Flat Writing.

Hello Again,
                     There is always that book that everyone hypes up and the story line is original and the characters are perfect; you expect the context of the writing to be too. Yet we often find ourselves disappointed in what I like to call 'Flat Writing'.
Flat writing is writing that lacks detail, variety and literary techniques. This is easily avoided by simple changes to your writing that don't take any effort to learn.

Sentence Length and starters: This is one pet hate of mine and yet is also a difficult to break habit: Starting every sentence with 'the'. An easy way to solve this is to try to never start a sentence with the same word in you're piece of work. This could be done by starting with a connective; pair of adjectives or even a verb or adverb. This will instantly change your writing for the better.
E.g.-
'The cat sat on the mat.'- Flat writing
'Meanwhile, the cat sat on the mat'- Starting with a connective.
'Poised and perfect, the cat sat on the mat'- Starting with a pair of adjectives
'Patiently waiting, the cat sat on the mat'- Starting with a adverb and verb.
This clearly makes a positive difference to the writing and makes for a more enjoyable read.

Sentence length also plays an important part by using simple and short sentences for tension and effect and longer, complex ones for detail and description.

Description-
Whilst too much detail can often also find the reader bored to tears but not enough can suddenly make your writing seem like a list.
Eg-
I went to school. It was great but it was warm.
Sound utterly boring doesn't it. This can be fixed so simply with detail such as adjectives, metaphors and similes.

Other ways of keeping your writing rich is to work out, if you cant describe it well enough, is it really worth writing about? does it hold significance? Does having that detail enrich your story in any way? If not. Seriously consider whether you add it.

That's all there is to really say on the matter, it's simple tweaks to your work that can make it of a lot higher standard which ultimately improves your writing completely.
Thank you for reading and I hope my tips help.
xo

How to: Develop a basic plot.

Hello,

Every story, whether it be a comic book or a play, has a plot. And a plot is the basis of your story, hence it needs to be the strength in your book. Whilst many say characters can equally be the most importt factor, Characters are emphasised by your plot.

Step One: Genre.
A Genre is the style of your story and this can play a vital role in how your story plans out. These are the top ten Genres of recent times. As most things, they come with sub genres which is where your imagination has free reign.
Top Ten:
Young Adult
Fantasy
Middle Grade
Literary Fiction
Thrillers/Suspense
Romance
Children's
Science Fiction
Women's Fiction
Historical

Step Two: The Plot Rollacoaster.
I remember in primary school when the teacher would ask you to plan your story you'd be given a mountain shaped planning sheet, with a climax at the top. As childish as it seems, for initial, unorganized ideas, I swear by this method.

As You can see it starts wih a background, which is essentially your beginning where you set the 'scene' of your plot. This includes usually the setting and main characters unless you want your story to be totally ambiguous.

The next bit Is the rising action, this is where you start to build 'tension' or begin your conflicts between characters which will eventually lead to...The Climax.

 Climax,Dilemma, problem. Whatever you're preference is the one rule when it comes to Climax is not to rush. This is probably the main aspect of your story and if you rush this, the rest of it becomes downgraded as a whole. By rushing I do not mean it cannot be a fast paced thriller-it can- I mean that you shouldn't leave the reader completely lost as you rushed your problem.

 The Falling action, is much the opposite of the rising action, instead of building things up, things tend to fall apart, leading to the resolution.

Then for the dreaded...Ending. As many people know writing an ending is probably one of the hardest task as a writer as, much like Climax's it can be rushed and so for ruined. This is something to avoid at all costs as readers often expect a great ending and can often.be extremely disappointed if you finish with 'And it was all a dream'.

Quick Tips

Be Original.

 Don't rush.

Plan.

Don't write a disappointing ending.