When You Don't Feel Like Writing, Blogging, or Whatever You Do...

So. It's been fifteen days since I last updated my blog, which I had previously been updating at least every other day. Have I had school, emergencies, sickness, internet issues? Nope. I've had weeks with absolutely nothing to do. Nothing has gone wrong, I haven't been on a do-nothing-whatsoever-vacation, so why haven't I been keeping up?
  Well, I've decided to turn this into a good message. Everyone has this issue, right? So I'm going to explain why I haven't updated, why it applies to you, and why it's totally not an issue.

• So the main reason I haven't been writing: my interests have a cycle. Writing and blogging aren't all I do! I also dance, I read a lot, I study psychology (more specifically mental illnesses, criminal profiling, and serial killers.), and I have zone-out days. All these interests go in cycles; I rarely watch psychology videos and dance videos on the same day. For about a week I do dance, then I feel like doing nothing for a day or so, then I transition into psychology, do nothing, and the cycle goes on. So in short, I felt like dancing and turning myself into pretzel/rubberband instead of writing. 
• My point here: I don't have a million or even a thousand readers. I don't make money for this. I have legit no reason why I have to write this. I do it because I feel like it, so when the cycle moves on to another interest, I'd rather pour my heart and soul into that interest than force myself to write a blog post that won't give me anything. 
• A lot of people seem to have this thing where they force themselves to write, blog, vlog, etc. because they feel they should. That's not right. That's what ruins things for me, is forcing myself to do the thing. That gives me negative emotional associations with the activity, and soon I hate it as much as I hate biology. So the thing is, if you don't have a valid reason such as money, a promise, or something of the sort, don't force yourself to keep up with these things. It's okay to do something else for a while. 

Should You Ditch Your Project?

  Everyone has moments of doubt when writing... It's a natural part of the writing process. It's a natural part of everything in life! But how do you know if you should ditch the project, or keep going? Is there any instance when giving up on something is a good idea?
  Well, you're about to find that out... Here are some of the instances when ditching that project is for the better. (This also applies for most things in life! Jobs, hobbies, relationships (to a degree), etc.)

1. If You Outgrow It

  If you start a project when you're 13, you won't have the same taste when you're 20. You grow and evolve, you aren't the same person, your preferences change. You won't want to write the same book you wanted to then! If your story happened to take 7 years to write and evolved with you or you're still invested in it, then good for you, keep on writing! But if you look back on that half-finished draft and it just looks childish and boring, then don't force yourself to write it if you don't want to. 

  So scenario #1: You've grown past interest in your story. 

2. Life. 

  Sometimes life happens. Sometimes you have to prioritize. It makes me sad that this has happened to me, to a degree, and I've had to postpone writing until I have the time. With school, life in general, trying to fix my brain, and dance, I haven't had the time nor energy to write. I've wanted to badly, but I just can't at the moment. 

  This isn't so much a project-ditcher as a postpone, but it still counts. You shouldn't feel guilty for having higher priorities than writing (as long as the writing isn't your job!)

3. Prolonged Hatred

  It happens... You don't feel motivated, you've gotta force yourself to write, that's normal. It's when you feel that way for a prolonged period of time that you should seriously reconsider your project. As for what time period prolonged would be... I'd say about a minimum of a month, in which you have forced yourself to write and tried various methods of getting reinvested in the story. 

  But if you don't feel motivated to write for a long time, then you shouldn't be using your time and effort for something you don't believe in. There's nothing wrong with leaving a project (or writing at all, for that matter!) if it doesn't genuinely make you happy and you have to force yourself to work on it. 

4. What Not To Leave it For

  Okay, so that's that... Now here's what you shouldn't leave a project for. 

• Disinterest that isn't prolonged
• Self-doubt
• Shiny ideas (other book ideas)
• Criticism
• Feeling like no one will like your story
• A random bout of rage or depression 

And never, I mean never, just delete your draft... You can still use that, or give it to someone else who's interested in writing it! Never, never, never ctrl + a backspace that thing!! 

How To Stay Focused on a Single Writing Project

  50,000 - an infinite amount of words is a lot to write... And I don't know about you, but sometimes I have trouble focusing for five to ten minutes, never mind those potential months that are crucial for writing a whole book! But obviously, there are billions of books out there... Are they all written by people with magical superpowers?
  Nope, they're written by people who have figured out this mystical focus ability! Including me, I've finished the first draft of my book, meaning that I have mastered the focus for 100,000 words. Sadly, now that I've finished, I'm having quite a time starting the next book... So I thought now would be an amazing time to remind myself to channel the inner laser and share what I've done to finish that first book!
  So here are the ways to get the thing done...

1. Get Immersed

  This is my very favorite part of all writing. Getting so immersed in the world I've created that it becomes real, that the story plays out in my head (Actually it doesn't, more on that here, but in a way it does?), that nothing, not even my annoying and rambly notes in the middle of the text, can interrupt that world. If you are fully living in that world, the next shiny idea will have a much tougher time distracting you! Not to mention it'll be harder to leave in general, given that you've spent so much time and love on it... (Ways to get to know characters, more on world immersion coming soon.)

2. Don't Deny

  When a shiny thought is recurrent, don't ignore it. Even if it's not recurrent and it's just cool, don't ignore it. When the shiny thoughts come in, they're exciting and asking you to take action, so taking action will make them go away. The thing is, you can't just deny them any attention, but you can't give away all your current project's attention... 

  So there's a simple solution! A notebook, with each page dedicated to a shiny idea. Write as much or as little as you want on that one page, get the idea out onto paper, and then move back to your work in progress. This works because it gives the shiny ideas closure, they've been dealt with, but since you're limited to a page you can't go overboard and obsess about them too much. Not to mention that by the time you finish your current project, imagine all the potential candidates you'll have for your next masterpiece! (On deciding on that project...)

3. Just. Write. 

  My most common loss of interest cue is writer's block. At a certain point in every story, I just don't want to write, and it's during that phase that I question everything. The thing to do here is to just write, even if it looks absolutely awful. That's what gets me out of writer's block (along with these other tips)
  So when you've lost the motivation and excitement for a project, don't wait for it to come back... School papers don't work that way, and neither do novels. Just write the thing, you can come back and edit later, and getting back into the story is the best way to get back into the zone!

4. Guilt is a Major Tool

 I do this to myself... Like a lot. When I'm distracted or in some way having trouble writing, I draw the most hideous sketches of my characters you've ever imagined on my whiteboard with little speech bubbles that say things like, "I thought you loved me..." "Why are you forgetting about us?" "Are we not good enough?" "What did we do wrong?" 

  Those always get me into action, sometimes even tears, because I don't want them to be sad and of course they blame themselves! So I have my characters guilt me into writing, staying focused, or figuring out that issue I've been avoiding... 

  There are other ways to guilt yourself into writing! But you'll have to figure out what works for you... :) 

5. Accept It

  Accept the fact that you get distracted, lose motivation, hate the story at times, and aren't always the avid, loving creator of worlds that you want to see yourself as. Accepting that takes A LOT of stress off of writing, and therefore makes writing more enjoyable. Accepting this makes decisions less stressful, staying focused a reality, and is just overall helpful in every aspect. 

  Don't confuse this for it's okay to be lazy, that's not it at all. It's okay to not be perfect. 

Writing With Aphantasia

  I'm going to ask you to complete a simple test... Okay? All you have to do is follow the instructions, and remember what details you can. Ready?
 Imagine a tree. What kind of tree is it? Is it summer or winter? What's the background like? Is it day or night? Can you change the color of the tree? Change the time of day, the background, the season? Can you put birds in the tree?
  Okay, now that you've completed that... From a Scale of 0 to 10, how detailed and easily changeable were the mental images? 0 is absolutely nothing, no image at all, and 10 is as vivid as if the tree was right in front of you.
  Now, for those of you like me who answered zero... You have aphantasia. Congrats! Aphantasia is basically the inability to see things in your mind, you just see a blank space up there no matter you do. 1 to 10, you have varying levels of inner sight, and good for you! Don't take it for granted!
  So now that you know if you have aphantasia or not, how does that have anything to do with writing? Well, it's mostly just a useful thing to note, but sometimes it can actually suck. So see below for the list of places it affects my writing (and reading!)

