People Talk A Lot About How Reading Is Necessary For Writing, But When You Really Want To Improve Your

People talk a lot about how reading is necessary for writing, but when you really want to improve your writing, it’s important to go beyond just simple reading. Here are some things to do when reading:

Note how they begin and end the story. There are a ton of rather contradictory pieces of advice about starting stories, so see how they do it in the stories you enjoy. Don’t only look at the most popular stories, but look at your more obscure favorites.

See what strikes you. Is it fast or complicated scenes with a lot of emotions? Is it stark lines? Pithy dialogue? What do you remember the next day?

Pay attention to different styles. It’s not just whether they use past or present tense, first or third person. It’s whether the writing is more neutral or deeper inside character’s heads. Do they use italics? Parentheses? Other interesting stylistic choices? Take the ones you like and try them out in your own writing. See what works and what doesn’t.

Keep track of how they deal with other characters. Do we see a lot of secondary character each for very brief periods of time or are there a couple that show up a lot? How much information do we get about secondary characters? Do they have their own plots or do their plots revolve entirely around the main characters?

Count how many plots there are. Is there just one main plot or are there multiple subplots? Are the storylines mostly plot-based or character-based?

Pay attention to what you don’t like. If you don’t like what’s going on in a book or even just a scene, note what it is. Does the dialogue feel awkward? Are the characters inconsistent? Does the plot feel too convenient or cobbled together? Does the wording just feel off? See if you can spot those issues in your own writing, especially when reading a completed draft or beginning a later draft.

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mmmhhhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...........

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hyper-fixation-gay-edition

3 years ago

scale of aquatic creatures that look like dragons

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2 years ago

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1 year ago

experience while driving

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daforge every day

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hyper-fixation-gay-edition

1 year ago

Being a sex-positive personally-sex-repulsed ace is weird cuz like reading about sex? Awesome. Writing about sex? Not much more intolerable than writing about anything else. Sex is good. Sex is normal. Sex is only as important as you let/want it to be. Kinks are natural expressions of sexuality. Sexual purity is a scam. Bodies are nothing to be ashamed of. Sex work is no more exploitative than any other kind of labor. If you touch me I will throw up on you.

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asexual pride literally me

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8 months ago

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2 years ago

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gavin reed connor rk800 detroid become human convin

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hyper-fixation-gay-edition

2 years ago

If Zuko was around during the fortune teller episode, he'd have 100% believed everything she said like Katara did. He's always talking about destiny and when he did have the opportunity to kill Ozai, he didn't solely because of his belief its the avatar's duty.

Katara and Zuko get on Aang, Aunt Wu and Sokka’s nerves with HOW MUCH they keep going to her.

Katara: She said my lover's going to be a strong bender👉👈

Zuko: Mine is apparently someone super smart😳👀. Also I'm supposed to eat papaya for safety.

Katara: SAME!!!

The zukka spin on it is Sokka absolutely does not buy it, but also he wants to know what Zuko’s love life prediction is for tooootally no reason at all(he's trying to fit into the descriptor). Also Zuko’s kinda worried about Sokka after his reading and is trying to very subtly(and failing) to keep him from dying.

Sokka: I'm going with Aang to the giant volcano to prove that the loser over there risked nothing for the panda lily

Zuko’s head ringing with 'mostly self-inflicted': That’s so dumb, I'm coming with you.

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zukka aunt wu

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hyper-fixation-gay-edition

1 year ago