@@alisats5693 Here is a very simple technique that I use. Before describing a scene, I try to visualize it. Imagine that you a movie director, and you have to create a scene in detail. You have to think of everything--the position/appearance/expressions/voices of your characters; the room they are in (if the action takes place in a room, obviously); the floor, carpet, furniture, wallpaper, view from the window, etc. When you have this clear image in your mind, describing a scene is much easier.
@@evalorawilliams3340 this is what I do! Oh my goodness.... Sometimes when I am writing a scene it flashes in my mind. Do you have any tips on how to control that?
Totaly get you, I suck at dialogue for I tend to lett them all sound the same . . . mannerisms in how they sit, tone, go to gestures . . . no problem, but makeing them talk differently . . . I realy suck at that and dialogue in generell
My weaknesses: purple prose and wanting to describe everything, from the trim in the room to every mote of dust floating in the air. Gotta rein it in a bit. Just a bit :)
I can honestly say Alexa has helped me get back into reading again. I can't read that fast compared to when I was a kid, can read maybe a book in three months. But even from the little bits and pieces I'm reading I've already started noticing where my skill in pacing lacks compared to others in YA Fantasy. I also personally have a massive problem with too much dialogue. My characters just sit in a white room and talk to each other for days. Thank you for always posting Alexa! Normally I just smile and nod at advice/list videos like this, but Alexa is one of the few RU-vidrs that makes me hold my writing and go "Look. Look at it and see what it can become."
I don't know if you've done a video on it, but I'd like a breakdown of the traditional YA novel... As in how much should be 'conversations', how much should be 'character devlopment' and how much should be 'main story'... I guess? I have an issue of only writing main story plots and can't really work out what's a good amount of subplot before it because more developed than the main story... So I can't really balance the plots of the story.
This was really helpful. I never heard it called "white room syndrome" but much of my previous writing came out of black box play writing. The result is that my first draft of my first novel weighed in at about 30k words.
I understand this. My first draft of my novel was really short compared to what I wanted it to be, now I am rewriting and changing the plot, but realize it has alot to do with never adding or giving attention to the setting like I should.
Im so bad at writing emotions... i do the opposite of melodrama lol im not very in touch with my own emotions i guess so having my characters go through them is so hard for me to write... everybody is always super subtle and hiding their feelings and stuff like that in my books... but not everybody is like that! and i need to work on that.
I am bad at writeing what happens . . . I am always in my head and introspecting that detailed how they feel come easy to me . . . but what actualy happens . . .also I tend to write everyone very observant and introspected which just does not fit most of the time . . .
I just figured out my worst writing problem, filtering. I never knew the name for it. I always knew something was wrong with what I was doing, I just didn't know what it was exactly. This was so informative. Thank you so much!❤
I think it is great to use action tags instead of/mixed with dialogue tags, and not only can they show personality traits, I try to use them to show whatever emotions the characters are feeling. Since you can only write in one POV (unless you're writing omniscient) then it can be a helpful way to give an insight into the thoughts of the other characters present in the scene.
It's the new Tina Yong palette from BH Cosmetics! Only $24 and has lots of lovely, bright colors. Recommend it! (though it has pretty bad fallout, so have to apply before foundation!)
Thanks for these tips! I used to write a lot of filter words, not knowing they were "bad" :D. When I got rid of them it made my writing so much better. I realize how important verbs are, but it's one of my weaknesses. English is not my first language and my vocabulary is way smaller than I'd like it to be :/. However, it doesn't mean it won't grow... just need to work harder and read a lot. I'm planning to make a video about some of the strategies I use to learn new vocabulary... which kind of ties to my favorite topic of "how to learn new languages" :D
I have a problem with underwriting which usually makes the stakes and conflict and also the characters suffer. To combat this, I am pretty much doing what you said and going back during edits and revisions and adding more. But also, watching authortubers like you has helped a ton too.
Oh wow, I'm working on getting out of some of these bad habits. And reading well-written books can definitely help. However, it is slightly disappointing to read a published book with great characters and great ideas but not as well-written as, dare I say, your own fan fiction.