1. Worldbuilding

  Yep, worldbuilding. I have a pretty good dislike for describing surroundings, or worse, creating a fantasy world. I can't see any of this in my head, and I don't see any of it in my head when I read either, so for me describing or creating a world is useless. However, most people do actually see that world in their mind... So someone's gotta tell them what it looks like. 

  My remedy for this has two pieces... One, you find pictures of the setting or even have the setting be your own town. Something you can physically see for yourself and describe from the picture. This is much easier than making something up and hoping it's consistent every time I mention something. 

  Second and lastly, when I'm working on my first draft, I write how I naturally write. Everything is in the character's heads, all about their thoughts and emotions, and small snippets of out in the world. (Personally, I'd love a book like that, because again... I connect to these people emotionally, I enter their mental world, not the outer one. So if someone cut all the scenery and put more emphasis on the people, I'd love that book to the ends of the earth! But everyone's not me, so...) Then, number one on my list of editing is to go in and add more world details. What do people look like, what does this prison look like, what do the woods look like? And then I describe those pictures more deeply and have someone read it to make sure I'm doing it right. 

2. Le Crie

  That's a random title thing up there... But yes, true. I can't see my precious characters. 

  A while ago I heard someone say something along the lines of, "I'm never going to watch The Hunger Games movies because it'd ruin my mental image of the characters!" I honestly thought they were either crazy or overly dramatic... What mental image? I've read hundreds of books, and have never once seen a "mental image". If you gave me a picture of Katniss Everdeen with Bella Swan and no hints like a bow and arrow, there's no way I'd be able to tell them apart! Now that I know that seeing characters is a very real thing, just not for me, that random title comes into play. I can't see Jamie or Sabrina either and have no idea what they look like, aside from the pictures on their character pages. Thing is, those pictures aren't perfect, and I don't know what exactly is wrong with them. But those aren't the real Jamie and Sabrina, that's all I know... And I can't draw them or have someone else draw them, because there's no image and I have no idea how to describe them aside from the basics... 

  What I've learned from this, anyways, is that I have to find a picture and build a character off the picture. Not build a character and try to find a person who looks similar enough. And then with reading, you just hope there's a picture on the cover or a movie adaption or forget the idea of actually seeing them. 

3. Fight Scenes

  These suck... Because they're so suspenseful and action-packed, holding so much of the future of the story, and I can't visualize them. It's very difficult to describe the moves and get the pacing right when I feel like I'm watching a movie with the sound on and my eyes closed. Like, someone got hit, but who? How? Where? What's happening now?? There are too many "in a blur" "quicker than I could see" etc. in every fight/action scene because it happens so fast and I can't see it. Yes, it's very frustrating, but there is a solution! 

  That solution is basically finding characters in a book or movie that have similar powers and kind of copying the scene. What I do is copy the scene, add a few changes: maybe some dialogue, brief description, change up the order, get someone stabbed in a different place, etc. But just taking the basic essence of an already successful fight and sticking your characters in is actually very efficient. I don't know if it's plagiarism or not... But if you change it enough you should be fine. 

4. In Reading - Fantasy and Large Casts

  In writing, I can find ways around this. Research, extensive editing, and having someone else read it. In reading, however, I'm just stuck. (Beware: Large rant ahead. Only read if you want to, for some reason! Thanks!)

  There are certain books, such as Lord of The Rings, that everyone loves and I just don't get it. Up until now, I hadn't given why much thought, but now I know. There are so many places, inhuman creatures, and people in general that I get lost in the journey. My mind gets bored of hearing descriptions of places and people that I can't see, and by the time I get all the details of one place straight, they've moved onto another! (To make this clearer, I don't see things in my mind, but I memorize facts. The room is large, doors are here and here, second floor, blank walls, etc. And I like to feel I know the surroundings so I'm not left in the middle of a fight wondering if that doorway has always been there or if it was a convenient escape. So I can innerly yell at their stupidity of missing that door if they don't use it.) And then with so many characters, again, I connect emotionally with them and remember them based on personality and all. When you have a lot of characters mainly distinguishable by the fact that one's an elf and one's a human, but they act similarly and don't give me anything to connect with, they just blur together and I hate that. 

  So I don't like fantasy because so much is based on the unique looks of the character's and world, there are new rules, and I can't see any of it. It's much simpler to read about a bunch of humans in an average town so I can feel I already have a sense of how the world works/looks, and move on with the story instead of getting caught up in the details. 

Tips For Successful Writing as A Pantser

  Some people are organized, some people aren't, and I'm so unorganized I don't actually know where this sentence was supposed to be going. How can someone that disorganized write a 100,000-word story, have it all make sense, and be relevant?
  That, fellow humans, is what being a pantser is about. (That word really annoys me for some reason, who knows why, but from here on out that word will be replaced by disorganized writers.)  However, most writing tips out there are meant for the organized writers, especially the posts dedicated to outlining! So this is all I've got on the subject of disorganized writing...

1. Immerse Yourself

  This should just be a general writing tip, but especially for those of us who don't make a clear plan... Immerse yourself in the story, the characters, the setting. Make it like your new home. You know how everything works, what your characters will and won't do, it's a fully developed world and people living in it. This way, if you get stuck, you won't have to go through all the notes to see if your idea will work. And you won't have characters that personality-shift to fit what "needs" to happen for the story to move forward. You basically have everything you need to make sure everything can happen smoothly without having some major revisions in the editing stage. (Trust me, having rewrite half of a main character's scenes because they changed drastically for no good reason part-way through the book is the worst kind of editing...) 

  Not to mention this is enjoyable, at least for me! I love feeling that I know my characters so well that they're like a friend. I can look up at the full moon and my first thought is, "Wow, Jamie would love to see this!" or reading a funny quote and thinking "That sounds like something Bree would say!" As us writers tend to be the slightest bit reclusive and antisocial, it's nice to have someone you know well, even if they don't really exist... 

2. Have These Clearly In Your Mind... 

  I'm not going to be one of those people who tell you to begin with the end in mind, or know where your story is going, or any of that really amazing advice that I ignore on a daily basis... But I will tell you one thing: Know what each of your characters wants. 

  It's okay to not know how the story will end, but you need to know what motivates each character. What they're aiming for. That will keep them moving towards a goal, which, whether it gets completed or not, is crucial to having a good story. Knowing the goal will keep your characters on track, give you a general idea of where you should be going, and just give you some overall consistency. 

  This should be a thing to keep in mind for every character who is important to the story: the love interest, any family that keeps popping up, bad guys, everyone. Because if your main character really wants to be with the love interest, who really wants to go to college in another country, it's going to seem pretty unrealistic if the L.I. ditches their plans at the end of the book and doesn't seem bothered in the slightest. 

3. Edit Different

  There's a pretty clear cut way of editing, give or take a few details. And honestly, that doesn't work for me at all. I can't go through my book twenty times and focus on one thing throughout each readthrough... I don't have that kind of attention span, nor patience. So I came up with my own method of editing, which is pretty unconventional, but that's just how I work. I've reinvented quite a few wheels, and I did a good job of it too! 

  Anyways, I've written a whole post about my new editing method, which can be found here. Or here --> https://jaciknight.blogspot.com/2018/11/how-to-self-edit-your-book-unique.html Or here: Link. Yes, I'm weird... 

4. The Horror! 

  An issue for me: Okay, what can I do to make this more interesting? 

  A solution for me: Every time you see something horrible, write it down! 

  Seriously, if you hear about a horrible sickness, someone breaking a bone, a particularly nasty murder, some of my typos before I fix them, a mental illness that's terrifying, how someone cheated on a celebrity, anything you hear about politics, how someone's dreams were crushed forever, or a whole variety of things... Write them down in a notebook. That's your character's worst nightmare and imminent future right there! If your book seems to be at a standstill, like a rerun of problems that aren't going away or something of the sort, you look through that notebook until a problem that would work sufficiently pops up. 

