3 Game Changing Writing Tips (For Me)
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- čas přidán 2. 07. 2024
- I'm sharing 3 pieces of writing advice that have been game changers for me as a writer. These aren't new to regulars on the channel, but they're all here in one compact (for me haha) short list! If you're already a decently accomplished writer looking for writing advice beyond 101/newbie stuff--these are the 3 things I learned from industry professionals that have made a real difference in leveling up line level prose and craft. When I look back at exactly how and why I've improved from book 1 to now 6 (!!!), and even the jump in quality between my first and third published books--it's these three things!
00:00 Introduction
01:21 Magic pacing fix
04:51 Narrate vs. dramatize
07:58 Echoes, crutch words, word choice
11:40 Final thoughts
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Drink every time I say "I hope this was helpful."
Help i need a stomach pump :)
You are so helpful. Thank you so so much. I'm such a noob but you encourage and inspire me to get writing.
Alexa, I've got absinthe. Do you want me to die? 😂
Yes, thanks, Alexa, you always deliver the writing goods! 😘
What’s that website you use to check your draft for repetitive phrases and words? I think I remember you mentioning that and since you’ve got me thinking about word choice, I thought I’d check my WIP!
my best writing advice is when youre stuck, just write the gist of what you want to say in the most casual language possible. I mean, swear, use all caps, talk to yourself, shift pov-- whatever, literally anything goes. THEN go back and edit it to be nicer. The idea is to just get the idea out of your brain and onto the page, making the language into a seperate step. I've found this makes it easier to just let myself WRITE without worrying about my language. I find it also helps me capture a lot more of the tone I'm going for especially if i let my first draft be very sweary.
Example
If Im writing a scene where someone eats a poison apple and slowly starts to notice the apple was poison, i might write
Paula ate the apple, sh*t was delicious, but then sh*t was less delicious. Oh no-- i think theres something wrong with the apple. Oh dang-- Paula's all dizzy now. There are all these symbols about how sh*tty this feels. Paula is NOT having a good time.
and then edit it to
Paula bit into the crisp apple; there was something she loved about keeping them in the fridge-- the coolness on a hot morning. As she stared out the window into the yard, a bitterness took root at the back of her throat and a bit of juice ran down her finger feeling like a bug crawling on her skin....
AND SO ON. I developed this method while writing essays for school especially for history eg. "Columbus was a bastard who everyone at the time hated and i do too" can be edited to "Columbus was a sinister man who was mistrusted by his own crew and remains relevant to this day because of his contribution to continued colonization." Like i said, it just really helps the tone come through.
Brilliant! It’s a bit similar to what they tell you when learning a foreign language-don’t try to find the exact right way to say something, just use whatever words you do know to communicate what you’re thinking.
This is sucha great tip , thank u!!
DAMN girl, this is great
Great comment, thank you!
The best writing advice I've gotten is: Your first draft is going to suck and that is okay. Embrace the suck. It can be fixed in editing.
Game changer advice:
I agree that show don't tell is too absolute to be helpful. I struggled with this until someone told me to show when I want to slow the pacing and to tell when I want to speed up. That was a lightbulb moment for me.
i used to think my first draft wasn't that bad. i'm on draft 4 now, and draft 1 is nightmare fuel
that makes alot of sense
Dude, that's amazing. I'm totally capable of showing instead of telling but I struggled with when to use the telling. But basing it on pacing is genius.
Yes! I’m glad someone else articulated this. It wasn’t rly something someone told me but at some point I guess I realized that “show, don’t tell” wasn’t always applicable when I knew there were parts of the story I felt wouldn’t been boring & better to kinda just breeze past or ramp up. I don’t think it’s always super helpful to view your writing the way you would a movie, but excessive detail is like a close-up. If you place a lot of emphasis, the reader will notice it. Maybe I’m wrong abt this but I think if you’re overly “show”y as opposed to telling, all that detail and description stops feeling important and just becomes white noise to the reader.
