books on that if you search for it.
Any particular recommendations that spring to mind?
@@alisats5693
Go amazon and search for "descriptive writing." All of them are going to be very basic but it will help.
@@theatheistpaladin
Thanks :)
@@alisats5693 Here is a very simple technique that I use. Before describing a scene, I try to visualize it. Imagine that you a movie director, and you have to create a scene in detail. You have to think of everything--the position/appearance/expressions/voices of your characters; the room they are in (if the action takes place in a room, obviously); the floor, carpet, furniture, wallpaper, view from the window, etc. When you have this clear image in your mind, describing a scene is much easier.
@@evalorawilliams3340 this is what I do! Oh my goodness.... Sometimes when I am writing a scene it flashes in my mind. Do you have any tips on how to control that?
Off the top off my head, my weaknesses are:
- Tell not show
- Passive voice
- White room
- Run-on dialogue/conversations
I have similar issues, maybe I need to read more.
I wouldn't worry about the passive too much. It's just something to have in the back of your mind when you're reading back over things. Absolutely sterilising prose of passive constructions often just makes it clunky and awkward.
Thats almost everything
What’s white room?
@@badkittywhoopwhoop2084 it's where the setting and the characters aren't described at all. It feels like the scene could easily take place in a white and empty room
Really love the green eyeshadow 💚
yep. It's awesome.
Especially with the coppery lipstick.
Especially with that top. I absolutely need a tutorial lol
My weakness is always "the marathon of the middle." I think this happens to all of us who write longer fiction. I find myself having to force the middle bc I get so bored and have a crash of confidence that leads me to question everything. But I've learned to never go back and change the beginning when I'm in the middle
Omg mid-way editing is my worst nightmare. I can't even write a 100 words without jumping a few sentences back and inserting something, and then I just find myself at the very beginning of the whole draft! I CANT TURN OFF MY INNER EDITOR :D
I thought this might have just been me omg! I'm coming up to the middle part of my book and I am already feeling a lack of confidence and fear about how I'll "pull it off". I wonder what it is about it that is so intimidating!
My biggest weakness is definitely telling instead of showing. I also struggle with giving each character their own voice when writing dialogue.
Totaly get you, I suck at dialogue for I tend to lett them all sound the same . . . mannerisms in how they sit, tone, go to gestures . . . no problem, but makeing them talk differently . . . I realy suck at that and dialogue in generell
Same. I'm having to work on this now.
On dramatization; I'm rewriting a novel I drafted when I was a kid, and one of the things I need to fix is that I was a notorious vital-scene skipper! Anything I thought was "too hard" I would cut away from and then come back in the next scene with it already over, and I lost a lot of dramatic tension doing that. I think the style came from FFN chapter style to use cliffhangers and then gloss past them? Or maybe my misinterpreting that style lol
I hate that kind of chapter. The cliffhanger is asking a question, you need to answer it in the next chapter!
This is exactly what i do lol
Could you do a video on action tags vs dialogue tags? It would be suppppper helpful
My weaknesses: purple prose and wanting to describe everything, from the trim in the room to every mote of dust floating in the air.
Gotta rein it in a bit. Just a bit :)
I'm not a professional writer or anything, but if you know how to sprinkle detail in, you can describe everything over time.
lost in a booKCase What’s purple prose?
@@badkittywhoopwhoop2084 really puffy, extravagant writing. Basically, using way too many words to sound important
Ohh, makes sense.
Im so bad at writing emotions... i do the opposite of melodrama lol
im not very in touch with my own emotions i guess so having my characters go through them is so hard for me to write... everybody is always super subtle and hiding their feelings and stuff like that in my books... but not everybody is like that! and i need to work on that.
I am bad at writeing what happens . . . I am always in my head and introspecting that detailed how they feel come easy to me . . . but what actualy happens . . .also I tend to write everyone very observant and introspected which just does not fit most of the time . . .
I don't know if you've done a video on it, but I'd like a breakdown of the traditional YA novel... As in how much should be 'conversations', how much should be 'character devlopment' and how much should be 'main story'... I guess? I have an issue of only writing main story plots and can't really work out what's a good amount of subplot before it because more developed than the main story... So I can't really balance the plots of the story.
That green goes excellently with your hair. You did a great job bringing your look together!
"It's a bird, they fly."
*penguin* "Exxxcuse me!!"