  You don't want to go overkill with this; a stroke that ends up paralyzing your character is an amazing idea, but if they have a big, unavoidable fight coming up soon and the world will be destroyed if your character can't make it, maybe just stick with a broken arm or a mental block. 

5. Don't Look at The Shiny

  An important part of writing: Don't touch the shiny. The new ideas, that seem so much cooler than what you've got. Being a disorganized writer, this can come in as more than ideas for a new book, this can be ideas for the story you're writing right now. What if this happened? And that happened! And dragons are awesome, let's put a dragon in somehow! 

  Nu-uh, don't do that... Unnecessary clutter in your writing isn't good, having too many unrelated problems isn't good, and turning your "normal" romance into a fantasy just because you like fantasy too isn't really a good thing. It's bad writing... 

  So focus on your story, and be realistic as to what should happen in your story. Shiny is okay, blinding and neon shiny all over isn't. 

  

How To Write Great Romance

  I'm just going to make something clear... This isn't kissing scenes, this isn't how to write sappy conversations, this is about romance in general, and this is going to be CLEAN. This about making the love seem realistic, making the readers fall for the love interest, creating a love story that readers will laugh and cry and root for. Not individual scenes, not what kissing feels like, none of that.
  Now, you're still here? Want to know how to do this? Great, keep reading...

1. TIME

  I cannot stress this enough... All good things take time, correct? Yes? Then why on earth are insta-romances a thing? I recently read a book, it almost made me cry it was so terrible, that if you ever need an example of a bad romance (or a host of other things) you should read. Romeo and Juliet and Vampires. Lemme see... Romeo goes to place looking for one girl he has a crush on, sees Juliet, falls in love, proposes to her later that evening, and somehow she has the exact same unrealistic phenomenon... So lesson 1: Do not make them fall in love immediately. It's a process, and it takes time. As much as we love the happy moments in love, they're just cheezy and laughable if they happen too soon. Nobody likes them, make people wait and the moment will be so much better. 

2. These People... 

If you wouldn't date the person, they aren't a good love interest. Face it, half the people these characters fall in love with are self-absorbed, possibly abusive, and their only allure is how they look and the fact they're picky about who they date. Come on, that's the kind of guy I would punch in the face and never in my life date, why would I want to read about some girl who puts her whole social and academic life at stake for that jerk? Or the guy who starts dating the popular girl even though she's a brat who gossips too much and doesn't appreciate him? Find a better way to create some emotion or whatever, just stop using these brats as "ideals". 

3. Someone Else Should Make Them Suffer

  Someone outside the relationship should be creating the problems. Not problems originating inside the relationship, because in reality, that's what causes divorces and break-ups. Forbidden romances, someone one or both characters care about in trouble, imminent death, something besides miscommunications and conflicting personalities. 

  An outside problem is much better, especially if the romance is the main plot, because it helps the characters grow stronger and closer. That's much sweeter than these two people in love who can't just tell each other how they feel and end up fighting until the end of the book when they have one conversation that could've been done in the beginning and somehow everything's good and okay now. Those people in real life would have constant communication problems and a lot of fighting forever. Not good romance. 

4. Make 'em Wait

  Even once they finally fall in love, make them wait for the first kiss. First conversation together of just them. First "I love you." All those things readers wait for. Keep interrupting kiss attempts, have some friends tailing them, wars going on that demand a lot of attention, but make the readers wait for those moments. Once the moments do happen, they'll be much more satisfying and beautiful. 

  This is also not to mention that relationships based on physical touch and kissing are kind of not as believable. There have been studies showing that those relationships usually don't last and aren't as happy. They seem superficial, not to mention something I wouldn't want to read. So don't do them... Unless you're trying to write a superficial romance that won't last. 

5. The Fight to Love Thing

  You know the story when the characters meet and absolutely hate each other, have to work together for some reason, and end up falling in love. This, when done right, can be a great story! But you have to be careful with these, because if the characters hate each other because they're polar opposites with different views on life and opinions with only whatever stuck them together in common, then they're going to drive each other crazy. It just doesn't work that way. 

  They have to have something to bond over, some similarities, and they can't be zealously protective of their views to the point of being unable to accept someone who doesn't agree with them. Get the idea? 

6. Are They A Little Cliche? 

  When reading a story, do you ever feel as if you've read it before? They have the same basic plot and character type? Yeah, don't do that... 

  A little cliche is good, it means people already like the kind of story you write. But put something new in there! Mash two totally different kinds of cliche together, add a completely unheard-of problem, add in a parrot who happens to mimic the absolute worst possible phrases for your characters, whatever comes to mind. But make the story new. (See again: Romeo and Juliet and Vampires. Originality problems as well.)

Book Review - Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

                                                                ★★★★★★★


This book, I really liked... The theme of anorexia, to the best of my knowledge, was portrayed accurately. Especially the overall message that you need a reason to recover, you can't just take medicine and go to therapy, you have to want to get better. This was deep, true, and I loved the story. The message was great, theme portrayal was great, the character building was great as well. There was a wide variety of character who were each clearly distinguishable, as well as the fact that the story was very immersive. I was able to feel connected to the different characters, dislike some based off very little other than the M.C.s feelings, that was exceptionally done. 
  I liked the originality of this story as well, there were a good amount of different problems which all made sense to the plot and helped to build this into a realistic and unique book. Overall, one of the better books I've read! 
  The only complaint I have was in the first half or so of the book, as well as in the synopsis, I didn't have a clear idea of what the plot was. At the end looking back it was clearer, but from the beginning, I was just kind of thinking, "Okay... So she's anorexic, not particularly life threating as of now... Friend died, she's upset, understandable... Where exactly is this going? What's she got to lose?"   


★ Development (Characters, setting, etc.)
★Completely Cuss/Inappropriate Free
★ Totally Believable (Barring magic, supernatural, etc.)
☆ Really Sweet Romance
★ Accurate Representation (Themes such as mental illness, abuse/bullying, war, etc.)
★ Insightful Junk is Thrown In (Personal preference)
★ Originality
★ Character Progression
☆ Foreshadowing/Plotline details 

Mistakes to Look For In The Editing Process

Editing is so fun, isn't it? What's better than shredding your hard work and rewriting half of it? Okay, on a serious note... Which parts do you shred, and which do you delete? How do you know if something's good or not?
  Honestly, a lot of editing you just have to be the judge. You know your book, you know what's necessary to the story. The trick is to be able to look at it analytically, not emotionally.
  However, because I'm writing a whole post about what you should look for... Here are the more mechanical parts of editing to do! Grammar, style, all that fun. So here are the things to look out for!
  Also, this is just going to be a big bullet-list. Because sometimes, I just want a big list and couldn't care less about why. Unless it's messing up something, just knowing the bare facts usually helps me to focus and not go into more researching... So here's what you should look for (with a grain of salt.)

Things To Just Delete

• Link to a bunch of words to cut (Or replace) 
• Chapters that don't move the plot forward
• Scenes that don't move the plot forward
• Clothing descriptions longer than two sentences
• Character descriptions longer than 2 - 3 sentences
• Recurring character description (Ex. Mentioning eye color many times throughout the book)
• Long paragraphs in Latin/made up languages/etc. 
• Irrelevant/small talk dialogue
• Excessive world description

Things to Rewrite

• Melodrama
• Clunky sentences 
• Character inconsistencies
• Info Dumps 
• Change in tense (Past, present)
• Change in 3rd/1st person
• Important scenes that come across as bland/wrong emotion/etc. 
• Dialogue doesn't sound natural
• Too much show/too much tell (Here's a great video on this and melodrama!)

My Current Story Writing Crisis...

  This isn't a tip post, a funny post, nothing like that. This is a post about my thought process as I doubt everything I've done, what I want to do with my book, everything. Mostly, this is just me trying to get my thoughts onto paper so I can look at them and make a good decision. However, as most problems are not unique to a single human being, maybe this will help someone out there...