Thank you so much for sharing this
😭
My epiphany piece of advice is actually from Abbie Emmons on here, which is "story is not about what happens, it's about HOW what happens MATTERS to the characters."
Yes! That piece of advice of hers is the first thing that actually gave me real understanding of what story is and changed the way I write them.
Abbie is great, isn’t she?
Oooh, that's good.
My crutches are definitely "go" and "get". I've never realized it until someone edited my work and changed the "get up" for "stood", the "go down" for "descend", the "go around" for "circle" and many, many, MANY others
"Look" here. I'm actually afraid to do a search on it.
@@maurinet2291 ^^
Ugh the last one is so frustrating.
But really the best writing advice for me is so simple and it goes like:
"Are you a good writer ?
Yes ? Write
No ? Write
Do you have a good idea ?
Yes ? Write
No ? Find one then write"
It's a long progress & I know that I won't ever get better unless I suck at first so the most important thing at all is just to keep going!
Not so much technical advice, but the thing that has helped me the most was embracing that it’s okay to write just to entertain someone. Not all books have to be life changing message books. Sometimes just writing something you think is fun is enough.
yea at the end of the day writing and reading are forms of entertainment
I spent a year or so constantly being told to be “unique” and “use my own characters.” I am an artist and a writer. Have been all my life. I gave up because it was stressing me out and made me feel like a failure. I’ve come to realize that it’s okay to write fan fiction to work on improving your skills. It’s okay to make fan art. Thus, my new project: illustrated fanfic with a playlist.
I have to agree. With literally oversaturation going on in the industry in varying degrees, it's hard to stand out and be successful in the eyes of the publisher to keep the career going smoothly. Easy trap for overthinking. Fanfiction is one good way to just simply let things out of the system for the writing muscle be trained, and also for fun, either publishing the fic or not.
heck yeah
I never had that phase in my teen years where I wrote fanfiction and I wish I would have because I don't think I would've spent so much of my life getting stuck and not being able to finish stories. A few years ago I wrote a fanfiction based off of a video game and it was the first time I finished a novel worth of story. Like you said, it's such a great vehicle for practicing and refining the actual writing technique.
Alex Donne: "What is the game changing advise that has helped you the most?"
ME: "Just start typing."
I recently edited a flash fiction of only 500 words. As I went back through it to fix it up, I couldn't believe how many times I used certain words in just a 500 word piece 😅 I can imagine in a 80,000+ word novel those crutch words could be incredibly difficult to see for yourself.
With my current WIP revision, I'm learning that when authors/writers say they need to rewrite the first draft, they _literally_ mean rewrite basically the whole thing! Such a silly thing to have to learn, but that's where I am right now!
I've heard, with some truth, that if you're a mapper using an actual outline, your rough draft stuff gets worked through there and your actual first draft is a lot more polished. If you're a compass person you end up rewriting your rough draft. I find maps are boring, I need to be surprised so I just accept the extra work.
One of the repetitive phrases I see a lot (especially in YA) is "rolled [his/her] eyes". I did a count in one novel and there were over 20 eye rolls. Now I hear marbles rolling around whenever I see that phrase.
Mmmm. Too much mom there? My kids rolled eyes until I wondered how they could see. Maybe too mom, not enough kid?
another one is "gave a smile" or just "gave". who are these people and why are they giving so many smiles and laughs and smirks? 9 times out of 10 you can just use "he smiled".
Number one with a bullet for YA is some version of "let out a breath she hadn't been aware she was holding." Your pronoun choice.
@@maurinet2291 which can be changed to "exhaled suddenly" to have the same effect without the cliche.
@@maurinet2291 Yasssss!!! I gave serious thought to how often people really do this, forget how to breathe or say "oh, time to breathe." I can't stand it!
