I Didn’t Even Realise I Did This. Almost Subconsciously, It’s Just The Way My Writing Is. I Thought

I didn’t even realise I did this. Almost subconsciously, it’s just the way my writing is. I thought it was normal…? Okay.

Hi, I'm rereading some of my work and I notice that most of the sentences start with a subject and it tends to get really annoying after a while. Any tips on other ways I could start my sentences?

How to Diversify Your Sentence Structure

This is a really common problem that I think a lot of writers have! Having a repetitive sentence structure without variation can make your prose really choppy, boring and difficult to read, while overall weakening your voice.

Here are some techniques to help you change things up a bit!

Switch around your subject

Very basic grammar: Every sentence has a subject and a predicate. I think when we think of subject in a sentence, we often think of person. This might be especially true in creative writing because we deal with characters.

For example:

Amelia opened her front door and walked outside. She felt a cold breeze blow through her. She realized that she wasn’t dressed appropriately for the weather. Amelia turned around and went back inside to grab a jacket.

In this example, Amelia is the subject of every single sentence, and a verb is followed immediately afterward. Because every sentence begins with ‘Amelia’ or ‘she’, there’s no variety and it’s a little bit boring to read.

Here’s what it could look like if I switched the subject around somewhere.

She felt a cold breeze blow through her.

A cold breeze blew through her.

The difference is subtle, but now the subject of the sentence is the breeze, not Amelia. The sentence structure is still the same: The subject is followed by a verb. However, because the subject is different from Amelia, it still brings variety to how your sentences read.

Here’s what it looks like now:

Amelia opened her front door and walked outside. A cold breeze blew through her. She realized that she wasn’t dressed appropriately for the weather. Amelia turned around and went back inside to grab a jacket.

Now that every sentence doesn’t begin with “Amelia” or “she” it seems a little bit more interesting.

Put dependent clause before subject

So we changed one subject in a sentence, but we still have multiple sentences that have Amelia as the subject. It still doesn’t have too much variety in sentence structure, and as a result, it can be stilted.

So let’s try bringing a dependent clause before the subject.

She realized that she wasn’t dressed appropriately for the weather. Amelia turned around and went back inside to grab a jacket.

Realizing that she wasn’t dressed appropriately for the weather, Amelia turned around and went back inside to grab a jacket.

By bringing ‘realizing’ before the subject, I created a dependent clause and succeeded making the first word something other than the subject.

However, because it’s a dependent clause, ‘realizing that she wasn’t dressed appropriately’ is a sentence fragment — it’s an incomplete thought. So I combined it with the last sentence to make it complete.

So after those two techniques, let’s compare the original with the rewrite.

Original

Rewrite

Amelia opened her front door and walked outside. A cold breeze blew through her. Realizing that she wasn’t dressed appropriately for the weather, Amelia turned around and went back inside to grab a jacket.

Now because there’s a variety in sentence structure and subject, the paragraph is not only more interesting to read, it also flows better and more smoothly. It also has the added bonus of diverse sentence lengths which was lacking before, and it helps make the writing more engaging.

I just wanted to note: there is nothing bad about having your subject as the first word in a sentence. I don’t want anyone to feel like they have to change every single sentence they ever wrote. Like in my example, the first sentence starts with Amelia. That’s fine.

The problem is that when every single sentence starts that way, it becomes repetitive. You can still have some sentences that start with your character, just make sure to throw in some other sentence structures, and your writing will be more engaging!

Outside of this specific example, you can also try playing around with dependent clauses in your existing sentences as well.

Jamie walked into the haunted house, despite her reluctance.

Despite her reluctance, Jamie walked into the haunted house.

The sentence is the exact same, but I just switched around where the dependent clause ‘despite her reluctance’ is placed. Even though it has the same meaning, it can provide a different feel or at the very least, switch up having your subject as the first word of every sentence.

I also talk about this in my guide about how to make your writing flow better. Sentence structure has a lot to do with making your writing sound cohesive and eloquent, so I would definitely recommend checking that out as well!

Thanks so much for asking Anon, I definitely struggled with this too when I was just starting out. I remember seeing how every single paragraph started with a name, and that was really annoying me, but I had trouble figuring out how to fix it. I hope this helped!

Tender Tuesday

This is an ask event specifically for romance writers, or those who have major romance tropes in their stories - therefore the questions sent to each other, has to be about love; think of things like “Who is big spoon/little spoon?”, “What’s the biggest challenge they have to face as a couple?” etc.