The Whole Mess... Beautiful Mess, But Mess All The Same. 

  So basically, I wrote the novel. Twice. The first time I wrote it in Sabrina's POV (Point of view, for idiots like past me who had no idea what that meant) and honestly it sucked. Grammar was atrocious, storytelling was off, I could go on a whole rant on this... In fact, I already have, here's the link! 

  The second time, the most recent time, I wrote Jamie's POV in as well. So now we've got both Jamie and Sabrina as main characters, however, I don't think it's working. The whole book is fine up until the end, when spoilers that I cannot say happen, and I realize that nobody's going to have much motivation to read book 2. That could be fixed if I took Jamie's POV out of the book... But there's a reason I put his POV in there in the first place! 

   I could only use Jamie's POV, but I don't know if that would fix the ending problem... I could come up with a new ending, but that would include rewriting the last 1/4 of the book and having to create a totally different book 2. His POV is honestly much more interesting, and he's used to create a "pink-filter" (Apparently I made that term up, I have no idea if I did or not, but every time I bring it up nobody has any idea what I mean, so yeah.) for Bree. I personally dislike Bree, she's just not a relatable character to me. I love some of her lines and her sense of humor, but I just don't like her as the only POV character. So I use the pink-filter to see her through the love-struck lense of Jamie's eyes, therefore making her more likable. She sucks without him in multiple ways. 

  So using Sabrina as the only POV character would make the ending so much better, but would the rest of the book suffer for it? Is it just me who dislikes her, or is she crap? I've already changed her, as in name, personality, background, everything. And I still don't like her. 

  So what on earth do I do with this? The lazy part of me is saying to just leave it and hope people want to read book 2, which is a viable option, but I know the book could be better than that. The logical side is saying to cut Jamie out of the book because my biggest problem with Bree is my emotions getting in the way. Suck it up and rewrite the darn thing again! Then my emotional side, saying to totally use Jamie as the POV character because his POV is more interesting, I love writing about him more, and he doesn't even need to be a pink-filter if we only know Bree through him. 

  AND. THIS PAID OFF. 

  That last sentence there reminded me of something I told my Dad to do when he didn't know what to work on... "Do what you love, the project you won't go crazy on if you spend two years on it. That'll make it come out better, the love shines through, and chances are that someone else will have the same interest." 

  So Jamie's POV it is... Because I like writing his POV. This will turn out amazing because I'll love every second and every word of it! Woohoo!! Bree will be more likable, I'll find a way to make a more compelling ending,  the story will be more interesting and all, and I won't go crazy writing it. 

  I'm gonna let this decision sit overnight... Because oftentimes my emotional decisions aren't the most logical (See for reference: Decision to buy $20.00 shirt when I just barely had enough money to buy dance classes for the month, which is not optional. Now I need $16, without a job. Go me.)

  Anyways, if you made it to the end, thank you! Here's my tip... Rant. Talk it out, write it out, even if you have no audience, getting it out of your head helps A LOT.  Feel free to say it to me, I'll give feedback if you want. Thanks again for reading! 

How To Self-Edit Your Book (A Unique Approach)

  There are a ton of videos, articles, and books about editing your writing... And absolutely none of them worked for me. Being the person I am, if something doesn't work or even feels like it takes too long, I find my own way to do it. This both wastes days of my life that I spend trying to find alternate ways to do things, and makes the process of doing many things more enjoyable and efficient for me.
  So how do you edit a book in a different way? Hasn't everything already been done? Maybe, but I haven't seen it done this way yet!
  I'm also just going to point out, as everyone else does, that apparently this doesn't cover your professional edit... But you know what? I don't have money for a professional edit, I don't even have money to buy a copy of my own book when I get it published! So there may or may not be an upcoming post on what to do if you can't/don't want to get a professional editor!
  Okay, this has been a longer than usual intro, so I'll just get on with the steps...

1. Forget it! 

  The moment you write the last word of your book, you close the page, stick the papers in a drawer, whatever you need to do, and you don't touch it. Don't read it, don't edit it, don't even look at it. 

  This stage is always the hardest for me because I love my book! I want to always be reading, writing, editing, or thinking about my book. But for at least two weeks, but ideally longer, don't look at it. 

  The outline, character sheets, notes, and other parts that aren't a part of the manuscript count as well. You look at them, and you start over... (That's the only way I can convince myself to keep my hands off!) 

  But don't be idle this whole time, start writing the next book! Work on cover art, perfecting the tagline, marketing, whatever you've got to do. That doesn't involve the manuscript or any of the above items. 

  Yes, the cover art and tagline are fine, because it won't have you pointing out all the flaws in your story, worrying about potential plot-holes, or whatever. Editing goes better when you can look at the story through new eyes. 

2. Take Notes

  Now, I have a whole notebook full of this... That much is unnecessary, but I get obsessive. Let's say you made it 2+ weeks, and you're ready to get editing! Before you even look at the manuscript, take at least an hour to think of every problem you might have... Uncharacteristic things your character may have done, melodrama, lack of sensory detail, too much sensory detail, scene changes too much, think of literally every problem you think is a possibility and write it down, before reading a single word you wrote. 

  For me personally, I use this the same way I use the quote "The great thing about being pessimistic is you're always right or pleasantly surprised." Sometimes I find that I was right about that problem, I have a brief moment of triumph that I was correct, and I'm fully prepared to fix it! Other times that problem isn't a problem, and that's one less thing to fix! 

  I've found that if I just read through and look for issues that way, I don't want to delete that scene! Or that uncharacteristic phrase isn't that bad, and it's funny! But if I've preplanned that it's an issue, when I see that it actually is, I'm much more likely to feel attached when I cut that bit out. 

5. Read!

   Finally, you read the book! (Put your notes aside for a second, they'll be used in step 3.) For most people, they wouldn't touch anything now... Just read and take notes. Did you guess that that's not what we're doing? Good, you're correct! You read, not necessarily reading for plotholes or anything, but instead analyzing every chapter and scene. Ask yourself if that scene is really necessary. If it was gone, would the story still make sense? Does that scene move the plot forward? Is it a scene that just accentuates something that's already been established, or does it have its own significant meaning? If the story would still make sense, the scene doesn't move the plot forward, and the scene doesn't have it's own unique value to the story, then kill it. 

  Oh, but it's a super sweet scene that fans are going to cry over! It shows the character growth! Well, it's super sweet but doesn't have unique value? Then make an already important scene a little sweeter. Truth is, the scene can be the sweetest thing ever, but only a select few romance geeks will like it... Most readers will wonder why that couldn't have been more important, if it has any hidden meanings that will be shown later on, etc. It'll just annoy most people, get rid of it or find a way to make it meaningful to the plot! 

4. Back To The Notes!

 Time for the second read through, where you read through with your notes in mind. Edit anything that's in those notes and you were correct about. If you think something isn't quite right and your reading confirms the suspicion, cut it out or edit it. 

  After this, your manuscript may or may not be a little choppy, but that's okay. Edit is fixing, and sometimes fixing means tearing down a wall and building a better one instead of painting over a hole. (Someone always finds the hole!) 

5. Final Scene Cut Stage

  Read one more time, looking for inconsistencies or unnecessary scenes that you may have missed the first few times. Any mistake that's on a chapter or scene scale, go ahead and fix it. Info dumps that need to be smoothed out, plot holes that you need to patch up, anything like that. Remove anything that needs to be removed, and take note of anything that needs to be added. 

  In the first few stages, I try not to add anything, because it's like house remodeling... You tear the walls down before you rebuild, because tearing some down, building some up, and then removing something else both weakens the structure and can make smoothing things out again harder. Remove everything that needs to be removed, find a way to not forget what you want to add, and then move onto the next step. 

6. This Is Where People Call You Crazy

  Now, this is usually where people would go through their book as a whole and rewrite everything that needs to be rewritten. This is where people would call me crazy and tell me this isn't the right way to edit. But you know what? It works! 