"It's a bird! They fly."
*Penguin go sad*
This was really helpful. I never heard it called "white room syndrome" but much of my previous writing came out of black box play writing. The result is that my first draft of my first novel weighed in at about 30k words.
I understand this. My first draft of my novel was really short compared to what I wanted it to be, now I am rewriting and changing the plot, but realize it has alot to do with never adding or giving attention to the setting like I should.
I think it is great to use action tags instead of/mixed with dialogue tags, and not only can they show personality traits, I try to use them to show whatever emotions the characters are feeling. Since you can only write in one POV (unless you're writing omniscient) then it can be a helpful way to give an insight into the thoughts of the other characters present in the scene.
I keep switching between your and Kat's channels like "Somebody feed meeeeeee!!!" Thank you!! ❤
That's me! Shaelin and Jenna streety too😂
YESSSS
I can honestly say Alexa has helped me get back into reading again. I can't read that fast compared to when I was a kid, can read maybe a book in three months. But even from the little bits and pieces I'm reading I've already started noticing where my skill in pacing lacks compared to others in YA Fantasy. I also personally have a massive problem with too much dialogue. My characters just sit in a white room and talk to each other for days. Thank you for always posting Alexa! Normally I just smile and nod at advice/list videos like this, but Alexa is one of the few RUclipsrs that makes me hold my writing and go "Look. Look at it and see what it can become."
I just figured out my worst writing problem, filtering. I never knew the name for it. I always knew something was wrong with what I was doing, I just didn't know what it was exactly. This was so informative. Thank you so much!❤
First I gotta say I was laughing SO hard like, the whole time. "Basic ass verb" is right 😂😂👏 You were on one with this video and I'm living for it
I took your advice from a previous video and kind of flung myself head long into reading actual BOOKS. Fanfic rocks, but it really does make you lazy in certain respects and the difference has been BONKERS. Being able to be objective about your own strengths and weaknesses is great advice. I've gone into reading an amazing book and come out just distraught thinking I couldn't possibly ever be at that level....Super false, I've found out. Writing is learning. Who'd have thought? 😂
I think another way is also realizing there's more than one style. Some people work at scenes until they are tight and perfect even in drafts, others need to write in layers. It's a lot about understanding how your own mind works as well.
Kay, long ass comment. I'm done now. Great vid!
I give too much detail. This has been a problem since high school in personal essays. A teacher pointed it out. I disagreed. Now that I'm on ch3 of my novel and the story technically hasn't happened yet, I definitely agree. I guess this is a mixture of pacing and no conflict.
I so agree with the reading tip. I haven't ever used it to emulate, though I think that might be really helpful but I just remember last summer when I had a bunch of time to read and I was also writing, I was writing so much better without even trying, just because my brain was thinking in the way the story had been written and it was great!
I find that doing my own editing and revisions really help me see and understand my weaknesses, and the goal of doing my own editing is to learn from them so I can do cleaner drafts next project, and make less work for myself!
Thank you Alexa for the great advice you give. It's very much needed.
Your channel is fantastic. I have a very specific fantasy story I've been wanting to film, animate, turn into a comic for years, but I really do think you've swayed me into the direction I'd like to take it. You got a new sub :)
Thank you for the video, very helpful tips. Also, love your eyeshadow!
Thanks for the info! Your videos are always so helpful - also, your makeup is gorgeous!
I can’t express how much I love your channel! Even though I’m not actively writing right now, I always enjoy watching your videos.
Thanks for another good one Alexa! You always cheer up my day. Now, onto discovering weaknesses...
This is your best vid yet, Alexa; really helpful.
''Its a bird - they fly'', is quite a good example -> sometimes my problem is hesitation to describe something ''too much'' for bringing the message over, as I am afraid people miss the basic things. But the people who find it ''logical'' that a bird flies - are facepalming them selfs -> so I think the bird '' is going into an arc'' already indicates that the bird flies is a nice thing to remember and use as a guideline. tnx!
I really love the idea of critiquing any work you read, whether it is in early stages or a published book. I always slow down and reread passages from books which elicit feeling within me. Recently, I read a bunch of thrillers and made myself slow down to figure out WHY I was so engaged. It was enlightening! :0)
Thank you so much for taking the time to make all these videos to help new writers! You are amazing!