P.S.: This is an all inclusive party, all the colours of the rainbow are welcome. It doesn’t matter who your characters love, bring them in and tell us all about it.

I’m going to send out as many asks as I can. But just in case, this weeks question is:

What made your OC fall in love with their partner(s)?

Feel free to tag me if you answer.

Tag to use: #tender tuesday

Tag list:

@adie-dee, @adventuresofmeghatron, @aelenko, @alias-levi, @asablehart, @austrohungarianwriteblr, @bigboldgold, @candyapplewriting, @castironbitch, @clarissablackm, @drowsy-quill, @drbibliophile, @earths-oeuvre, @elliegraule, @fictional-semantics, @flashflyingfish, @ghostpicnic-writes, @gwens-fiction, @happyorogeny, @hell-yeah-fantasy, @imsorry-idontcare, @itsmariemccurdy, @jekkiefan @justahufflepuffnerd, @kellymunro, @kryallaorchid, @ladywithalamp, @lexiklecksi, @lynnafred, @lysander-xp, @midnightstarlightwrites, @missbrunettebarbie-writer, @mrs-raven-writes, @nectargrapes, @nk-writes, @northernrosewritings, @petrolstationflowers, @pheita, @princessofdarkness12, @raevenlywrites, @rainbowcoloreddays, @ravenpuffwriter, @reininginthefirewriting, @rhiannonleewriting, @scribbleknots, @scripturientworld, @six-feet-underneath, @smgrace3, @solesurvivorpaigeargot @sybil-writes @thegirlfairytalesforgot, @theswordofpens, @writerwaage, @writingamongthecoloredroses, @writinginslowmotion, @writemares, @writer-in-monochrome

Please, interact with the post if you’d like to be added.

The tag list is here for you to see who you can send an ask for. If you get an ask, please, return it so we can keep this going.

Have fun! Keep the romance going ❤️

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ancientbruisesbrokenruses

4 years ago

Welcome to the future, where you don’t own anything and the stuff you rent stops working once your phone has no signal.

So You Want Your OC to be Jewish

So you’re writing a story and you want to make a Jewish character—great! I’m here to help. I always want more Jewish representation but I want good Jewish representation, so this is my attempt to make a guide to making a Jewish character. What are my credentials? I’m Jewish and have been my whole life. Obligatory disclaimer that this is by no means comprehensive, I don’t know everything, all Jews are different, and this is based on my experiences as an American Jew so I have no idea, what, if any, of this applies to non-American Jews.

If there’s anything you want me to make a post going more into detail about or if there’s anything I didn’t mention but you want to know please ask me! I hope this is helpful :) Warning, this is long.

Keep reading

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ancientbruisesbrokenruses

4 years ago

🕯 🕯 this is a summoning spell to get dancing queen by abba into the umbrella academy season three 🕯 🕯

Likes charge reblog cast

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ancientbruisesbrokenruses

4 years ago

I would love that! Even if I don’t write straight romance, it’s always there. Edit: I mean totally romance, as in that’s the main genre. Though I don’t really write hetero couples except for parents… Tender Tuesday seems great and would totally check in for that. Though my WIP right now is about scandals and and bunch of shit(see the debutante series which is what inspired me, though it has a darker feel) so it does include more sexual stuff. They are hormonal teenagers by the way. Wedding Wednesday might be good for those of us who have wedding scenes in our romance. For example, my WIP(Historical romance ) that I haven’t touched in years it feels like, the ending scene was a wedding scene the last words being “i do”.

Romance writing

I’ve been wondering for a while that I could make an event for romance writers (that includes of course every other genre you have a WIP with a major romance line in) because I mainly see fantasy stories getting attention and maybe it would be nice to gather with like minded people. (I’m thinking something like World Building Wednesday or maybe Flash Fic Friday or possibly both, except these would be romance related) On the other hand maybe there are mainly only fantasy writers on Tumblr and that’s the reason for the lack of visibility of romance WIPs.

Either way, please reblog this if you’re a romance writer/other genre writer but would be interested in a specific romance ask game/flash fic prompts event and yeah, I will try to come up with something if there’s interest.

P.S.: Boost this, please, even if you aren’t interested, someone might be xx

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ancientbruisesbrokenruses

4 years ago