Repetition Can Kill

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Repetition can kill.

It comes in all shapes and forms, whether it's a repeated phrase or a word used too often. Repetition dulls your words and subconsciously causes a reader to glaze over your work as you read and easily bores them. It's the sign of an immature writer and it can be freaking annoying. It's that one friend that only has that one story to tell you when you get together, it's that song on the radio that they play over and over, it's that three hour movie that your just so sick of but you can't turn it off, it's...you get the idea.

And on that note, repetition can kill. 

And it's sneaky my friends. It's not just words themselves, but how you word things as well. Sure, when you use the phrase It was so unbelievable that I gave a origami frog to my squid over and over again, people will get sick of it. (Aka-the reason why the latest draft of Scrapper is thirty pages shorter.) But the ways you write things out, such as listing them in threes or always attaching an adverb to the start of a sentence in which an action takes place, is also monotonous and bland.

*Just a little added tip here guys, repetition can kill. 

Sometimes repetition, if cleverly used, can be an effective way to foreshadow and bring your manuscript. Enter the catch phrase, the nervous habit, the lovable little quirk. Repetition used in characterization makes your characters more familiar and also establishes that the absence of said repetition means something is not right. So do not despair, because repetition can be put to good use.

But, staying on the safe side, always remember that repetition can kill. 

Did I mention that repetition can kill?

Stats of the Week

Song : Hello Sunshine by BarlowGirl

Book: The Giver By Lois Lowry

Word: Ostentatous 

Quote: " It is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool then to talk and remove all doubt." Maurice Switzer

NaNoWriMo 2012: Dare Me

Well, it's almost that magical time of year again. Time for NaNoWriMo! (For those of you who don't know what it is, go to this page to learn more.) This time I'm determined to finish it, especially since it's the official month. So many things happen during the official months that don't happen during the camp months. Write-ins, workshops, parties, online chat rooms. So. Much. Fun. And this year I'm going to dare myself to do a few things.

1) Use a Writing Software. Throughout this experience I will be using Yarny.me to write.

2) End off at 70000 words. 500 words more then my NaNoWriMo win, 500 words less then my first novel. Seems appropriate.

3) Create a story outside of my comfort zone. No, I'm not making the impossible leap to realistic fiction. But I am trying to write a full novel in third person (sort of) and doing it where there's not only one main character that the story revolves around.

And, on that note, here is the plot.

And a dreadful place it is indeed, as down-on-her-luck author Cierra Books discovers. But woven into this abysmal town is a remarkable story of salvation and news beginnings. Little is known about the adventurous tale of Dreadsville's rebirth save for few details. 

The grass began to grown again.

A Phantom was made free. 

An orphan found a home in the midst of riches. 

A curse was destroyed.

Destiny danced. 

Dare to dive into the heart of Dreadsville.

Lastly, there is the matter of the vlogs that will be done. 

This time around the vlogs that will replace the posts on this blog will be a short series, like the other two, called Writerlys vs. Non-Writerlys. More details to come. 

Happy NaNoWriMo Everyone!

Kryptonite

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Okay Monkeys, this blog is straight up. No add in with my life. (As much as you love to here about it.)

Kryptonite. It's Superman's weakness, right? (At least, according to his wikapedia page.) And people tend to use it when they talk about weakness, it's a term that's thrown around. And personally, I think that weakness is severely underrated. In life. In books. In comquates.

What most people don't realize about weakness is that we're drawn to it. There are whole books, TV shows, fields of study that go into weakness. And why is this? Seems sadistic, doesn't it. We love things that are smaller then us, we crave for some sort of control over someone.

But that's not exactly it. Not that I can see anyway.

I think, for the majority of us, it's about finding something to relate to in another. Humanity is judged by the difficulty of their pain. The most revered people in the world are ones who overcome adversity, who struggle through weakness. People who are too perfect, well, they're fine for the most part. But let's face it, you secretly hate that guy, am I right? Or maybe you feel over protective of them? It's because they have it easy. They are weak, because they don't grow. Makes them a bit unappealing.

And there in lies my point. Your characters need challenges. True challenges, ones that are skin deep. Ones that they can overcome only through blood sweat and tears. As authors, I figure our natural inclination is to make our characters invincible. I mean, on some sort of level, they are our babies. We want to coddle them, give them everything they want, hide their evil from the world. (Unless your like my neighbor, whom I'm relatively sure eats children. Doesn't really help that her house is made of gingerbread... I don't know. Food for thought I suppose.)

But in order for the reader to keep interest, they need to feel a connection to the character. They won't be able to put themselves in the character's place unless they been there themselves. And when you can't put yourself in a character's shoes, it's just not that great of a book. So you're not doing anything for your characters by shielding them. All your doing is making them boring. I mean, come on. Even fairy tale princesses have to live under the constant fear of getting kidnapped. Your has no excuse. Wuss.


REASON 52137688888888888 WHY SADISM SOMETIMES WORKS!