  Basically, you have your list of things that need to be added, plot-holes, all that, right? Great. Keep it with you. 

  Start at chapter 1, and edit chapter 1 with the whole plot in mind. Don't add too much information or anything, but make sure it's consistent with what happens later on. 

  Then things get even crazier... We move onto chapter 2 for the same things, right? Wrong! Now we edit chapter 1 with line and word edits until it's perfect. 

  I've found that editing all 100,000 words of my book the same way at the same time drives me insane, I don't have the attention span nor patience for that. I get lazy towards the end, and it sucks. Instead, once I've cut all the scenes out of my book that I don't need to and found my list of plot-holes, I have a pretty good idea of the plot and how it ends. Everything that goes into the story, I've got in my mind. I can edit every chapter to accurately represent the plot, and by the end, I find few if any inconsistencies. 

  So edit chapter 1 to perfection, then move onto chapter 2, and 3, and onwards. 

  Here's what I do for chapter edits: 

• Add anything necessary - If I need to add something, fix something, etc. I do that first. 
• Sentence necessity - Same as scenes, some sentences are redundant. Either combine them with another sentence or delete them. 
• Smooth it out - If anything's clunky, has poor transitions, etc. now's the time to make it flow!
• Word edit - Change recurring words, put a more powerful word in the place of a less powerful one, delete unnecessary words, etc.
• Read - See if it all sounds good, has good grammar, etc. 

See here for a more detailed list of things to look for in each stage! Hopefully, this is helpful for those out there who find editing to be a boring, repetitive process! This method helps add a little more variety! I'd also like to add that if at any point you feel tired, like giving up, like your book sucks, like you just want to stop now, it's okay to take another break. Taking a day or even a few weeks off editing to work on something else won't hurt! Thanks for reading, best of luck with your books! Feel free to contact me if you have any questions on any part of the writing process!

Top Tools To Use As A Writer

  There are so many things out there that you can do to organize thoughts, find shortcuts, discover new information, and become a better writer overall... So many that you can waste a lot of time looking through them, setting them up, trying to manage them all, and losing passwords.
  While most of the things on my list are basic, that's just me. There's an app for everything so if apps are your thing then go for it! But I don't generally do that, so I'll just be sharing the basics of what I use, why, and what you need to get out of it.

1. Writing Platform

  First thing, you need something to write on. This is one of the few things that I do use on a computer, as writing a novel in a series of notebooks just to copy it onto the computer so I can share it kind of sucks. 

  I've gone through a ton of things to do this... And my all-time winner is Google Docs. Free, plenty of tools, easy to use, can handle my 100,000-word manuscript with minimal lag, let's me make mass changes (Change all chapter headings to a different font automatically, change every instance of Jenna to Sabrina when I changed her name, etc.), and can export your finished work in a variety of different file types. Overall, just really easy and convenient to use. 

  Many writing apps that you can download an app for kind of really suck, I found that they either lagged, had horrible formatting, had a word limit, or couldn't export my work. Microsoft Word was the only worthy contender I found, however, after it sometimes crashed on my tablet or refused to load my work I switched to Docs and haven't regretted it. 

2. Sharing Platforms

  These are amazing places where you can share your work with other writers and readers, get feedback, and also check out other people's work. I would definitely recommend these sites, especially if you're a little-known author who doesn't have a huge fanbase. 

  First off, we've got Wattpad. Wattpad is an all-inclusive site that you can post any kind of writing on, millions of readers go there to find new stuff, and I've had a great experience there. There is a lot of junky writing there, as anyone can make an account and put whatever they want up, but that doesn't take away from the fact that you can gain a great audience (and the good writing is all the more appreciated!) 

  Second, is NowNovel. This site exists purely for receiving criticism on your work. I've found that to be very helpful, and I've gotten some great insights into things that hadn't even occurred to me as a problem. Only downsides are that in order to see more than the first 2 - 3 critiques you get you need to upgrade your account with real money. But the first 2 - 3 are usually enough to tell you what you need to know! (Plus they have great character/setting building tools if you're not past that stage or want to test what you've got!) 

  Third and fourth, for more specific kinds of writing, we've got Cosmofunnel and WriteTheWorld. Cosmofunnel is mostly based around poetry, and they have monthly contests for poetry that you can actually win money from! WriteTheWorld is similar, except made for young writers. They have writing prompts, contests (again for real money!), and opportunities to have your work reviewed both by peers and judges in the contests. Both are great places to just put yourself out there, and maybe even make some friends. 

3. Mistakes

  I never knew how many grammar and spelling mistakes I made until I got Grammarly. (See more on this in the Inspiration part!) Turns out, my mind moved so fast trying to get all the words out that spelling and grammar kind of got butchered at times! Having something to tell you that you made a mistake is extremely helpful, and makes your writing much cleaner come editing time. Again though, you do have to pay to get full features, but I can catch basic grammar and spelling mistakes with the free version. 

  If you want extra help catching mistakes such as cliche phrases, passive voice, and adverbs, https://www.slickwrite.com/ and https://www.scribens.com/ are some good sites you can paste your writing into and get some feedback! 

4. Notetaking

  I do all of my notetaking the old-fashioned way... With three various notebooks, three colors of pens, and a corkboard to put the important stuff on! 

  I've found that this is much more helpful to me than taking notes online, both in how likely I am to look at them again and in how well I remember what I wrote down. But notetaking is very, very important in writing! 

  Without notes, writing can quickly become messy and inconsistent (See for reference: Warriors by Erin Hunter - Dovewing's eye color.)  So having a good notetaking method is really important. Planning your story, writing down important details about your characters, keeping track of side-characters, pretty much everything you do your story can be made easier with notes. 

  Also, if you're a chaotically organized person like me, you might want a folder... (By chaotically organized, I mean my papers are spread around randomly and look like a mess but they all make perfect sense to me. Except people don't realize that, and your "mess" is fair game to touch and look at because there's "no order" meaning I "won't notice if they're touched". So get a folder, nobody will ruin your chaotic order or worry about why you have pages of notes on killing people...) 

5. This Thing That Nobody Seems To Have Thought Of... 

  Quick disclaimer: I've never actually done this yet, I'm still learning, but it's one of my better ideas! 

  This genius idea is lucid dreaming. That's controlling your dreams. So I had the awesome idea... Why not lucid dream scenes from your book? Talk to your characters? Even better, apparently it's possible to ask a person in your dream to become lucid and act on their own, so you could (hopefully) have actual real conversations with your characters! 

  Is it just me, or is that the coolest thing you've ever heard? I've never personally done this because I'm still trying to figure out how to do the thing, but from what I've heard that's all completely possible. 

  Considering this works, this could be my favorite tool on this list. 

  Here's a cool site and YouTube channel all about lucid dreaming! 

6. YouTube

  First, use this wisely people! 

  Second, YouTube or the internet are the best ways to learn. You can learn literally anything from the internet, and that is a very important tool. 

  As for writing, there are a lot of writing channels that are extremely helpful... Here are my favorites and why. 

1.   Jenna Moreci - I love this channel, just for the blunt reality checks. Sarcasm is my favorite, and Jenna is the sarcasm queen! (Only complain is some of the language... Be aware of this!) 
2. Ellen Brock - What's more helpful than a writer telling you what they know? An editor telling you exactly what makes some books good, some books suck, and what's an instant red-flag to editors. 
3. Vivien Reis - Helpful, great advice, and interesting! Not to mention the dogs in the background of some videos! I love this channel; one of my go-tos when I feel stuck. 
4. Nour Zikra - Don't have the time or attention span to watch a 10-min. video? This is the place you should be... Videos ranging from 2 - 5 minutes that cover just as much as everyone else's 10 - 15-minute videos! Not to mention the writing humor that you can't find elsewhere on YouTube... 
5. Merphy Napier - Yet another point of view on books... We've got authors, editors, and then readers. Merphy is an entertaining reader who reviews books, shares her opinion on covers, tropes, and all else that goes into a book. As a writer, hearing what people want to read is gold. 