Loving the eyeshadow. And as always, great video. :D
These tips were great and I definitely have to keep an eye on "filtering" (which is a term you just taught me)! Thanks Alexa :)
I m from France and I am amazed about how interesting those tips are. When it comes to topics, you are definitely my favourite.
OMG! I’ve been writing my first draft and there was something about my writing that I did not like, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. All I knew is it had to do with my characters speaking and their action. Action tags are what I needed! THANK YOU!
I can't stop watching your videos. ♥️♥️♥️ Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences with us!
Great video and tips. I do tie myself in knots with convoluted sentences sometimes, so can definitely relate to that one. Writing blog posts and poetry have both helped me to be more concise. 😃💖
Great tips!!! Loved the way you explained it 💚
Love your eyeshadow look - it looks beautifully blended! Also, a video idea for you. You could show how you edit by showing a paragraph before and after, highlighting the parts that could use improving, why and how they could be improved and then the finished product. I do this with my students a lot to illustrate the importance of editing and how to do it, and I figure you could make a few videos, showcasing edits for different types of editing. Always enjoy your videos, it keeps me motivated to keep on plugging away :)
Super awesome tips here, as usual. Thank you Alexa. :)
i needed this, i kept asking my writing friends what it was about my writing that was heavy and clunky and i only got "write more" which great, but i like to focus on improving as i write. I worked really hard and zeroed in on passive language, on white room, on adverbs, and grammar and doing that improved those things. But still my stories were clunky, they were heavy, they were a struggle. and now i finally know WHY! thank you for giving me a name to my issue and ways to improve my stilted writing
This video is helpful and insightful! Thank you for posting it.
Great tips. Thanks for the reminder of showing instead of telling. I sometimes realize I'm short-cutting by telling because I want to get my story out of my head and onto paper. Anyway, love the green eyeshadow as others commented. I can't wear green or my olive skin tone will make me look like an olive!
Super interesting 👍 Actually this made me believe more in myself, because there are many things I am doing right already. It is good to know that I am heading into a good direction.
Annnd subscribed.
I have always been interested with reading and writing, but I never ended up acting on it. Been trying to do some research here and there as of late and I’m glad to come across this video. I’ve done some small scenes for writing years ago, it usually didn’t go anywhere and I was extremely limited in the vocab department.
Awesome ideas and tips. Honestly between what was said here, and some of the other comments, I never gave much thought into "passive voice" until just now. I think I can also occasionally fix up some whiteroom stuff (I try not to waste time with unnecessary details, but... I could stop to make the character smell the roses a bit more), and I could also check myself for filter descriptions way more.
This is such a great video! Thanks!
Always good tips, Alexa!
Thanks for these tips! I used to write a lot of filter words, not knowing they were "bad" :D. When I got rid of them it made my writing so much better.
I realize how important verbs are, but it's one of my weaknesses. English is not my first language and my vocabulary is way smaller than I'd like it to be :/. However, it doesn't mean it won't grow... just need to work harder and read a lot. I'm planning to make a video about some of the strategies I use to learn new vocabulary... which kind of ties to my favorite topic of "how to learn new languages" :D
Hey kween. I only recently came across your videos. Swinging by to say THANK YOU. Your content is awesome. :D
I have a problem with underwriting which usually makes the stakes and conflict and also the characters suffer. To combat this, I am pretty much doing what you said and going back during edits and revisions and adding more. But also, watching authortubers like you has helped a ton too.
Ince again, another informative and helpful video xxx thank you Alexa.
Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge. Xx
Thank you. This is excellent advice.
so helpful! thank you.
Thanks for the tips. Hopefully I can incorporate them in my own story.
Thank you. Best tutorial.
15:30 *head roll* oml I laughed so hard, but I totally agree with you on that point! "Why did you have three lines to describe something that's basic as shit?"
You look gorgeous in this video (but as always) and I love how much effort you put into your videos! It's much appreciated, can't wait for the next(:
Your my favorite resource to improve my writing.
Thank you so much! Also you look amazing btw
Thank you so much this really helped 😃
I truly enjoy your many videos. I gain a lot of knowledge from your experience. Thank you! However, this video left my head spinning. It would be great, if you had given examples of these points. Particularly on how to lose the tags and still make a conversation flow. Would love to see this come up in a future video. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
I struggle to get to the damn point xD I'm working on that... I need to clear up my thinking to clear up my writing. Love the green look btw so pretty :)
Great video. loads of knowledgs here
Great stuff!
