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. 💻🔫😡
- Check tenses. I like to write in past tense. My book is in present tense. 😆
- 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. 😉
- 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. 😁
- 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. 😋
- Continuity check. Does this character know about this event/fact? Can this character do this? Would they say this? 😅
- Read aloud. How does it sound? 😴
- Fact check. Ex. What century is 2014? 😥
- 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.) 👿
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