aspiring authors discussion

here we can share tips we have about writing and grammar. link any articles or videos that have helped you, or just some general tips :)

This is a link about punctuation in dialogue, which confused me a lot initially, it's been very helpful:
https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/8008...

This is how to start a story, like you can use dialogues or settings and all:
https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/Ac23...

This one is about the different ways to end your story, I think a lot of us struggle with that :)
https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/8008...

thank you! these are all great cites :)

I used a lot of videos on yt to help me out. One thing I learned that seems especially important is to not start your book with a cliche. (such as waking up) :)

If you want a realistic story, I learned that you shouldn’t make all of your characters unnaturally beautiful.

when writing dialogue, i like to say what they're saying aloud to see how it feels. if it sounds awkward, you can change it to something that flows more. :)

Katie wrote: "I have a Pinterest board for this! Oh uhm, ignore the shifting stuff and anything else that might’ve been accidentally added (I dont know how to remove it without unpinning it from everything oop) ..."

shifting?

try not to repeat words. like if you keep saying "grin" and have no variation, maybe add words like "smile" or "smirked" :)

of course, after a while has passed you can probably use the word again, but people remember these words being used so it's best to wait a chapter.

check out Marissa Meyers explanation of the writing process, here's a screenshot I have saved-

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Oof I see that it did not work, here's the link to the site, this is the editing process page, there are multiple entries on the process in her blog-

https://www.marissameyer.com/blog/fro...

I'd also check out step 7 for minorish revisions. The whole program is really amazing and has helped me out a ton!!

Thanks, Brooke! That link is pretty helpful :)

omg wait, that's actually such a smart idea. Thanks Katie!!

Katie wrote: "https://www.pinterest.com/pin/1849291...

Found this, hope it helps someone!!"

that makes more... how did I not know this before loll

One thing I always keep in mind is not to use the overused tropes like insta-love, "I am not like other girls", forced romance, "I am not beautiful", etc. if I do use these tropes, I try to make them seem more realistic. One way to check if it's realistic is to imagine if this can happen in everyday life or not.

I use this free website: https://nanowrimo.org/
It's really helpful, it basically motivates you to keep on writing. Hope it helps!

Please can you give links which don't require signing up?

why can't you sign up? :/

If you are doing enemies to lovers than don’t jump to being lovers straight away. Take your time. Create a ship. Let your readers ship them together. Then make it happen and do it again lol

Alice wrote: "why can't you sign up? :/"

Well, I don't like it. I'm already signed up for a lot of stuff.

Persevere! When writing a novel, I never plan it chapter to chapter. I write as I go so that I’m super excited when a new ideas pops into my head! I’ll then put it down in a chapter. This way I never get tired of the book! Hope this helps for all you aspiring novelists!

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/catego...

Up above is a website I use constantly to remind myself of simple grammatical rules. I do have Grammarly installed into my laptop (and I suggest you do as well), but this is just a variety of blog posts Grammarly has. If you have questions about quotations, parentheses, dashes, punctuation, parts of speech, etc etc, it’s a great place to start!

Emary wrote: "Persevere! When writing a novel, I never plan it chapter to chapter. I write as I go so that I’m super excited when a new ideas pops into my head! I’ll then put it down in a chapter. This way I nev..."

That's what I do. I lose motivation if I have to plan it so once I have a couple solid characters and conflict, I go for it and figure everything out along the way

so a lot of people like me have trouble continuing writing because they think it won't make sense or it'll be bad. my advice would be to just write what you want to! it doesn't matter because later on you can add in the things you need to make it make sense. i'm putting this here because people like me have trouble with it and i just hope that it might help someone heh

alice仙境 wrote: "so a lot of people like me have trouble continuing writing because they think it won't make sense or it'll be bad. my advice would be to just write what you want to! it doesn't matter because later..."

Yes! That's what multiple drafts are for!

alice仙境 wrote: "so a lot of people like me have trouble continuing writing because they think it won't make sense or it'll be bad. my advice would be to just write what you want to! it doesn't matter because later..."

I’m glad I’m not alone!

So a lot of people have trouble with repeated 'said''s. This is really helpful: https://blog.reedsy.com/guide/how-to-...

Yes, you are right, but there should be few instances when you use other words for “said.” The reason behind this is that you want readers to just skim over your dialogue tags.

Does anyone have any advice on writing an assassin? I have a wip where the mc is one but I don't know how to write her character.