Strong verbs are my weakness. I'm always searching for them. I've bought great books on verbs but still can never find the right one. So, my search continues. BTW - I 'm adding to the 'love your makeup' comments. The green eye shadow looks great on you.
Totally guilty of white room syndrome, describing rooms and areas just feel so awkward. Also pretty bad at character descriptions because like how on earth do you describe faces? lol Your eyeshadow + shirt combo is 10/10 this video. I was starting at your eyeshadow the entire video because it looked so bright.
Melodrama and White room are probably the biggest weaknesses for me. I think I can manage everything else, definitely need to do more with structure though.
I liked your video. I'm one of your subscribers. I think verb usage is one of those narrow and long roads we writers have to walk to interest our readers. That is, it's important to use verbs effectively to reduce the clutter of wording in a book, but, at the same time, it's important to keep the wording simple enough so that every reader can enjoy what they're reading without having to run to the dictionary every few minutes. Alexa? I looked through the titles of all of your videos on your RU-vid channel, and I've noticed that you have not done a video yet about marketing a manuscript that is longer than normal. Very large-sized novels and books like "Gone With The Wind," "War and Peace," and "Shogun" were all best-sellers. I realize that very large-sized novels and books are not easy to get published. Publishing houses can shy away from them. For that reason, I'd be interested in a video about how to market a very large-sized manuscript if you decide to post a video on this topic. I know that conventional wisdom holds that an author should keep their manuscript within a reasonable length if they can. However, there will be writers who will tell a story that requires those extra pages. I'd be interested in hearing what you have to say about it and what advice you can give authors who make that one long leap of faith of writing a very large-sized manuscript.
Your channel is fantastic. I have a very specific fantasy story I've been wanting to film, animate, turn into a comic for years, but I really do think you've swayed me into the direction I'd like to take it. You got a new sub :)
I fell into the pitfall of revising and rewriting my first five chapters over and over and over for years. I don’t quite regret it, however, as I feel that my writing has only benefited from being so well refined from the process. It’s still important to get out of this pitfall, but I’d be lying if I said my story would be of the same quality otherwise.
It's so disheartening to here so concretely that one must read to be a good writer, I hate reading but love to write. I like your videos and I'm not going to give up, but Will downgrade my expectations for the success of my writing. Thank you for all the great advice 😁
My biggest issue is not able to edit my own work!! I'm really good at picking up on others mistakes, but I miss so much when trying to edit my own work.
The majority of Author tube or the authorities of writing and editing are from the West or Countries that treasures reading and the writing industry. Here in the region of Cordillera in the Philippines, it took me about 8 years to write and publish my book. The main reason is the Arts in general like writing, music, painting, sculpture, acting and the like are considered as "hobbies" and not a "real careers". People are focused on what they consider as "real careers" that are "paying jobs" like farming, carpentry, professions, businesses and the like. This is mainly due to the low standard of living or poverty that are prevalent here. It was difficult for me to find editors, beta readers, critic partners, support systems (family and friends who believed on my career choice), time to write (have to hustle in the real world to fulfill basic needs and to exhausted in my free time) and others. I end up skipping some steps and submitted my manuscript this year in a publishing company willing to help me publish as a novice writer. I don't know if this is necessary but it is my reality as a writer.
I remember for my technical writing class we had to read a 20 page article of the definition of the word problem...it was 6 'professionals' describing several different definitions of the word problem and I hated it. They kept saying the same thing, but the sentences were rearranged. I was dumbfounded that our teacher set this as a reading because it was just... So bad...
