Welcome to Day 208...
And more bad writing habits you should avoid.
So yesterday we focused on habits that killed our motivation and progress, today let's talk about some bad habits that can wreak havoc on the quality of our book...
Here's what to avoid...
Having Your Book Read More Like a Term Paper Than a Fast Paced Novel...
Read your story out loud. If it sounds more like an academic paper for a professor than for everyday folks sitting on the beach or the train...you need to start over. Make sure you leave the
write like you talk and think and feel and leave the
Too Many Long Paragraphs...
Even if the writing is stellar, long paragraphs can be tedious to get through.
White space makes it easier to read and a couple word paragraph can add good rhythm and pacing to your story.
Stay Active
With sentences that is. You can either write in the active or passive voice. Here are examples:
Active: John ate five cookies
Passive: The five cookies were eaten by John
Passive sentences can be wordy and sometimes hard to understand. Active sentence structure is more direct and gives your writing more energy.
Using The Same Phrases, Character Gestures Over & Over...
It's easy to get comfortable and fall back on what we know. So much so, that over the course of a 65,000 word novel, we may end up repeating ourselves - causing our main character to "absently flip her hair" over and over again throughout the story. Writing "he nods" and "she nodded" so much so that the characters should have a case of whip lash by the end of the story. To avoid overuse, try and dig a little deeper and be creative with how you explain what your characters are doing or thinking.
Here's Today's Takeaway Lesson...
"It's Easier To Prevent Bad Habits Than to Break Them" Ben Franklin
Here's to Being All In,
Maggie
Follow me on Twitter @AuthorMaggie #busywriterslife
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