Justanothergirlsblog - =A Weird Girl=

“Your intuition knows what to write, so get out of the way.”

— Ray Bradbury

“Be thankful for all the difficult people in your life, and learn from them. They have shown you exactly who you do not want to be.”

— Unknown 

“It may be the wrong decision, but fuck it, it’s mine.”

— Mark Z. Danielewski 

Writing Tip #222

Use action verbs. Avoid passive voice whenever possible. I say whenever possible and not never because sometimes passive voice can be a good literary technique. If you purposely want to make it ambiguous how something happened or if you want it to be unclear whether a character did something on accident or on purpose, passive voice can be a great tool. However, 99% of the time you want to use action verbs. If you have a lot of passive voice in your story you will slow down the momentum of your story and lose readers. See if you can reword sentences with action verbs instead.

Character development doesn't refer to character improvement in a moral or ethical respect. It refers to broadening the audience's understanding of that character, giving the character a deeper background, clearer motivations, a unique voice.

Developing a character is about making them seem more like a real person, and real people are flawed. Real people make mistakes. They repeat mistakes. They do things other people don't agree with. Real people are more than just 'good' or 'bad' and character development is about showing all of those other aspects of them.

Their interests and hobbies. The song that gets stuck in their head. The fact that their vacuum broke 3 months ago and they haven't gotten it fixed yet. All of those details help build out the character and develop them more.

And yes, characters change as stories progress but that doesn't mean they get 'better' in a strict moral sense. It means that their experiences change the way they interact in the world you've written for them. Just like real people do.

I wanted to double check that “The Cherry on Top” was a short novel or novella and I found this on uphillwriting.org. I think it’s very informative and hopefully you guys will find it useful!

“If they don’t know you personally, don’t take it personal.”

— Khleo Thomas 

“I can’t think of a better way to revenge someone who tried to break you, than to live and love life more without them.”

— Innocent Mwatsikesimbe 

“I have given away my whole soul to someone who treats it as if it were a flower to put in his coat.”

— Oscar Wilde (via quotemadness)