Funny thing is that I thought my dialogue sucked... but after having a few people read it, they said it was my strong side. XD Hmm... I figured it felt bad because I really struggled with dialogue, but the struggle was worth it I guess. Still, had a lot to improve on that. XD
3 main weakness: 1- dialogue is the doom of my existence no matter how much I try. each character has an unique sentence or a different way they phrase words, but what the fuck no one talks like that?? 2- filter words, no idea why tho!??probably cuz I got into writing because of school, and we had to write narratives in the limitations of 30 lines, so character feelings were often left for telling while description got all the showing, but like ??? 3- uugh lack of body language,, i always have a body language sheet open whenever i'm writing, i absolutely suck at that
“She thought she saw a bird fly across the horizon” i actually think this is a very invoketive sentence. Like, how does a bird fly ‘across’ the horizon, and why does she only ‘think’ she saw it??
I have multiple videos on CPs which include specific suggestions and links in the description box, if you search my channel. And if you want shorter videos there are plenty of channels that do less in-depth content, but that's not who I am. YMMV!
I wouldn't worry about the passive too much. It's just something to have in the back of your mind when you're reading back over things. Absolutely sterilising prose of passive constructions often just makes it clunky and awkward.
@@badkittywhoopwhoop2084 it's where the setting and the characters aren't described at all. It feels like the scene could easily take place in a white and empty room
My weakness is always "the marathon of the middle." I think this happens to all of us who write longer fiction. I find myself having to force the middle bc I get so bored and have a crash of confidence that leads me to question everything. But I've learned to never go back and change the beginning when I'm in the middle
Omg mid-way editing is my worst nightmare. I can't even write a 100 words without jumping a few sentences back and inserting something, and then I just find myself at the very beginning of the whole draft! I CANT TURN OFF MY INNER EDITOR :D
I thought this might have just been me omg! I'm coming up to the middle part of my book and I am already feeling a lack of confidence and fear about how I'll "pull it off". I wonder what it is about it that is so intimidating!
On dramatization; I'm rewriting a novel I drafted when I was a kid, and one of the things I need to fix is that I was a notorious vital-scene skipper! Anything I thought was "too hard" I would cut away from and then come back in the next scene with it already over, and I lost a lot of dramatic tension doing that. I think the style came from FFN chapter style to use cliffhangers and then gloss past them? Or maybe my misinterpreting that style lol
First I gotta say I was laughing SO hard like, the whole time. "Basic ass verb" is right 😂😂👏 You were on one with this video and I'm living for it I took your advice from a previous video and kind of flung myself head long into reading actual BOOKS. Fanfic rocks, but it really does make you lazy in certain respects and the difference has been BONKERS. Being able to be objective about your own strengths and weaknesses is great advice. I've gone into reading an amazing book and come out just distraught thinking I couldn't possibly ever be at that level....Super false, I've found out. Writing is learning. Who'd have thought? 😂 I think another way is also realizing there's more than one style. Some people work at scenes until they are tight and perfect even in drafts, others need to write in layers. It's a lot about understanding how your own mind works as well. Kay, long ass comment. I'm done now. Great vid!
I give too much detail. This has been a problem since high school in personal essays. A teacher pointed it out. I disagreed. Now that I'm on ch3 of my novel and the story technically hasn't happened yet, I definitely agree. I guess this is a mixture of pacing and no conflict.
I so agree with the reading tip. I haven't ever used it to emulate, though I think that might be really helpful but I just remember last summer when I had a bunch of time to read and I was also writing, I was writing so much better without even trying, just because my brain was thinking in the way the story had been written and it was great!
Super interesting 👍 Actually this made me believe more in myself, because there are many things I am doing right already. It is good to know that I am heading into a good direction.
I really love the idea of critiquing any work you read, whether it is in early stages or a published book. I always slow down and reread passages from books which elicit feeling within me. Recently, I read a bunch of thrillers and made myself slow down to figure out WHY I was so engaged. It was enlightening! :0)
''Its a bird - they fly'', is quite a good example -> sometimes my problem is hesitation to describe something ''too much'' for bringing the message over, as I am afraid people miss the basic things. But the people who find it ''logical'' that a bird flies - are facepalming them selfs -> so I think the bird '' is going into an arc'' already indicates that the bird flies is a nice thing to remember and use as a guideline. tnx!
