Writing Tips #1

"they verbed the object"

the most common mistake i've seen in my and others' writing... just look at ur latest work and count how many times you've done this

'they felt their heart race' 'she saw the sun set' 'he thought it looked familiar'

those first two words put a divide between you as the reader, and the character's thoughts/actions. we're not the ones seeing the sun set, the character is just telling us about it.

'their heart raced.' 'the sun sets.' 'it looked familiar.' 

when u remove those first 2 words, the action stands on its own and isnt bogged down by filler words. the things that happen feel more real bc we're not just watching the character's reactions to them.

its like watching an action movie where the characters are on-site facing guns and explosions and whatnot, versus watching War of the Worlds where the MC is just emoting at disasters from behind the safety of his screen.

it also makes your words feel certain and grounded. if the character only THINKS something is familiar, we immediately wonder if theyre right. if the text only reads 'it looked familiar,' we know this is an actual fact within the story, and not a subjective musing. this also allows u to write scenarios where the character thinks wrong, by separating 'a flawed human being thought this' and 'this actually happened in the story'.

these edits make ur writing sound confident because you arent constantly reaffirming to the reader that they arent actually involved in the story.

find something you wrote and read it over, then remove all instances of 'he thought' 'she felt' 'they wondered'. then reread it and  notice how much better it flows, and how you can get into your character's thoughts so much easier.