None of those ideas ever would have occurred to me. Three simple pieces of advice but so important for level up! I like the nitty gritty details and tidbits you slip to us starving writers. You're amazing Alexa. (Niggle is a GREAT crutch word! Mine is "Huffed" because it's so sassy and communicates a lot.)
Mine is snort 😅 I have to read over sections to make sure we're not all sounding like horses
mines muttered
Being advised to use deep pov was the game changer for me. Have you done a video on that? I'd love to watch it for positive reinforcement.
The best advice my editor recently gave me was to not get into dialogue bubbles and to have active settings. I described the setting well at the beginning of a scene, but then it faded away during dialogue. I didn't realize I was doing it until she pointed it out to me.
Eyyy! I have that dress! It looks super cute on you!
Thank you! All good advice. Especially the first one. I tend to have gigantic blocks of texts.
My advice is to convert your draft into an audio file with any online converter where a computer reads it out loud
And long or bad bits will very obviously drag in that monotone voice XD
My game changing advice I received/learned- which, at least in part, came from this channel- create strong characters with strong motivations and flaws and have their decisions go in line with their flaws (character consistency)! Not only did I see an improvement in my writing but it also took the pressure off me as the writer to come up with all these great ideas... if the character was written well enough, their decisions would spiral the plot down on its own. all i had to ask was- what would they do? instead of what can I do to further the plot... hope that made some sense
Sort of reminds me of all that talk GRRM does about writing like a "gardener". I definitely like writing this way- getting into the mindsets of various characters is one of the more enjoyable and interesting parts of writing for me, and so it's an enjoyable way to write too- it helps that it takes pressure off like you said!
A tip that works wonders for me: f you’re procrastinating or feel you have writer’s block, move locations. Physically, like where you’re writing. Take your laptop into your closet and write there. Then every time you step inside, the creativity association clicks in your brain because you’re in your new space and the words flow. It doesn’t have to be in your closet though lol. It can be outside sitting against a tree or in a different room of your house. When you get stuck, just move again.
I've written so much stiff in the bathroom. But the problem is I'm with my parents for more than a year now and I can't just go sit in the bathroom alone. Plus its a bazillion degrees here.
Alexa is such an amazing asset to the writing community!
You always upload right when I need you! Thanks for the advice, Alexa! 🥰
These are all very helpful tips that get down to the nitty-gritty parts of writing that can be so difficult. Thanks for sharing!
I love this video as it condenses some of my favourite learning from Alexa and this channel. Particularly number 3 has helped me polish my MS and build up my writing confidence. Super helpful. Thank you so much Alexa. x
Thank you for this video! I needed to see this today. On another note, I finally got a copy of The Ivies! Can't wait to read it!
Brilliant! You have helped me immensely beyond measure as a first-time writer! Keep up the good work.
Yip. From every vlog about the tips you give, I do that in each of the scene I work in my book.
Even if it is my new first rough draft, I still make notes of what to do or not do, making sure that it works out when I rewrite the scene later on when I start with draft two - since I still have a long way to go.
Excellent video! Thank you for that. Looking forward to more.
your video on goals, conflicts, stakes, and resolution was super game-changing for me
This was amazing, thanks so much. You really do have an incredible and unique talent - in terms of sharing things that you think would be helpful for others, in a very easy to understand and digestible way (as in, not overwhelming), and in such a warm and friendly manner, so thank you.🙏💛
Learning how to use commas and dialogue tags were probably the biggest for me. I also love your video with cutting needless words.
Alexa, I can't express how much you have helped me in my writing. Thank you immensly.
Yes! Line level edits work wonders for me too. That’s why I never worry too much about mood or rhythm in earlier drafts because I know in later drafts I’ll tweak all the sentences anyway ☺️ and Alexa! You’re awesome. 👑
I'm now binging your channel, because I wanna write a book
Some of my favorite aspects of the Ivies were its excellent pacing and fluid balance between narration and dramatization.
Yay! New video.