That green eyeshadow..bang on 🔥
Just want to compliment you on making a correct usage of "less novice writers," and thus highlighting the importance of using the word fewer whenever it is required. :)
Alexa, I love your makeup. Green looks great on you!
You are rocking the eyeshadow! Also great advice, but still can’t get over the eyeshadow! Lol
It's the new Tina Yong palette from BH Cosmetics! Only $24 and has lots of lovely, bright colors. Recommend it! (though it has pretty bad fallout, so have to apply before foundation!)
I don’t write currently, but am just world building right now because I enjoy that more than writing but I still love you vids.
I'm an adjective ninja yet I can't write dialogue past "Hi" "Hello" "WE ARE GOING ON A QUEST" "Cool"
sounds like me ^^
I love finding books that I love to read and request my library borrow them on audiobook CD (Free alternative to Audible). This lets me see how the story is different when read aloud by someone else and not by my internal reading voice. I can find what works well on the page and what else works well out loud to make sure my writing jumps "off the page" for every kind of reader.
Totally guilty of white room syndrome, describing rooms and areas just feel so awkward. Also pretty bad at character descriptions because like how on earth do you describe faces? lol
Your eyeshadow + shirt combo is 10/10 this video. I was starting at your eyeshadow the entire video because it looked so bright.
Thank you! It's the new Tina Yong palette from BH Cosmetics and I love it! All bright, fun shadows :)
holy.... the exclusion of filler words. You have just helped me transform my writing. I decided to search "felt" in my novel. NONE of them were necessary! Thank you!
Melodrama and White room are probably the biggest weaknesses for me.
I think I can manage everything else, definitely need to do more with structure though.
I liked your video. I'm one of your subscribers. I think verb usage is one of those narrow and long roads we writers have to walk to interest our readers. That is, it's important to use verbs effectively to reduce the clutter of wording in a book, but, at the same time, it's important to keep the wording simple enough so that every reader can enjoy what they're reading without having to run to the dictionary every few minutes.
Alexa? I looked through the titles of all of your videos on your RUclips channel, and I've noticed that you have not done a video yet about marketing a manuscript that is longer than normal. Very large-sized novels and books like "Gone With The Wind," "War and Peace," and "Shogun" were all best-sellers. I realize that very large-sized novels and books are not easy to get published. Publishing houses can shy away from them. For that reason, I'd be interested in a video about how to market a very large-sized manuscript if you decide to post a video on this topic. I know that conventional wisdom holds that an author should keep their manuscript within a reasonable length if they can. However, there will be writers who will tell a story that requires those extra pages. I'd be interested in hearing what you have to say about it and what advice you can give authors who make that one long leap of faith of writing a very large-sized manuscript.
Oh wow, I'm working on getting out of some of these bad habits. And reading well-written books can definitely help. However, it is slightly disappointing to read a published book with great characters and great ideas but not as well-written as, dare I say, your own fan fiction.
Shiny ! Thank you
ooh I definitely struggle with using dramatization too much. I've done NaNo a couple of times and been shocked at the end when my 50k words only covered a few days or even a few hours worth of action (I've since discovered that, while very fun, NaNo is not the exercise for me lolol). Something one of my writing profs told me was to consider economy in my writing; how do I tell the same story with fewer elements? How do I make those few elements work harder for the story? Details can enrich a scene but they can also bog it down.
Strong verbs are my weakness. I'm always searching for them. I've bought great books on verbs but still can never find the right one. So, my search continues. BTW - I 'm adding to the 'love your makeup' comments. The green eye shadow looks great on you.
Very helpful
Hey writers! I am a fourteen year (fairly new writer) and I was wondering if you could tell me how this is? I’m sure there are grammar mistakes but I just want overall tips. This is meant to be the most emotional scene in my book and has proven to be the most difficult to write. The backstory is Rachel is saying goodbye to someone she loves (Noah) he is being beat by his dad and has to go live far away with his mom. And also this is just a fraction of the story but the reason Rachel struggles to say I love you is she has believed her whole life that her grandparents loved each other. (Her grandfather disappeared 50 years ago and she’s finding out her grandmother may have had something to do with his death.)
Please lmk, being an author is my dream!