7. Inspiration

  My favorite inspiration tools are Spotify and images. Playlists for each book I have, pictures of characters and settings and anything that reminds me of my book, all those things help me stay motivated and inspired to write. Because everything else here is worthless without the actual ability to write and enjoy it... 

  Find what inspires you, whatever it might be. Reading, music, singing, pictures, taking a walk, talking about your book, having a lucid dream, the possibilities are endless!
  Another thing that I recently found that motivates me to write more would be Grammarly... What? How does a grammar checker motivate you?! Well, at the end of each week it tells you some statistics... Such as how many words you wrote that week, how many unique/unusual words you used, and what percentage of users you beat on word count and quality. Apparently, I write 200,000 words a week on average... Use more unique words than 99% of people who use Grammarly, and my most common mistake is unnecessary epilepsies... (<--)  And being the person I am, I want to beat my progress every week! Which I find very motivating, both to writing my book and completing essays in school. 

Those are the big things I've found helpful to my writing experience, and really they're the only necessities! Sure, other things are cool, but they also clog up your time... What's your experience on these subjects? Any opinions either agreeing or disagreeing with me? I'd love to hear them! Thanks for reading! 

Book Review - Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

  ★★★★★

  Overall, I liked this book... But there were a few things that stood out to me in negative ways. I'll get onto those in a moment, first I'm doing the good stuff!
  *I'm going to try not to have any spoilers here, feel free to read on whether or not you've read the book!*
  I think the character portrayal was great, even the not-so-important characters had distinct personalities and ways of speaking. Not to mention the wide array of characters, each which played an important part of the story! Deep, realistic people. Even the shallow-minded ones had depth.
  World-building as well, the small town setting was very well done! I could clearly visualize the setting, as well as the fact that the setting was a great fit to drive the plot forward. The amount of effort and time put into building a great world with realistic people paid off!
  The plot itself was pretty good... I'll get more into that later... But I liked the mystery and suspense that came with it. The foreshadowing of certain events, which both made them more suspenseful and believable, was very well done!
  Basically, the development of the characters, setting, and storyline was overall very well done.
  Also, the ending wasn't totally but also was totally unexpected. I liked that part.

  Now onto the things I didn't like so much... First off would be the length of the book. I feel like a lot of the middle of the book could've been trimmed, and no difference would've been made. It wasn't exactly boring, just unnecessary, and as someone who prefers books on the shorter side, I found that a little bit annoying.
  Also, some of the names... I've heard a mistake that you don't want to make as a writer is naming two characters with similar names, even just names beginning with the same letter. So why, please tell me, do we have Lena, Lila, Link, and Larkin?
  And another thing, just a personal preference but still something, the whole name change thing when you turn sixteen. If you're going to give me a whole novel with someone having one name, then in the middle tell me that that's not the real name and not tell me what that is, not only do I kind of want to know by the end of the book (Which I don't) but this serves no relevance to the plot aside from make the same point that a character's been making for the whole book. Also, I kind of got to know the character by this one name, and as much as I love names changing as a coming-of-age, here's-your-true-personalized-name sort of thing, I got invested in this character as X, if you start calling them Z I'm gonna become kinda detached!
  The plot in general, honestly, was a little cliche... I won't get into the specifics because this is supposed to be spoiler-free, but I could spot quite a few cliche points. True, they weren't flat out cliche, the author did at least try to add originality. But I still found it to be more like a mashup of a few popular tropes with a sprinkle of concealment. Again, this was a great book, I loved it, but I also wasn't motivated to go find book 2 at the library.
  Also... If this upcoming event is unavoidable and your whole inner conflict is based around not having a choice in this, why are you guys spending days on end trying to research how to stop it? If you can't stop it??

  Overall, I liked this book, but there was room for improvement. As there always is. I still enjoyed it, I just wish that some of the names and plot-points were given the same attention as the character building and setting!

★ Development (Characters, setting, etc.)
★ Foreshadowing/Plotline details
★ Totally Believable (Barring magic, supernatural, etc.)
★ Really Sweet Romance
★ Accurate Representation (Themes such as mental illness, abuse/bullying, war, etc.)
☆ Insightful Junk is Thrown In (Personal preference)
☆ Originality
☆ Character Progression
☆ Completely Cuss/Inappropriate Free

Tips For Writing Horror (Or Just Scary Scenes)

  Something scary happens in almost every book out there, whether that's an axe murderer creeping into someone's house or a loved one sending a cryptic and doom-filled note hinting at death is up to you and your genre...
  However, whatever the scare is, they all have the same basic elements to make them scary. It's a formula, as much as I hate those because they relate to math, it's actually a very helpful formula.
  Just going to note here: Horror is not my genre (to write), but my book does have a fair share of terrifying scenes! So if I say something contradictory to say, Stephen King, maybe listen to him over me... And tell me what I'm doing wrong. Because this is all personal advice as to how I make my scenes scary.

1. Add Some Foreshadowing/Suspense

  Adding some foreshadowing or some other tool to create suspense and a feeling of knowing what's happening in your reader's minds is a great thing to do. A great, if horrifically cliche example, is in a good amount of movies when the character starts out watching a horror movie (extra points if it has a similar villain to the one in the movie.) You all know what that does to your brain, especially when there's a thump upstairs. Do this in your book, maybe not with a movie, but have some foreshadowing event that can seriously creep your characters and readers out. 

  Not only does this help build suspense, but it also adds some credibility and relatability to the reactions. If someone is baking and listening to ABBA when they hear a thump upstairs, wouldn't it seem a little melodramatic if they're instantly terrified and sneaking around corners with a rolling pin? How about if they just got finished watching a horror movie and hear the same thump with the same reaction? Exactly, now you can relate and they seem to not be overreacting anymore. (Also, in the first example with the person in the kitchen, if the character doesn't seem scared your reader is less likely to be scared unless they know some solid fact that the character doesn't. Like if they've seen a scene where the killer crawls in the window and knocks a lamp off a table. Create suspense, or no one will be scared.) 

2. Get In Sync With Your Inner Fear

  How do you feel when you're scared? Heart racing, hands sweaty, maybe even like your chest is constricting a little? Do your best to put this into words, because showing the fear is more effective than saying "He was scared." 

  Do whatever you need to to make yourself scared, and write it all down. Don't use every detail in your story, especially if you're doing an info dump about every physical symptom of fear your character has, but sneak the details in subtly. "Her hand slid on the doorknob, too slick with sweat to turn it. She hurriedly wiped the hand on her shirt, chest tightening as the feeling she was being watched intensified. She had to get the door open!" Suspense, a problem, physical symptoms that aren't out of place, and a hint at what could be out there... 

3. Introspection

  To avoid your writing sounding melodramatic, which happens to be a problem for me and many other writers, use introspection. This is a useful tool which can add the needed emotion to your writing without either showing or telling (using too much of either is what makes your writing sound melodramatic) as well as add originality to your character. Everyone feels fear or hurt in basically the same way, but not everyone responds the same. 

  Introspection is basically running through your character's thought process in a way that shows their anxiety or determination or whatever it is that they're feeling. Here are some examples: 

  What could he do? Run away and not come back. He'd be thrown out soon enough anyway. He'd joked with Delia about it, but he could become a newsboy, spending nights in one of their lodges. It was better than working at a funeral parlor. How long would it take to pack? (Ripper by Stefan Petrucha.) You can see the worry and despair here, can't you? The hurry and extreme solutions? Emotions and physical feelings aren't brought up at all, yet you can clearly see what's being felt here. 

  As of right now, I was wondering how long before I went crazy. But what was crazy? Hallucinations, delusions, voices, they couldn’t be worse than right now. Voices would be welcome. Laughing maniacally, not caring, that wasn’t crazy either. Not here. Maybe crazy didn’t happen here, maybe you just got used to the place and outsiders wouldn’t understand. (Book 2 of The Parasites That Live in The Cracks by Jaci Knight. Me.) What emotions and information do you get from this example? I'm not going to tell you this time, studying without hints is more beneficial than being told the answer...