For me something that has helped my writing is using more specific verbs! It gets everything moving and helps me see what I need to fix. Thank you for the video! Love your content :)
Alexa, any chance you could do a video of line editing using some prose you didn't include in your book as an example? xxx it would be great to see how this works in a specific example
Thank you, Alexa. This is so helpful ✨
Omg thank you so much for the show don’t tell bit. I always get mixed messages from writing advice when people talk about “shoe don’t tell” and “keep it simple.”
I keep a mix in my story, highlighting the important stuff of course, but if there’s a week of boring travel, I’m gonna tell how it went rather than explain every day. If something important happens then of course tell, but otherwise, I need my characters to get from point A to B and not take 5 chapters to do so.
Super helpful as always! I am not a new viewer. You are the only writing guru I trust on CZcams.
Word and phrase frequency counters are easy to find online and will call you on echoes and crutch words. I’m still a little embarrassed about multiple uses of “the hubbub died down” in one book. After using that tool with my first book, I am much more aware when I’m tempted to use some of my crutch words while drafting!
LOVE your top, Alexa! 😍
Thank you! It's a super adorable dress from Torrid! I'll buy pretty much anything with a sweetheart neckline.
These are great tips!
The best writing advice I’ve received was also about “show, don’t tell.”
My creative writing professor said that its not ‘show, don’t tell.’ It’s ‘show *and* tell.’ They keys are (1) to not show and tell the same things (i.e., avoiding writing ‘“I’m sorry,” she said apologetically’) and (2) to know what to show and what to tell. In fiction, length = weight. Therefore, drawing interactions out into a direct scene gives those interactions weight; save direct scenes for the most vital part of your story, and don’t be afraid to narrate other plot points or interactions.
"sorry" she said apologetically is also just straight up redundant. sorry already conveys apology
enjoy and learn watching again after two years of steady writing. makes more sense
Once again, you have inspired me to stop procrastinating, and ACTUALLY write! You're the best, Alexa! 💞
LOVE your new glasses
This was helpful, thank you ☺️
Hi, Alexa! I just had The Ivies delivered to my house! Gonna be reading it after the book I'm currently on!
My fave CZcamsr!
First video back after a long break from your channel and writing. Still dishing great content
I found through Prowritingaid that I use ‘little bit’ or something similar so much. It really helped me clear those out in the next book. I catch myself now. 📚😊
Something that always helped me was a tip from the book StoryGrid, which is that in a thriller, every chapter or scene should end on either an Action or a Revelation. That is, a new decision or incident, or the reveal of new information. And if your scene doesn't have that, then it's useless, and you need to consider getting rid of it. I don't stick to it completely, but I like to ask myself this when I am plotting and have the bundle of things I want to have in the chapter. I look at it and ask, Does something crazy happen? Or do we learn something new? The advice is also not to have too many of one particular thing happen for too many chapters in a row. So like, if for 3 chapters, you have a new reveal, see if you can turn one of them into an action. It will help the book's pacing to feel fresh.
This WAS helpful!
After going back and revising all my short stories in succession, I certainly noticed that I have at least one heavily used crutch word... "disdain". I think it's more of a theme, really.
#LFLR
"V.B.W."
Great content.
Pacing helped so much. I was stuck in a rut because cutting it making it more “simple” really made affected my MC’s development. Sometimes it really is just how it looks not what is says.
I love your lipstick color! thanks for the video. Narrate vs dramatize, that's a very nice way to put it 😊. show vs tell makes me feel guilty about telling. But we can't have a whole manuscript of show, that'd be really exhausting for the writer & readers as well.
It's Charlotte Tilbury Hot Lips 2 Dancefloor Princess! I've worn it nearly every day for almost two years b/c I fell in love with it!
thank you SO MUCH This helps a lot ^^
I have read show don't tell = describe don't explain. This is how I keep it straight in my head.
OG this one was released on my 20th birthday! How interesting.
Write a short story everyday for a month.