Hey writers! I am a fourteen year (fairly new writer) and I was wondering if you could tell me how this is? I’m sure there are grammar mistakes but I just want overall tips. This is meant to be the most emotional scene in my book and has proven to be the most difficult to write. The backstory is Rachel is saying goodbye to someone she loves (Noah) he is being beat by his dad and has to go live far away with his mom. And also this is just a fraction of the story but the reason Rachel struggles to say I love you is she has believed her whole life that her grandparents loved each other. (Her grandfather disappeared 50 years ago and she’s finding out her grandmother may have had something to do with his death.) Please lmk, being an author is my dream! My heart sinks as I realize the moment I’ve been dreading is finally here. The wind whips my hair as we venture out onto the dock, through the sea of people. I can hear the whirring of the motor and the dull loud buzz of hurried passengers. A few boys a bit older than me laugh boisterously on the upper deck. A baby cries and a woman argues a man working on the boat, pointing at her tickets and beginning to raise her voice. The world around us was loud. But I could barely hear a thing, as if I’d ducked under water. In this moment, Noah was all that mattered. I open my mouth to say something. But close it, there was nothing left to say. Oh-but there was so much to say. How could I tell him that his eyes were like deep oceans. That I was drowning in them. How could I possibly explain that even before we met I missed him. That there was nothing I feared more than my life going on, and these past few months drifting into a distant memory until it was something forgotten. What if my children never meet him? It felt like such an injustice, like they’d go their life not knowing a piece of me. I didn’t know how gray my world was until he stormed in and made every aspect of it colorful. What if everything we have right here in this moment is something that will begin to fade until it’s all gray again. What if this is all I get? Is this the moment I’ll look back on when I’m eighty years old knowing this was the brightest my world could ever be? That this was the strongest I’d ever feel for someone? How could I tell him that he’s the best thing that ever happened to me, but I wish I hadn’t met him yet because we’re sixteen and we’re going to screw it all up. How could I tell him that he had changed my definition of everything. That his smile sparked a fire in my chest, that I couldn’t tell it was there until I couldn’t put it out. That I felt tied to him in a way I couldn't describe. That I thought I knew what home felt like, until I felt his arms around me, and it all changed. The truest, most wonderful thing I’d ever known was sand slipping through my fingertips. I would always come back to him. Always. Our eyes seemed to speak a secret language and I prayed he understood. Nothing had ever felt more clear. I stammered, “Noah when you go, I-” “Rachel, I’m in love with you.” My breath caught in my throat, and for a moment I froze. I was stunned, completely taken aback. When I was twelve years old, I jumped off the swings in my cousin’s back yard a second too late and landed in the grass on my back. For a moment I thought I was dying as I lay there, looking up at the sun, unable to get a breath in. For a moment that’s how I feel. He loved me? Me? I opened my mouth to say something, what was I supposed to say? What the hell, I knew what I was supposed to say. But what does he mean by that? Does he love me like he cares about me, or does he love me like ‘you’re the only one I’ll ever love?’ I fix my gaze on an invisible point out in the water, trying to solve this puzzle. He was leaving. The words I love you were overshadowed by I’ll never see him again. I nervously chew on the inside of my cheek, trying to gather my thoughts “What do you mean?” I squint at him, perplexed. He’s ubaffled, his eyes wide. “I mean-I mean I-I love you.” He pauses, his mouth open slightly as if he’s waiting for a response. “I just wanted you to know.” He says sheepishly, his cheeks and ears turning pink. For the first time since we’d arrived at the ferry, he looks away from me, and down to his shoes. I look down, his white sneakers were incredibly dirty, and his left one had come untied. I just wanted to disappear for a moment. Lots of people loved each, my mom and my dad, Taylor and Joe, I’m sure Clarice’s parents at some point. But if you love someone you can lose them. If someone had to leave me for forever, I’d rather it not be someone I’m in love with. If you try