So that's introspection, use it! It's how you make character-original scenes and convey emotions without becoming repetitive and melodramatic.

4. Don't Overdo It

Don't draw things out too long, don't add too many gory scenes, keep things new as much as you can while remaining on the same plot-point. If things are too drawn out they'll be boring (bad) and if there are too many gory scenes they'll either lose their effect on the reader or become too sickening for more sensitive readers (both bad).

This is where outlining is beneficial, you can see where the story is heading and avoid overdoing anything before you start writing! I'd say if something happens more than twice, it's definitely overdone...

Some good books to read if you want to see how to do this are Misery by Stephen King and And Then There Were None by Agatha Cristie. In Misery, you can see how to have someone in the same room with a psychotic lady keeping them under control for an entire novel without it seeming drawn out. It's amazing, really... In And Then There Were None you see a great example of how to kill off ten people without it becoming repetitive or boring (plus a great mystery!)

5. Write What You Know

What scares you most? Writing about what's most terrifying to you will come across as much more scary and realistic than writing whatever's popular right now... If you're afraid of spiders, write your worst nightmare with giant spiders! If you're positive a serial killer is hiding somewhere in your house, maybe call the police and then write about it!

For me, I did this without even realizing it... My worst fears revolve around feeling trapped, so what happens? My characters go to the worst prison ever, and not only that, but they're immortal so there's no escape. Except they do escape, but then they're stuck being mentally messed up and miserable... Therefore trapped again in their own minds. It comes across very realistically! On the other hand, in the scenes where they could get seriously hurt they act like they couldn't care less. Which maybe could be due to the fact that they're not going to die, but could also be that getting hurt is a very minor concern of mine. (Editing in the process of fixing that!)

So for you, write about what scares you most and it'll come across as truly terrifying. Trust me.

6. Read

Read a lot of horror. This goes for literally any subject, by the way... If you want to write something, read a lot of it, especially what's popular or a classic. Read with an analytical mind, even if this means stopping at the end of every page or chapter to think about what went into what you read, what the author did to convey the feeling, etc.

Read and learn...

Words To Remove/Replace In Your Novel

  Words are great, words are my absolute favorite, but some of them need to die. They just bug up your writing, making it look sloppy and overly crowded. The thing is, these are words that you'd never notice... Like up there in my second sentence, "They just bug up your writing," there is a word that very consistently sneaks into everything I write and is totally unnecessary. This particular word, which can almost always be deleted with no negative impacts, has appeared in the unedited draft of my novel 601 times. Technically, that's only 0.6% of my novel, but that's 0.6% of my novel that I could safely delete and only one word out of the hundreds of words I shouldn't use. In case anyone's still wondering, that word is "just".
  So anyway, here's a list of the words you should delete or replace and why!

1. Filter Words

  These are words that filter the experience of your novel, making it less immersive for your reader. These are usually sensing words (felt, smelled, saw, etc.) and it's fairly easy to remove them! 

  Example: "I heard the iced blades of grass crunch under my feet." would be "The iced blades of grass crunched under my feet." See the difference? Easy enough to fix, right? 

  Here's a list of the most common ones to look for: 

• Heard
• Saw
• Felt
• Thought
• Smelled
• Touched
• Wondered
• Etc. 

This counts for all tenses of each word! (See, saw. Hear, heard. Feel, felt.) 

2. It

  Nobody likes clowns... Nah, nobody likes it. It is a bad word. As in, the word it is totally non-specific and not descriptive, not to mention how the word can cause confusion if used in the wrong context! 

  And you know what? This word is literally everywhere... In my book, geez this is kind of embarrassing, it appears 2,978 times! (Please keep in mind this is the draft, I am most definitely editing that out...) 2.8% of my precious book is a completely useless word that I hate! 

  So anyway, take the word it out of your book, it (ugh I did it again! Oh, and again... Ha..ha...) is a very non-descriptive and lazy word. Here's an example... "My head was clearing, but I wished it wasn’t." --> "My head was clearing, but I wished the clarity of what'd happened wasn't materializing in my mind." See? Replace "it", and you're forced to have more descriptive writing.

3. Yep, Gonna Bring These Up...

In the writing community, it's virtually impossible to not hear about this... Don't use adverbs! As in, the words that describe a verb. Ran quickly, Jumped lightly, etc.

But why shouldn't you use these? You learned them in school, right? It's because in general there are better words you could use to get the same effect, and using too many of these can make your writing look cluttered. Instead of "ran quickly", you could either assume that running is fast and leave it there, or replace the words with "sprinted", "Dashed", or some other synonym that better describes the pace. Same with "jumped lightly", you could use "sprang", "leaped", or "hopped" for a better, more compact and clean way of saying the same thing.

4. Of That, Just

That and of, same as just in the first paragraph, is sometimes really unnecessary... Sometimes you do need "that" in a sentence, but many times your writing will make just as much sense without that.

Here's an example: "It was obvious that she was happy." --> "It was obvious she was happy."

"All of the puppies were sleeping." --> "All the puppies were sleeping."

Get rid of the words, your writing will just be a lot cleaner because of it!

5. Really, Very...

These words weaken your writing, they're more unnecessary clutter words. I won't go too into depth, but a lot of the time they're kind of like adverbs. You use them to emphasize something when in reality you could just use a single, more impactful word. Or just delete the really, very unnecessary word!

6. Sit Down...

Seated? Not reading this while standing for whatever reason? Good... It's totally irrelevant, but whatever.

If you use "sit down" or "stand up" in your story, you can safely delete the up and down. "Sit." "Stand." Obvious enough, readers get the point, I didn't know you could sit any other way than down, so... Yeah!

7. Then

  Then is like a filter word, it makes the action slow down and seem like the reader isn't actually there... "I kicked out at him, then rolled to avoid his punch." --> "I kicked out at him, rolling to avoid an incoming punch." Not the best example, but you see the point? More immersive, more punchy (I'm not apologizing for my pun), the action just flows much quicker! 

8. Start/Begin

  Yet some more unnecessary words! (Are you seeing a pattern yet?) These are usually used to mark the start of something, but often it isn't necessary to do this... For example, "The cat started to purr." --> "The cat purred." or even better, "A gentle rumble rose in the cat's throat." 

9. Sudden

  Sudden makes your action less sudden... Much like then. It just sticks a wrench in the surprise! "Suddenly, something flashed before my eyes and collided with my head." ---> "Something flashed before my eyes and collided with my head." The sudden is like a warning, and your readers brace themselves for whatever's coming, effectively killing all surprise. Without the sudden, they don't see it coming any sooner than your character does, meaning they'll be just as surprised! 

10. Redundant Phrases

  These greatly affect your final outcome; it's an actual fact and unwelcome added bonus of these phrases that in real life we repeat again as figures of speech, clog up your writing and are hard to find in close proximity. 

  Yeah, that sentence was really forced sounding... How many redundant phrases can you pick out? Or basically, words that each on their own could effectively describe the thing but somehow seem to make sense when paired? There were five redundant phrases in the above sentence, and in every case of you remove on words from them the sentence still makes perfect sense! 

  Since they're 1. redundant and 2. clog up your writing, you should just delete one of those words... Easy enough. 

Here's the after version of the above sentence, which takes one of the words out of the phrase...  These greatly affect your outcome; it's a fact and unwelcome bonus of these phrases that in real life we repeat as figures of speech, clog up your writing and are hard to find in proximity. 

11. The

Is this a surprise? Yeah, me too. Be careful with this one, because "the" is a common word and also commonly needed! But sometimes, it's just as unnecessary as "then"... For example, "The wind whispered through the branches." --> "Wind whispered through the branches." (Don't use that in your novel; wind whispering in trees is cliche, especially if it's a spooky scene!)

"The" is not always necessary, and if a word doesn't need to be there... Destroy it.

12. Almost, Rather, Somewhat...

Again. Like an adverb, these words only clutter your writing! You can always rephrase the sentence, just delete the word, use a more descriptive word, there are a lot of ways to get rid of these words.