This is the hardest thing I’ve done but one of the best. Trying ro find something new each day is so much harder then I expected. I found that my world of writing is a lot smaller then I thought. But I know with the right inspiration I can create something entirely grand and new.
Line by Line, written by Claire Cook. Since were on about epiphanies here, this book helped me immensely with line editing (the basic gist of this vid). I'd recommend any writer concerned with improving prose and clarity on the page to take a gander.
yup! read Anne Lamott's 'Bird by Bird' to help you get into your writing, and then that one to help you edit. :) great suggestion!
Great advice
I’m a firm believer that no one should ever comment on appearance if it’s not the subject at hand. But I’m breaking my rule to say: 10/10 on eyebrow shaping.
Time stamps with labels? What?! Amazing!
great tips
I know this is an older video, but I had to comment because you mentioned the word 'niggle'. That is one of my problem words too... I'm currently participating in Camp Nano. It's day 5... I went back and counted and I have already used that word FOUR times and I'm less than 20k words in. Anyway, I laughed when I heard you say that word and thought I'd share. Also, thank you for the great writing advice!
Love this video! Thank you for all the craft videos. Keep them coming. ❤️
Hi Alexa! I'm a huge fan of your videos! I thought it was interesting you mentioned how many books you've written versus how many have actually been published, would you say that writing those other books that weren't published made you a better writer overall? I'm currently on a second draft of the first novel I've ever written and even if it's never published I'm just appreciating everything it's teaching me about the process! Great videos and they are helpful! :)
Yes, those first two that weren't published made me a better writer! I had to write them and fix them and then move on from them to level up. I have a video on comparing my 4th book to my 1st that goes over some of the big differences.
My lightbulb advice was that I could start the story from wherever it started in my head then work backwards or forwards. Before the I was stuck trying to write “in order.” Earth shattering - to me at least, and incredibly freeing. 🤯✍🏽😃
Thank you, I've heard this before, but it just light bulbed for me. I always write in order and then get stuck for ages and usually go back to the start. I need to do this instead :)
@@TheKass You're welcome. I totally get it. It was a lightbulb moment for me too when I heard it. Happy Writing! 🙂
I recently wrote a chapter that is too long (i.e., 1/3 longer than any other chapter). My thought was that, hey, I'll split that into two chapters on second draft and "fluff" it up so they can be two full chapters. Meh. Thanks for the pacing tip!
My best advice is, put your book aside for a month, or longer, after you have edited your first draft one time. You will forget your manuscript a little, then you have a better chance of finding new errors next time you edit.
😅 I hurt on scenery and description. Yet, strong on dialogue. A friend told me to listen to radio sitcoms. They had to use words to paint the pictures. I thought this a unique idea and listened to a couple. I did laugh on the sound effects. 😁 Nothing like an old spaghetti western. 😉
I needed this. My MS is 20,000 words off....help. lol
I LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUUUUU, MAM
Alexa, Ive been watching your posts off and on for a while now. I have not watched each and every one of them but I need to ask you a question. Do you ever internally argue with your characters as to what is happening or is fixening to happen in your books?
A great deal of repetition in words or phrases drive me NUTS as a reader! I totally zoom in on it every time. Totally pulls me out of the story.
i hate when authors repeatedly refer to quotes of things that happened not that long ago, or repeat quotes so often and never just narrate that the thought occurs repeatedly.
I'm getting ready to start editing my first book, after I finish drafting my second book in about a month, so I need videos like this. I'm so nervous.
You talk about writing like the books one likes. I myself have a hard time reading the english language, still its the language I write in. should I brimg in the traditional writing styel that i like that is used in my countury, or is it a must to adapt to the english traditional writong styel.
