#overwriters

[ellesliterarycorner]

Tips for Overwriters

My friends, we are now living in a post-Thanksgiving world. That means it is now OFFICIALLY socially acceptable to play Christmas music!! I have never been more excited. Unfortunately, today’s post is not about writing Christmas music even though that would probably be more interesting. Today’s post is tips for all of you overwriters out there! I am a proud member of your ranks, and I’ve definitely been working on how to be more concise lately, in both my creative writing and the writing I do for school. Some people definitely think that having a high word count somehow correlates to the quality of your story but a boring, drawn out story is just as bad a short, rushed one. You have to find the sweet spot in between. So, here are a few tips that have helped me with overwriting!

But That’s My Favorite Scene

I wish I could say that I do not get emotionally attached to scenes that I really like, but that, dear reader, would be an incredibly blatant lie. I get very emotionally attached to my favorite scenes, especially those little scenes that come to me in the middle of the night or feature my two favorite side characters. Unfortunately, my favorite scenes are not always the most necessary scenes. When you’re going through a second or third draft, sometimes you have to recognize that your favorite scene is really not at all relevant to the plot. That’s what I personally think of when I hear the phrase: “kill your darlings.” To me, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to kill your favorite character. It means more that you need to delete or get rid of things that are not relevant to the story but you as an author really like. BUT, when we say delete, we never actually mean delete. Always keep a copy of every scene or chapter that you might delete from your manuscript. You never know when it may come in handy, or if it might bring you joy to reread it later!

Keeping It Concise

As someone who loves writing the longest sentences known to man, I am not known for my concision. A lot of times, concision is key in writing. Sometimes, this means tightening up your sentences, and other times this means getting rid of filler worlds. Filler words don’t add anything to your narrative, and often, sentences with them could also be tightened for clarity. Some common filler words are: really, very, just, began, started, sudden, stuff, thing, see, look, hear, wonder, feel, and think. If you see that word in a sentence, it’s normally a signal that the sentence can be rewritten using much more clear language to make an overall more concise and strong sentence. When you’re trying to make things more concise, I would look out for overly descriptive sentences. Obviously, we want a clear description of whatever is happening in your story, but one of my biggest issues with Sarah J. Maas’s writing (I know I always find a way to bring her up) is that she will use four adjectives to describe something, but all of those words mean the same thing. If I describe something as the crisp, frosty, cool, winter air, that tells you absolutely nothing. Those words pretty much mean the same thing. You could have said the crisp winter air for a much more clear and concise sentence that will also decrease your word count a little. 

The Death of Passive Voice

This reminds me of freshman year English class. I literally didn’t know what passive voice was until freshman year, but now I consider myself a little bit of an expert. Passive voice relates to the previous tip because most sentences using passive voice can be rewritten using stronger or more descriptive words. Here’s a little example. Princess Sarah was driven to the castle. Okay, that’s a fine sentence. It’s grammatically correct, but it leaves a little lacking. Who’s driving Princess Sarah, for example? Let’s rewrite the sentence. The Captain of the Guard drove Princess Sarah to the castle. Ooh, okay, that simple wording change gives us so much more description. We now know who is driving Princess Sarah to the castle which probably saves us some unnecessary words later. If you’re having trouble identifying passive voice, I always say that if you can add “by zombies” to the end of the sentence and have it make sense, then it’s normally passive voice. Princess Sarah was driven to the castle by zombies. Further confirmation, that that sentence is passive voice and needs a little rewriting! Also, most of the time, rewriting a sentence written in passive voice decreases the word count. The example I gave didn’t, but normally it does lol. 

Whipping Out That SAT Vocab

Normally, I don’t mind a little bit of purple prose. Some of my favorite books have  flowery descriptions and beautiful sentences, but those descriptions and sentences serve a set purpose in the story and are pretty necessary to the narrative. Most of the books I have struggled to read or DNF’d this year have had the worst purple prose in the world. Kinda like a lot of writers think high word count=high quality, I think that a some writers think that pretty, purple prose=high quality. I’m here to say that in my humble opinion having description for no reason does not make your book the next Great American novel. It just makes it annoying. You don’t have to use thesaurus.com for every single sentence in your book. It’s probably better if you don’t. Having those super academic sounding words along with long descriptions definitely contributes to overwriting, and cutting things down and using more common descriptions will help you cut down on word count. 

[angeban]

height difference............

[autoraton]

same as it never was.

[tojisun]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5GyS3mL9pG/?igsh=ZXMyZ2ttNXBnejMx

This is Biker!Simon to a T. Need I say more?