hard enough it doesn’t have to be love, right? Now I look at my shoes too, an old pair of slip ons that were comfortable to walk in. They were dirty too, I guess we had walked down a dusty, dirt road for the past twenty minutes. “Noah.” He looks up, his blue eyes are watery and his lips are pinched together. “Noah, my grandfather loved my grandma.” I stared deeply into his eyes, searching and praying for him to understand. Silently I plead for my eyes to tell him what my lips couldn’t. I stand there wanting nothing but for him to smile, turn around and walk home with me. He nods meekly, looking back to his shoes. I guess he didn’t understand what I hoped he would. “Kid! If you’re boardin’ you gotta get on now!” A deckhand shouts to him from the bow, cupping his hand around his mouth. Noah doesn’t look up at me before he leaves he keeps his head low as he boards and I see him wipe his eyes with his jacket sleeve. The sun has begun to fall, and the blue sky begins to turn violet. I sit there, shivering on the bench, and watch as the ferry slowly rumbles away from the dock and out into the dark waters. A single tear rolls down my cheek, I don’t wipe it away. I stand up and shout as louder as I can, “Noah I love you!” I can still see him there, leaning against the railing. He’s looking in the other direction, away from me. He doesn’t hear me over the chatter on the boat and the roar of the motors. I yell it out again, my voice cracks and more tears fall. Again. Again. As the boat gets farther and farther away, he blends in with the crowd of people, and I can’t tell where he is, and I watch that crowd until all I can see is the boat. When the boat turns to a speck, and that speck fades into the sky, I still watch. When the stars come out and there’s no blue left in the sky or the water, that’s when I turn to go home.
Let me start by saying that your writing is great! Your pacing, word choice and emotion-evocation are fabulous, especially for your age! I think your descriptions make it easy to feel as though I, the reader, am in the moment myself. I can easily visualise the scene in my mind, too! In particular, I love how you compared Rachel's feelings to the time she fell off the swing-it's a very effective description and also unique to the character! There are just two bits of advice I can give (and they're only tiny points!). 1) Be careful not to give 3rd person description in a 1st person novel. In paragraph 1, you give this beautiful description of all the dock sounds (which is great!) and, specifically, how loud they are, but you then go on to say how quiet these noises are to Rachel. Since the book is 1st person, we should only see the world through Rachel's eyes (or ears, in this case). So, if she is barely hearing these noises then they can't be described as loud. Does this make sense? The good news is that this is an easy fix: you can say something like 'Somewhere deep down I knew that the dock must be noisy, but, at that moment, I felt as if I was underwater.'. This way, we get the bigger picture while still staying in Rachel's head :) 2) I think it would be great to have a line describing the moment Rachel decides to stand up and tell Noah that she loves him. Before, she couldn't find the words, so what thought makes her decide to jump up and call out? This could be as simple as: 'A horn blared, jolting me from the trance-like state I'd fallen into. I realised at that moment it was now or never. I leapt to my feet.' Overall, this is a really great excerpt, and I think you have real talent! Please keep writing, honing your craft and following your dream! I've been writing since I was around your age and finally published my first novel at 22. I have every confidence that, if you keep writing, you'll be publishing your first book in no time! You should be very proud of your work and also yourself :) P.s, my little sister-in-law is also called Annika! :D
15:30 *head roll* oml I laughed so hard, but I totally agree with you on that point! "Why did you have three lines to describe something that's basic as shit?" You look gorgeous in this video (but as always) and I love how much effort you put into your videos! It's much appreciated, can't wait for the next(:
Great video and tips. I do tie myself in knots with convoluted sentences sometimes, so can definitely relate to that one. Writing blog posts and poetry have both helped me to be more concise. 😃💖
I find that doing my own editing and revisions really help me see and understand my weaknesses, and the goal of doing my own editing is to learn from them so I can do cleaner drafts next project, and make less work for myself!