The biggest game-changing piece of advice for me was when a writing prof talked to me about economy in my writing. I really liked populating short stories with tons of characters to make scenes feel more full and settings feel more lived in, but in the relatively small space of a short story that sometimes works against me. Deciding who gets a name, who gets more than a single sentence of description, etc., helped me to distribute "narrative power" more evenly among the people/places/things that I included in a short story. It's definitely still a work in progress for me, and of course it's not a hard and fast rule, but having the concept of "economy" in the back of my mind while writing has helped a lot overall. I think this advice was especially relevant to me as an overwriter who just really enjoys spending time within my own stories while drafting them.
I'm not sure any ONE advice has been totally game-changing. But psychic distance is a thing I wasn't aware of before, and that really made my writing better and less confusing. I had a tendency to say things like "the man, the thief, the boy, the chemist, the elf" etc, instead of their names, thinking it'd get too repetitive to use their names all the time. BUT, this is wrong. If you know a character's name, and you are in this character's POV, you should basically always use their name, or you might confuse your readers with whom you're actually talking about, or you remind them they're reading a book about someone else, instead of staying close to the character and their thoughts and feelings.
I like describe don’t explain instead of show don’t tell .
Writers gotta write!! Get advice from the Rock ⭐✨ of writing 😃!!!
Where do I get my lightbulb ideas? Watching Alexa Donne videos... 😬💜
I don't even want to think about my repetitive phrases. I know the book I'm about to edit is full of them. One of them was "she had to keep moving" and I wrote it every time I got stuck or wrote myself into a corner. Making my plan for live streams for Camp Nano and hoping to draft the new ya fantasy book I'm plotting now and edit this one. July is going to be busy!
Mediocrity vs excellence or at least the pursuit of. Thanks Alexa!
Random, very unrelated question. What are some conflicts for love interests once they become a couple. I don’t want them to break up because of some random misunderstanding and take the whole book to get back together
What if they feel like they are not doing their best or someone told them they don’t deserve to be together? So they either distance themselves or try very hard to prove them otherwise.
Once they are together, it feels like the conflicts would have to be about the nature of their relationship. Because what's at stake then is like, being in a relationship you hate, being trapped in something abusive or loveless. Or like, if the relationship alienates certain friends, or if one of the pair finds themselves becoming a different person in the relationship than they are outside of it, and are fearful of losing themselves. Once a couple gets together the conflicts are how to deal with all this life shit but still maintain the relationship?
This might seem like a dumb question, but is it really okay for your first draft to not be solid grammar wise? I have so many ideas that I want to try but I'm really scared that my grammar isn't good enough, and it stops me from writing the first draft. You can probably tell by this comment that I don't really know what I'm doing😅
Yes! It’s 100% okay. Even if you aim for perfect grammar there will be typos or errors, especially if you’re writing a novel-length text. The best thing is to get your ideas down. Once you have a story, then you can edit for grammar and all the other stuff.
Alexaaaaaa where are youuuuuuu????
Best advice for me has been to use prettier words to say the same thing but shorter
Best advice from myself is to just write super sloppy what I want to say/do and then edit it to make it the way I intended in the first place, instead of wanting the perfect sentence the 1st time that sentence will appear on my screen
script and direct
are there any quick considerations to make when trying to cut down 2 or 3 or even more sentences into 1, so that it basically still says everything you tried to say in 3 sentences?
My best piece of advice (once I actually followed it) was keep writing in a first draft. It's not going to be perfect, and you can edit it later. But you can't edit somethinng you haven't written. Just getting your words on the page is the biggest step.
Write what you want to read
Am I the only one that likes the video, before I even watched Alexa's video?
Got a writerly crush on you Alexa lol
Me: I wonder if Alexa is a cat or dog person.
*has a scratch on her hand*
Me: cats.
Haha though in this video sadly that is a burn! I got myself on my Instant Pot, like an idiot. But I also have cat scratches all over :P
I wrote connected stories so that if I’m stuck on one I switch to another and I’m still in the same world.
Is it just me or does she looks like the long long sister of Amy Farah Fowler in The Big Bang Theory ❤