To be clear, this doesn't count for all uses of these words! If a character would rather do something else, that's okay, but if the sentence is rather crowded then you need to get rid of the word! (Rather used as a wish/want of someone is okay, rather used as a word to describe something is not okay.)

13. Last Note

That's all the words I've found that you should avoid in your writing! But here are the last few notes... This is not for every instance of every word. There are places you have to use certain words, and using some words in small portions os perfectly fine! You can use adverbs, just very sparingly. As with all advice, take it with a grain of salt and use your head. Definitely use advice, but think for yourself too!

Thanks for reading, leave a comment or contact me if you have any questions or you know any words that should be on the list! Or just leave a nice comment, that's good too, or even a not-so-nice comment, if you don't mind my sarcastic replies or the fact that it won't hurt my feelings in any way. Thank you!

How To Write Great Villains and Antagonists

  There are bad guys... And then there are bad bad guys. As in, they suck. They're cliche. They're not convincing and nobody can take them seriously, nevermind conceive them doing any great damage! But how can you avoid the cliches? Make your bad guys good? Well the first step, figure out what they are... A villain or an antagonist.
  There is a difference, they aren't exact synonyms. Here's the difference... The villain is bad, sadistic, hurt people, and would be considered a bad guy by anybody from any point of view. The antagonist, on the other hand, isn't "bad". The antagonist just has conflicting goals with your main character, and may not go about fulfilling their goals in the best way. But the antagonist isn't evil, they just don't agree.
  Here are some examples from popular books, if you need a little more clarity into this...
*Hunger Games* President Snow - Villain (purposefully hurts people with no apparent regrets, kills anyone who opposes him, etc.) vs. Tributes - Antagonists (Will kill/steal from Katniss, but they're not sadistic (most of them) and really just want to survive)
*Harry Potter* Voldemort, Bellatrix, Other Death Eaters  - Villain (Kills/tortures for fun, do I need to go on?) vs. Snape, Malfoy - Antagonist (Weren't the nicest people, but had genuine friends/goals/lives. They just had major disputes with the main character.)
*Eleanor and Park* Richie - Villain (Abusive, vile, no apparent reason, likes making Eleanor miserable.) vs. Tina - Antagonist (Bully, but for a clear reason, and shows nice side later on. Differing opinions and desires, opposition, but not mean for no reason)
  That enough examples? I hope so because now I'm moving onto how to make each of these great. Be sure to know which your character is because they require different components!

1. Backstories

  Yes, basic, right? There's a reason and a good one at that... Any character that shows up in your book that impacts the main character or even appears regularly should have at least a basic backstory. This should definitely include your bad guys.  (But no, let's not pull a Dr. Doofensmirtz, that amount of backstory dumping won't be appreciated in writing!)

• Antagonists. Your antagonists should have a backstory just like any other character, as in, you don't need some tragic incident to give them extreme hatred. Sure, if you need something bad to have happened in their pasts then do that, but these are just people with differing goals who oppose the main character. They can have a perfectly happy life, as long as they have something that leads them to disagree with or have competition with your main character. So make them like any other character, they're not totally evil! 
• Villains. Villains, on the other hand, need a reason that they're irreversibly evil (or at least close.)  Abusive past, a lot of loss, whatever. Just try not to make it too cliche because that makes everything the villain does look cliche. Reading Harry Potter is a good example of this, Voldemort (aka Tom Riddle) has what seems to be a cliche backstory until we find out all the details. Make a lot of details, because face it, there are only so many ways a character can have a traumatic enough childhood to turn them into a villain. Or, on the other hand, you could always make them a spoiled snob who didn't get what they want one time, making them angry enough to kill everyone! (Good luck making that one look realistic...) 

2. Personalities

  Yes, they need a personality. Most bad guys are kind of the same... *dude dressed in black surrounded in people tied up and gagged, ranting his life's story and plans to kill everyone, occasionally with "Mwahahaha!" thrown in.* or *pretty blonde girl with a gang of other pretty girls terrorizing your protagonist because they like the same guy.*  Pretty much, right? Give them a personality, fears, insecurities, just like any other person... And you're a lot more likely to make them the terrifying menace they're supposed to be! 

• Antagonists. Again, your antagonist should be just like any other character you create. They need a complex personality that revolves around more than their hatred/opposition of the main character. Their personality should include room for less-than-kind behavior, because unless your protagonist is some sort of thief/murderer/etc. they might have a little trouble getting in a fight/argument with a saint. 
• Villains. Personalities and villains aren't usually seen together, and that's sad. Because what's more terrifying than someone who kills people mercilessly? Someone who could be mistaken for a normal person who kills people mercilessly. This is often used in crime stories or TV shows based on real life/serial killers because it adds an extra layer of suspense, but there literally no reason you shouldn't do this too. Unless you're writing a villain like Lord Voldemort, give them a personality so they can blend into the crowd when they're not busy killing people. Or, for that matter, just to make them stand out against other villains who all have the same basic personality and look. 

3. Motivations

  Should I need to say this? No. Do I need to say this? Yes. Your bad guy needs a clear motivation, and it needs to be consistent with the amount of damage that they do.  If your villain is evil because they love to be evil, then you really need to reconsider your villain here.

• Antagonists. Some commonly seen motivations for antagonists include having the same love interest as the protagonist (Tina from Eleanor and Park), being pitted against the protagonist by something out of their control (Some Tributes from The Hunger Games), or has some argument with the protagonist that doesn't amount to murder but adds a lot of tension (Malfoy and Snape from Harry Potter.) You can get creative with these motivations, those are just some basic examples! They shouldn't amount to any deaths (except maybe by accident) and your readers should be able to sympathize with the antagonist if they try to. 
• Villains. Villains can be difficult, because what makes someone want to go on a mass killing spree? Most likely a mental disorder; I recommend watching a TV show like Criminal Minds that deals with motivations as to murders. You don't even have to bring up exactly what's wrong with your villain, but as long as people can see their motivations and they don't look evil because you need some tension in your story, you're good. I find it easier to write villains with a mental disorder because I can understand that better, even though I've never brought up exactly what that disorder is. This got a little off-topic from motivations, but here's where it ties in: No sane person can have a good enough motivation for murdering a lot of people unless they're a suicide bomber or something of the like. Even then, they have some at least partially delusional belief that they need to kill people, that it will be for the better if those people die, or they simply enjoy the act of killing. Motivation + some lack of morals/logic/etc. = believable villain. 

4. Character Progressions

  Every character that matters in your book should have character progression, including the bad guy. This can be good or bad, they can have a redeeming arc or the last straw that sends them way overboard. For example, in Harry Potter, Snape (arguably) has a redeeming arc where we see his motivations and some hidden feelings. He's more than a jerk now, he's somewhat relatable.  Then Voldemort, on the other hand, we can see his progression from an orphan who lacks empathy to a globally known menace who everyone fears. Even in each book, we can see where he gets worse, up to the last book where he's excessively paranoid and has no second thoughts about butchering a whole school full of children. Basically, your bad guy shouldn't stay the same during the whole book. 

• Antagonists. Antagonists have two choices: Show the hidden good side, or turn into a villain. Under stress, usually near the climax, they can either reveal their kindness that they have and only just came out in the time of true struggle, or have that last snap when they go from an opponent to an enemy. Whichever happens is really your choice! 
• Villains. It is really, really hard to turn a villain around and have them join the good side... It's possible, but you need a really good explanation as to why this merciless murderer suddenly turns around and is a perfectly nice guy. It's much easier to make them more paranoid, more angry, more blood-thirsty, whatever, and have them either die or go to jail in the end. Again, all your choice, whatever works with your story! Anything is possible if you can make it believable! 

So that's what I've got on villains and antagonists! Basically, give them the same level of character development that you give your protagonist and everyone else who matters in the story. 

*Disclaimer: The image is not mine! I don't know whose it is, but all credit goes to the rightful owner!*