Hi, my name is Kat and today I'm going to
share seven tips to improve your writing.
So these tips I'm about share with you
focus on words. We're not talking about
plot or character development or world
building because I already made all
those videos. Today we are focusing on
prose, words, and sentences. If a completed
novel is a big-ass castle, today we are
going to take a closer look at some of
these bricks. Are you ready? Let's get
started! Tip number one: show, don't tell.
This is one of those writing tips that
gets thrown around a lot and I feel like
a lot of people hear it and recite it
but don't really get it. First off, show
don't tell doesn't apply it to
everything. It mostly applies to emotions
and senses. Most emotion words, angry,
excited, happy, sad, these are straight up
telling. For example, the man stood up
angrily. You're telling us that he's
angry, but you're not showing it. How is
he angry? What does he do as he stands up
that makes it obvious he is angry? How
about the man pushed himself out of the
chair, his hands clenched into fists, the
vein in his neck popping. That shows us
he's angry without using any words that
mean angry. What I like to do is imagine
my scenes as if they were in a movie. In
a movie there's no narration of he was
angry or she was frustrated. We as an
audience ascertain these moods from the
characters actions. From what they are
doing not from what we are being told
they feel. Don't tell me a character is
excited, tell me that they're bouncing up
and down in their chair, smiling hugely
and talking way too fast. Don't just tell
me a character is scared, show their fear
through shallow breaths and tense
shoulders and wide, alert eyes. Look
through your manuscript for emotion
words like this and try to find a better
way to depict the emotion without saying
it. Tip number two: use the active voice
over the passive voice. This is another
tip that you might hear a lot. You might
also hear kind of the shortcut version
to this tip which is
to avoid words that end in -ing and this
is because those words are usually
weaker than their more active
counterparts. He was standing at the
front of the room is not as strong and
direct as he stood at the front of the
room. He was standing is passive. It
sounds almost like it's something
happening to him whereas he stood is
active, it's him doing it. Keep an eye out
for use of the passive voice in your
manuscript. You don't have to delete
every sentence that uses the passive
voice but really consider if it could be
improved by changing it to be more
active. Tip number three: to be or not to
be? This tip is related to the previous
one about active and passive voices and
this is about the to be verb in its
different variations: is, am, are, was, were.
To be verbs weaken sentences in a
similar way that words that end in -ing
do and in fact, they're often paired
together. He was standing versus he stood. And
again, you don't have to avoid the use of
these words completely, just be aware of
your usage. Using the passive voice in
writing is not always a negative thing.
Consciously deciding to use it for a
certain passage can actually work very
well. Say your character isn't a very
active or straightforward character at
all. Maybe they're very weak and passive
characters and your use of passive
writing helps capture that. There's
always exceptions. I will never tell you
don't use the passive voice, you have to
know when to use the passive voice and
when to use the active voice. Tip number
four: verbs are better than adverbs. This
is another tip you might be familiar
with through its shortcut version which
is to avoid words that end in -ly. Adverbs
are the devil or so I've heard from many
people giving writing advice. Now I don't
think adverbs are the devil but I do
think a strong, descriptive verb is
better than a more generic verb paired
with an adverb. For example, let's take
the sentence, 'She walked lazily across
the room.' This could be improved by
replacing walked lazily with a single
verb that captures that same intent.
She strolled across the room, she
meandered across the room, she ambled
across the room, she wandered across the
room. Many verb plus adverb combinations can
be replaced with a single stronger verb.
Tip number five: no thinking. Speaking of
strong verbs, you know what's not
included in that list? Any verb relating
to thinking or realizing or remembering
or knowing. There is a brilliant essay by
Chuck Palahniuk which I will link in the
description. Read it. This is not
recommended reading, this is required
reading. Read it. And it all just ties
back into you what I've been talking
about here, showing versus telling and
avoiding lazy writing. Don't have a
character just realize something.
Present those facts to the reader so
that we can realize it. Tip number six:
doubles are trouble. Sometimes word
repetition can be used to great success,
but more often than not using the same
word multiple times in a short passage
is just lazy writing. I read a fairly
popular book a while ago that really
abused this and it made me want to rip
out my editing pen and just go to town.
One particular moment that stands out is
when I found four usages of the word arm
over the course of two sentences and
this isn't a really terrible offense
it's just, it's lazy writing. It's
something that happens a lot in early
drafts. You know you'll have a character
approach a door and then open the door
and then walk through the door, but in
revisions you have to get rid of some of
those doors. Yes, it is tedious work
trying to figure out how to reword these
sentences, but you gotta do the work.
Don't be lazy, do the work. And finally,
tip number seven: choose wisely, young
grasshopper. The overall theme for all of
these tips is to be aware of every
single word you write. Choose your words
with care. As a writer you are making
constant decisions. Be very intentional
with your word choice and be ready to
defend your choices if necessary. If I
flip to a random page in your manuscript
and ask why you chose that verb in
paragraph 2, I want you to be able to
tell me your reasoning. If you don't have
any
reasoning, if you haven't thought about
why that verb is the best choice or not,
then you haven't made a decision. You've
just fallen into something and yes,
sometimes you might fall into something
great without trying, but most of the
time the perfect incarnation of that
sentence or paragraph is going to
require some thought, some work, some
effort. It's going to require you to make
a decision. I talked earlier about passive
versus active and here it is again. Don't
be a passive writer, don't just let
things happen. Be an active writer, be
making decisions. Study a lot and read a
lot and get really familiar with both
good and bad writing because that's
what's going to enable you to make the
best decisions. All right, that is it.
There you have it. Those are seven tips
to help improve your writing. I hope this
video was helpful to you guys, I know a
lot of you have been wanting more
writing related videos lately so I'm
trying to do that. But, you know,
disclaimer, disclaimer, please remember I
am NOT a professional in any sense of
that word. I'm not even a published
author so take everything I say with a
grain of salt and a shot of tequila. Just
kidding, I hate salt with tequila. Just
kidding again, I love salt with tequila.
What was I talking about? But yeah, I will
definitely be making more writing
related videos, but please keep in mind
that these take a lot longer for me to
prepare. I actually script these videos
out a little bit because, you know, I want
to sound at least kind of smart in them.
And also again, just to reiterate I am
not a professional. You can get some
advice from me, but you should also get
advice from a wide variety of sources.
Especially because doing your own
research is really the best way to learn.
Anyways, that is it for this video today
so thank you very much for watching it. I
hope you enjoyed it, I hope you have a
great night and I will have another
video soon so I will see you then. Goodbye!
I did this, I did this to the camera
why, I don't know, I don't know, I don't
know.
Wake up! Are you awake yet? Be a good blogger today okay? Okay.
Friday night, home alone vlogging. This
is the start of a very antisocial trend