Love your eyeshadow look - it looks beautifully blended! Also, a video idea for you. You could show how you edit by showing a paragraph before and after, highlighting the parts that could use improving, why and how they could be improved and then the finished product. I do this with my students a lot to illustrate the importance of editing and how to do it, and I figure you could make a few videos, showcasing edits for different types of editing. Always enjoy your videos, it keeps me motivated to keep on plugging away :)
My weaknesses: Instead of showing, I usually tell (I’m trying to get better with this.) Using the word, ‘anyways’ too much Adding to little or too much dialogue Accidentally making characters who only serve the purpose of shipping fuel Not thinking deep enough into the plot, which leads to a lot of contradictions Advancing the plot /way/ too quickly Making author’s notes in the middle of a story Getting distracted and not working on something for 2 weeks Making my characters somewhat cliché Not checking my grammar *Anyways,* I’m working on improving all this stuff so my books don’t seem like a 2 year old wrote them.
ooh I definitely struggle with using dramatization too much. I've done NaNo a couple of times and been shocked at the end when my 50k words only covered a few days or even a few hours worth of action (I've since discovered that, while very fun, NaNo is not the exercise for me lolol). Something one of my writing profs told me was to consider economy in my writing; how do I tell the same story with fewer elements? How do I make those few elements work harder for the story? Details can enrich a scene but they can also bog it down.
i needed this, i kept asking my writing friends what it was about my writing that was heavy and clunky and i only got "write more" which great, but i like to focus on improving as i write. I worked really hard and zeroed in on passive language, on white room, on adverbs, and grammar and doing that improved those things. But still my stories were clunky, they were heavy, they were a struggle. and now i finally know WHY! thank you for giving me a name to my issue and ways to improve my stilted writing
Truth Be Told 😅 My weaknesses are run on sentences and lack of scenery descriptions. On the other scale, my strength is dialogue. I have been advised in the past by writing friends to READ more. It is an unlimited tool to study by. Also, I'm a notebook scribbler. Not a fan of typing. A question I wish to ask you is: What font size and page format would be best to use for submissions?🤷♀️
I'm sort of on the fence with dialogue tags. While I recognize that it's annoying to have too many or to use "said" alternatives way too much, I also prefer when a speaker is named, and not just in an action description. I think this is because I listen to a lot of audiobooks, and have found that some, namely The Wrath & the Dawn, were almost unreadable through the audiobook and I had to dnf. I couldn't understand who was doing or saying what because the audiobook reader was awful and because the writing wasn't conducive to audio reading. Because of this revelation, I actually started doing the opposite of what you did, and now I actively include dialogue tags whenever I deem them necessary.
Which means a good way to know if dialogue tags are needed or not could be to read the scene to someone else and ask them if it was confusing or not (and why). Good tip :)
Out of context: 08:27 thank you!!! It secretely annoys me every time when people hold their index,middle and ring finger up to show "3". This made me very happy as I am also using this version
When I am reading and I get the urge to shut my book (not because I have to go to the bathroom or something else is calling for my attention), I have conditioned myself to stop and look at where I stopped and think about why I stopped. What was this paragraph I was reading? What's wrong with it?
Great tips. Thanks for the reminder of showing instead of telling. I sometimes realize I'm short-cutting by telling because I want to get my story out of my head and onto paper. Anyway, love the green eyeshadow as others commented. I can't wear green or my olive skin tone will make me look like an olive!
I know you're not this type of writer anymore, but could you give us advice about how to write fan-fiction? Thank you, Alexa for the good advice. Much love!💕
As someone who writes fanfic and original fiction, I'd say the writing advice is the same. Well written stories are well written stories. Also, I once heard a fanfic author say to never read fanfic while you're writing a fanfic, cause you might subconsciously end up copying said fanfics and your work will end up reading like everyone else's. Get a good beta and tell them to be hard on you.
@@feermartsant Thank you! I'm not to sure about the last advice though. The same thing could be said for professional writers to never read other books because they might start doing the same thing, but can see where they're coming from.
@@camerkiddo i guess what I meant is ,as much as I like fanfics, a lot of them are not so well written since most people do it out of fun. And sometimes it's easy to mirror other fanfic writers mistakes, like the purple prose and telling over showing.
