Sometimes we want to write, but we just can’t summon the motivation.
But thankfully, there’s a ton of different tricks that you can use to get your fingers flying across the keyboard.
Month: February 2019
Writers often like to start stories by painting with broad strokes, telling the reader about the world and the characters.
Usually that doesn’t work out.
But there is one book that, despite some other shortcomings, does exactly that very well: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.
“Has she found another adolescent boy to sink her teeth into?”
When writing dialogue, “said” can get old really fast if it’s used too much.
Often, writers are tempted to replace the word “said” with different words (such as “laughed,” “smiled,” or “erupted”), but that usually ends up even worse.
Thankfully there’s something else super easy you can to do replace “said” that will not only vary things up, but improve your writing overall too.
If you’ve ever watched anime before, then you know there’s a bunch of weird stuff that happens.
Nosebleeds when seeing an attractive woman, massive hammers casually pulled out of interdimensional space, and of course, running to school with bread in your mouth because you’re late.
But what can we learn from all of this insanity, and how can we apply it to our own storytelling?
You’ve been eyeing a beautiful man in the produce section at the grocery store.
The way he handles the avocados, the way he scratches his stubble, the way he… everythings. It’s too much! You have to ask him on a date.
That man’s name… is Scott.
What do you say to someone when they’re about to eat you alive?
It’s time.
You’ve been training your writing skills for months, and now it’s time to put them to use in the fiercest, most physically-and-mentally-taxing way possible.
The Writing Triathlon.
There are two problems that many writers, myself included, make way too often:
(1) Being so excited about our stories that the plots become fast and boring, and (2) being too scared to have fun with descriptions.
Well now it’s time to end that by showing how to add fun to your writing!
To answer your first question: no, pantsing in writing does not mean pulling down the pants of a story an exposing all their private metaphors and symbolism.
Pantsing means writing by the seat of your pants, not knowing what will come next. Its opposite is outlining, which is when you know exactly what will happen next in your story because you created an outline beforehand.
Is one strategy better than the other? Let’s find out!