My heart sinks as I realize the moment I’ve been dreading is finally here. The wind whips my hair as we venture out onto the dock, through the sea of people. I can hear the whirring of the motor and the dull loud buzz of hurried passengers. A few boys a bit older than me laugh boisterously on the upper deck. A baby cries and a woman argues a man working on the boat, pointing at her tickets and beginning to raise her voice. The world around us was loud. But I could barely hear a thing, as if I’d ducked under water. In this moment, Noah was all that mattered. I open my mouth to say something. But close it, there was nothing left to say. Oh-but there was so much to say. How could I tell him that his eyes were like deep oceans. That I was drowning in them. How could I possibly explain that even before we met I missed him. That there was nothing I feared more than my life going on, and these past few months drifting into a distant memory until it was something forgotten. What if my children never meet him? It felt like such an injustice, like they’d go their life not knowing a piece of me. I didn’t know how gray my world was until he stormed in and made every aspect of it colorful. What if everything we have right here in this moment is something that will begin to fade until it’s all gray again. What if this is all I get? Is this the moment I’ll look back on when I’m eighty years old knowing this was the brightest my world could ever be? That this was the strongest I’d ever feel for someone? How could I tell him that he’s the best thing that ever happened to me, but I wish I hadn’t met him yet because we’re sixteen and we’re going to screw it all up. How could I tell him that he had changed my definition of everything. That his smile sparked a fire in my chest, that I couldn’t tell it was there until I couldn’t put it out. That I felt tied to him in a way I couldn't describe. That I thought I knew what home felt like, until I felt his arms around me, and it all changed. The truest, most wonderful thing I’d ever known was sand slipping through my fingertips. I would always come back to him. Always. Our eyes seemed to speak a secret language and I prayed he understood. Nothing had ever felt more clear.
I stammered, “Noah when you go, I-”
“Rachel, I’m in love with you.” My breath caught in my throat, and for a moment I froze. I was stunned, completely taken aback. When I was twelve years old, I jumped off the swings in my cousin’s back yard a second too late and landed in the grass on my back. For a moment I thought I was dying as I lay there, looking up at the sun, unable to get a breath in. For a moment that’s how I feel. He loved me? Me?
I opened my mouth to say something, what was I supposed to say? What the hell, I knew what I was supposed to say. But what does he mean by that? Does he love me like he cares about me, or does he love me like ‘you’re the only one I’ll ever love?’ I fix my gaze on an invisible point out in the water, trying to solve this puzzle. He was leaving. The words I love you were overshadowed by I’ll never see him again. I nervously chew on the inside of my cheek, trying to gather my thoughts
“What do you mean?” I squint at him, perplexed.
He’s ubaffled, his eyes wide. “I mean-I mean I-I love you.” He pauses, his mouth open slightly as if he’s waiting for a response. “I just wanted you to know.” He says sheepishly, his cheeks and ears turning pink. For the first time since we’d arrived at the ferry, he looks away from me, and down to his shoes. I look down, his white sneakers were incredibly dirty, and his left one had come untied.
I just wanted to disappear for a moment. Lots of people loved each, my mom and my dad, Taylor and Joe, I’m sure Clarice’s parents at some point. But if you love someone you can lose them. If someone had to leave me for forever, I’d rather it not be someone I’m in love with. If you try hard enough it doesn’t have to be love, right?
Now I look at my shoes too, an old pair of slip ons that were comfortable to walk in. They were dirty too, I guess we had walked down a dusty, dirt road for the past twenty minutes.
“Noah.” He looks up, his blue eyes are watery and his lips are pinched together. “Noah, my grandfather loved my grandma.” I stared deeply into his eyes, searching and praying for him to understand. Silently I plead for my eyes to tell him what my lips couldn’t. I stand there wanting nothing but for him to smile, turn around and walk home with me. He nods meekly, looking back to his shoes. I guess he didn’t understand what I hoped he would.
“Kid! If you’re boardin’ you gotta get on now!” A deckhand shouts to him from the bow, cupping his hand around his mouth. Noah doesn’t look up at me before he leaves he keeps his head low as he boards and I see him wipe his eyes with his jacket sleeve.
The sun has begun to fall, and the blue sky begins to turn violet. I sit there, shivering on the bench, and watch as the ferry slowly rumbles away from the dock and out into the dark waters. A single tear rolls down my cheek, I don’t wipe it away.