GOD THAT WAS SO HOT i rewatched that ten times i swear 😭

NO BECAUSE THAT IS ABSOLUTELY BIKER!SIMON LETS GOOOOO

simon would rev up to catch up with the car and absolutely smack the window i fear :(( not even to break it because he’s still a gentleman, RAHH, but fold it inwards since they (car driver) don’t seem to use it anyway :/

he’ll take the next exit, looking at the mirrors to see if you’re right behind him, before turning on his hazard lights and stopping at a safe area. you follow suit, head tilted in confusion as you watch simon dismount and walk towards you.

you flip your visor up. “what’s wrong?”

“nothing,” he says, taking his helmet off. “jus’ makin’ sure y’r alright.”

this makes your stomach clench, your cheeks filling up with warmth.

“yeah,” you reply, clearing your throat. “you?”

“i’m fine.” he knocks his knuckles on your fuel tank. “y’did good keepin’ calm.”

you giggle, your adrenaline now spiked with giddiness—it seems like no matter how long you two have been together, simon still manages to make your breath run ragged; your heart beating within your ribs as heat envelops you whole. it’s unsaid, his love for you, but it burns, bright and protective.

“thanks.” you rub at your neck, lips still tugged up in a full smile. “knew someone’s got my back, so.”

“i always will,” simon huffs, serious, before ducking his head down in his shyness. you catch the flush rising to his ears, anyway, and you bite at your bottom lip to keep down the giddy giggles.

my gorgeous, protective, boy.

[ryllen]

pov: me super sad on them altering zayne's ENG voice on the recent update

[alexa-crowe]

#nat 20 cuteness - [2/∞]

[infamous-if]

the band tier flashback (of the friends attending their first concert) is coming soon! sorry it's taking a bit I just...overwrote a lot... lmao

[canisalbus]

As a longtime (2015ish) follower of yours, its been fun watching you become... more tender? toward Machete. back in the day it was angst angst angst, and i loved it! but you cant know darkness without light and vice verse. Youve been a massive inspiration the whole time btw. Its nice to see not-anthro!Machete again too

.

[weirdtakoyaki]

So obvious how some people are still ragging on Astarions secondary, nonbianary writer (for writing parts they didn’t like or “being unprofessional”) but never level the same ire towards his cis male writer. As if the two of them weren’t likely working in tandem and approving eachothers contributions along the way. It’s just very interesting!! To me that you guys have chosen to single the nb gnc person out! I’m sure it doesn’t mean anything significant about your internal biases . 🙂

[zu-is-here]

Memories

After years of working together, the rivalry turns into something deeper, but suddenly Killer dies. To save his lover, Cross overwrites their timeline.

He doesn't know that Killer tries to load the latest save file at the same time thanks to his determination, but overwriting erases everything.

Due to the damage, they both lose their memories and start from the beginning, driven by a weird sense of loss — and the need to find someone.

[zuzu-draws]

A compilation of some of my favourite Panels of Sukuna with Megumi as his Vessel, i guess the design kinda grows on you eventually.

He is menacingly cute.

[old-desert]

sum blushing Loop sprite edits for the soul

[natsmagi]

dropping my hottest tsumugi take yet from priv bc im passionate about this and dont think it gets talked about enough

tsumugis story is a hopeful one with a happy ending...... his happy ending is directly referenced numerous times because its something important and integral to his story...............

his story is a very inspirational one to me due to how unbelievably horrible life has been to him, how he keeps fucking up continuously, and yet he managed to come out the other side as a better person, he managed to overcome it. and this is very important to me because to me it reads as "even if life is horrible, even if you feel like all you do is ruin everything you touch, even if you dont care if you live or die, you too can get the happy ending you deserve"

[certifiedsillygoofer]

was anyone going to tell me that jack harkness made a fake identity with owen's name or did i have to find that out by watching miracle day myself

[naceless]

I love that between dick and jason, dick's generally considered more clingy and as the one who bothers Jason to hang out, when Jason canonically followed dick to an entirely different city, stole his identity and framed him for multiple murders for seemingly no other reason than feeling the little brother urge to fuck with his big brothers shit

[incorrect-hs-quotes]

Nepeta: :33< this thought is continued on side b. to k33p scrolling, please remove my brain, turn it over, re-insert it, and press "play"

Dave: hey nep, there are people who don’t know what a b-side is

Nepeta: :33< that doesn't s33m like something I would have purrisdiction ofur