Things I wish I would have known.

Things I wish I had known before starting to write my first book.

I want to share with you some things I have discovered since I began this adventure of writing a book.  These are things that apply to me but some may be helpful to you or not.  These are things I have figured out along the journey.  All are my opinions solely.

• Write!  WRITE!  Sit the f down and write.  Write until the story is done. 😍

• Take a break when it’s done.  Maybe a long weekend.  Maybe a week.  Whatever.  Drink heavily to celebrate during break. 🎉😎🍹

• Edit-not all in the same read through. 💻🔫😡

1. Check tenses.  I like to write in past tense.  My book is in present tense. 😆
2. Sentence length.  Vary between long and short.  Don’t have three 20 word sentences back to back. Wears out the readers.  Don’t have five 5 word sentences back to back. Sounds monotone.  Try to have varying length sentences. 😉
3. Passive voice.  Study/research discover what this is.  Decide if character is going to use it.  Then stick with it or avoid it.  Apparently it’s harder to read and unliked. 😁
4. Synopsis.  Just for you.  A by chapter synopsis that tells you what happens so you don’t have to keep rereading your story.  Short.  I color code mine by what the main characters just knows and what the supporting characters know.  I also add a color code for character characteristics. 😋
5. Continuity check.  Does this character know about this event/fact?   Can this character do this?  Would they say this? 😅
6. Read aloud.  How does it sound? 😴
7. Fact check.  Ex.  What century is 2014? 😥
8. Brands check.  Don’t say band-aid for a bandage.  That’s actually a brand and they may ask you to remove it. Frigidare is a brand, refrigerator is the appliance.  Don’t use Frigidare to refer to a refrigerator.  I made up names for my package delivery companies and looked them up on Google to see if they existed.  (You may wonder why I just didn’t say ‘googled it’ apparently from the information I gathered Google doesn’t like this term.)  If they did I made up a new name.  Pop or soda not coca-cola.  (I did use place names though.) 👿

**I proof read this about 6 times and still found two typos this morning when I reread it.