I stand up and shout as louder as I can, “Noah I love you!” I can still see him there, leaning against the railing. He’s looking in the other direction, away from me. He doesn’t hear me over the chatter on the boat and the roar of the motors. I yell it out again, my voice cracks and more tears fall. Again. Again. As the boat gets farther and farther away, he blends in with the crowd of people, and I can’t tell where he is, and I watch that crowd until all I can see is the boat. When the boat turns to a speck, and that speck fades into the sky, I still watch. When the stars come out and there’s no blue left in the sky or the water, that’s when I turn to go home.
Let me start by saying that your writing is great! Your pacing, word choice and emotion-evocation are fabulous, especially for your age! I think your descriptions make it easy to feel as though I, the reader, am in the moment myself. I can easily visualise the scene in my mind, too! In particular, I love how you compared Rachel's feelings to the time she fell off the swing-it's a very effective description and also unique to the character!
There are just two bits of advice I can give (and they're only tiny points!).
1) Be careful not to give 3rd person description in a 1st person novel. In paragraph 1, you give this beautiful description of all the dock sounds (which is great!) and, specifically, how loud they are, but you then go on to say how quiet these noises are to Rachel. Since the book is 1st person, we should only see the world through Rachel's eyes (or ears, in this case). So, if she is barely hearing these noises then they can't be described as loud. Does this make sense? The good news is that this is an easy fix: you can say something like 'Somewhere deep down I knew that the dock must be noisy, but, at that moment, I felt as if I was underwater.'. This way, we get the bigger picture while still staying in Rachel's head :)
2) I think it would be great to have a line describing the moment Rachel decides to stand up and tell Noah that she loves him. Before, she couldn't find the words, so what thought makes her decide to jump up and call out? This could be as simple as: 'A horn blared, jolting me from the trance-like state I'd fallen into. I realised at that moment it was now or never. I leapt to my feet.'
Overall, this is a really great excerpt, and I think you have real talent! Please keep writing, honing your craft and following your dream! I've been writing since I was around your age and finally published my first novel at 22. I have every confidence that, if you keep writing, you'll be publishing your first book in no time! You should be very proud of your work and also yourself :)
P.s, my little sister-in-law is also called Annika! :D
@@PrettyAndOrOdd thank you so much I for your advice! These are great ideas and I’ll definitely use them in my writing. :)
@@annika8223 You’re welcome! Keep up the good work 😁
Thank you, Alexa. That was the most helpful twenty-minutes of my young writing career. Bravo!
Out of context: 08:27 thank you!!! It secretely annoys me every time when people hold their index,middle and ring finger up to show "3". This made me very happy as I am also using this version
I always watch your videos looking for advice, but can't help but feel like you're talking down to me. I'm going home and taking my football with me.
My weaknesses:
Instead of showing, I usually tell (I’m trying to get better with this.)
Using the word, ‘anyways’ too much
Adding to little or too much dialogue
Accidentally making characters who only serve the purpose of shipping fuel
Not thinking deep enough into the plot, which leads to a lot of contradictions
Advancing the plot /way/ too quickly
Making author’s notes in the middle of a story
Getting distracted and not working on something for 2 weeks
Making my characters somewhat cliché
Not checking my grammar
*Anyways,* I’m working on improving all this stuff so my books don’t seem like a 2 year old wrote them.
My biggest problem is not being able to read properly. I liked reading when I was little, but now I just can't make it through any book I pick up. The words melt into each other and I don't understand half the senteces, no matter how exciting the story is. I know reading helps with writing, so know I'm robbed of many ways to improve. I have to figure things out myself and search for solutions elsewhere - by looking at these videos and such.
They help me a lot. Thank you, Alexa!
(Sorry for the grammar, I'm not a native English speaker)
I learned to change my writing style by the comments I got on my Wattpad.
And it helped a lot.
eye make up is bomb!!!
Thank you for your helpful videos. You have a talent for teaching. Would you consider switching out the repetitive coarse words for authentic descriptives to model your advice to your devoted viewers? For example, instead of using the word "ass" four times in 20 minutes, maybe you'd want to use it once and switch to alternatives the other times. Instead of "long-ass" it's possible your readers could benefit from the use of more distinct words such as "protracted" or "drawn out". It's just a suggestion, not a criticism. Each person has their own style. I only bring it up because some viewers are hoping to learn from you by example.
Truth Be Told 😅
My weaknesses are run on sentences and lack of scenery descriptions.
On the other scale, my strength is dialogue.
I have been advised in the past by writing friends to READ more.
It is an unlimited tool to study by.
Also, I'm a notebook scribbler.
Not a fan of typing.
A question I wish to ask you is:
What font size and page format would be best to use for submissions?🤷♀️
Your makeup looks epic! Everything is my weakness, but what bothers me is I know my showing vs telling needs work. I've watched so many things to try and help me implement it and still I can't manage it. It's so frustrating when you know what's wrong but you feel incapable of fixing it. The video was great but its kind of hiked up my anxiety. >__
So, honestly, as someone who defaults to telling... there's only so much you can do to combat your natural writing style. Telling is, indeed, a style of writing and one that many people like. Journalistic writing, for example. Certain genres support more telling, as well. So I subscribe to the idea that instead of changing who I am as a writer, I make efforts in as many places as humanly possible to show/dramatize, but the rest of the time I don't fight it. So go easier on yourself!
@@AlexaDonne Wow, thank you. I really need to hear that.
I'm at a point where I've been writing for over 15 years, since I was about 10 years old. I used to think I was hot shit in the early days, but now? I think I'm better than I've ever been, but still so, SO bad. 😧 I don't even know if that makes any kind of sense, but it's a very real feeling. Thank you for the excellent advice! I suppose it's a good sign that I'm doing most of this already? I don't know. At this point I honestly kind of doubt I'll ever be any good. Alas, I shall always endeavor to improve. 💪
15:37 i don’t think I’ve ever heard you curse on this channel before so I kinda lost my mind at this point ahahahahah
Hey Alexa, hope you're doing well. When it comes to my writing, I think I do really well when writing character dialogue, But I could really improve when writing exposition. Yeah, I definitely think I could use some improvement in that area. I just remember when I tried to read the novel version of the classic Margaret Mitchell book, Gone With The Wind. OMG, I NEVER got through it because all of her exposition, I thought SLOWED the story down!! She just wrote TOO MUCH exposition, I think. How was the motion picture(which I LOVE) ever written?! I heard that the director actually CUT some details from the novel OUT of the motion picture version, which is understandable. I guess that sort of thing often happens whenever novels are adopted into motion pictures? How much do you know about that, huh? Maybe I need to READ more novels which were adapted into motion pictures. But I did enjoy the novel of the story Sybil!!! Unlike with Mitchell's literary classic, there isn't TOO MUCH BORING exposition in the Sybil novel. I think that exposition is GREAT, if it helps the story along and doesn't BORE the reader, don't you AGREE?
I'm sort of on the fence with dialogue tags. While I recognize that it's annoying to have too many or to use "said" alternatives way too much, I also prefer when a speaker is named, and not just in an action description. I think this is because I listen to a lot of audiobooks, and have found that some, namely The Wrath & the Dawn, were almost unreadable through the audiobook and I had to dnf. I couldn't understand who was doing or saying what because the audiobook reader was awful and because the writing wasn't conducive to audio reading. Because of this revelation, I actually started doing the opposite of what you did, and now I actively include dialogue tags whenever I deem them necessary.
Which means a good way to know if dialogue tags are needed or not could be to read the scene to someone else and ask them if it was confusing or not (and why).
Good tip :)
Thank you Alexa. From novice writers like us.
I get a burst of energy every time she swears
I know you're not this type of writer anymore, but could you give us advice about how to write fan-fiction? Thank you, Alexa for the good advice. Much love!💕
As someone who writes fanfic and original fiction, I'd say the writing advice is the same. Well written stories are well written stories. Also, I once heard a fanfic author say to never read fanfic while you're writing a fanfic, cause you might subconsciously end up copying said fanfics and your work will end up reading like everyone else's. Get a good beta and tell them to be hard on you.
@@feermartsant Thank you! I'm not to sure about the last advice though. The same thing could be said for professional writers to never read other books because they might start doing the same thing, but can see where they're coming from.
@@camerkiddo i guess what I meant is ,as much as I like fanfics, a lot of them are not so well written since most people do it out of fun. And sometimes it's easy to mirror other fanfic writers mistakes, like the purple prose and telling over showing.
@@feermartsant Couldn't agree more. There ain't nothing that I hate more that useless, flowery prose.