Tag: personalblog

Writing Cheat Sheets You Should Know About

~ Brooke F. ~ Leave a comment

Writing can be really hard sometimes. Some days the words flow seamlessly from my finger tips and there other days where I get stuck on every little thing. One things that I have found that has helped me with these mini challenges and road blocks is having a few choice writing cheat sheets on hand that can help me when I’m stuck on how to write a specific scene or character. And so I would like to share these little cheat sheets with you.

Emotion Cheat Sheets

Writing certain emotions are harder for me than others. Especially when writing more obscure emotions that go beyond “happy” and “sad” and “angry”. This is because, sometimes, I can only recall one or two actions that reflect that specific emotion and I don’t want to sound like a broken record when writing their non-verbal cues. “She shook her head”, “She grit her teeth”, “He smirked”, “She smirked”. It can get pretty redundant.

These emotion cheat sheets help me with that. They each give me an emotion and a brief list of mannerisms and reactions associated with that emotion that one can integrate between the dialogue.

cheat sheet 1

cheat sheet 2

cheat sheet 3

Conciseness

This might be more helpful for essay writers or article writers but it can be useful for story writer’s as well. If you have a bad habit of writing overly wordy phrases that could be replaced with a more condensed version of the phrase for clarity, then this cheat is for you. It goes through a few commonly used wordy phrases in writing and suggests replacements.

clarity of writing cheat sheet

Actions that don’t sound repetative

I have a bad habit of over using specific actions in writing.

Look. Walk. And smile.

These are three actions that happen quite a lot in a book. But I personally struggle to find other words that convey the same meaning to avoid sounding redundant. So here are a few cheat sheets I use to help me “dress up” and better describe these actions.

Words to replace “look”

Words to replace “walk”

Words to describe a smile

Various ways to integrate “smiling”

The Replacement of very

Yet another cheat sheet that can help you specifically combat the redundancy of overusing the word very.

A Very Helpful Cheat Sheet

The Death of Said

Aaaaand here is the last one. And probably the one I struggle the most with. Said. Now contrary to what you might have read online, said is not dead. Let’s not overlook the danger of getting to flowery with our writing. There are still places for simple versions of words. Said will always have a place in writing, But again, this is cheat sheet is made simply for when you fear you’re sounding tedious and like you’re repeating the same word over and over and over and over and over and over again. And sometimes these words and phrases can better describe the tone with which an action is done much better than “said” can.

Said Cheat Sheet

Evening Poems: Anger

~ Brooke F. ~ Leave a comment

Anger is a feeling you should feel 

But never house.  

When his stay is over, 

Know when to take his coat from the closet, 

And let him go.  

Some make the mistake of letting him overstay his welcome  

Offer him a bed to rest.  

For anger is a distant relative you can let in only for a time or he will eat you out of house and home.  

Let him sit at the table but not the head.  

Let him only once sip the wine and break the bread.  

But when the clock strikes late 

Send him on his way.  

Anger is only a feeling that is felt- 

But should never stay.   

Evening Poems: To be an Artist

~ Brooke F. ~ Leave a comment

I romanticize my suffering, 

And then I call it art.

Pathetic is now pretty,

Because it is from the heart. 

Cutting words are poetry,

Because now they rhyme .

Beats that flow perfectly.

Words that read in time. 

Bleeding is now beautiful.

The pain to be a creator. 

This is my written world,

And I am the dictator.

And so I will write them,

To any who will listen. 

But little do they know,

The words I weave are my prison. 

Evening Poems: Anxiety

~ Brooke F. ~ 1 Comment

Anxiety is man, 

He tells earnestly 

For what I should worry 

But as I focus on his features 

He seems to be blurry 

So I’ve come to find out 

He thinks he knows best 

In his well trimmed suit 

With a velvet vest. 

But his words are empty 

A spiral of care. 

Obsession dressed in good intentions

To hide the nightmare.

The 7 deadly writing sins that ruin your productivity

~ Brooke F. ~ Leave a comment

Good morning! Long time, no blog post? With that in mind, I think it’s either befitting or ironic that I am sharing a little list of comprised of some of the most common “Writing Sins” that totally mess with my writing productivity. Little things that mess with my best of intentions to write buuuut I could just refresh my pinterest feed one more time, right?

Having your phone nearby and not silenced.  

Is it no surprise that I’m a super distracted writer? Generally I don’t see myself as an easily distracted person but there is something about sitting down that makes my wonder from whatever I am supposed to be doing and search for something else. And, often, that something else, is my phone. Phones basically give you instant engagement and gratification. I’m sure we’ve all heard the studies done on this. The tiny dopamine rush we get from the stimulation of entertainment (this rush being small but effective in wiring our brains to seek it out more or “refresh” the page). But, because of this, having my phone nearby, can often be a distraction waiting to happen. Especially if I don’t silence it. These days, for many reasons, I have my notification completely off nearly 100% of the time, and I will say, it really, really helps.

Having too many tabs up. 

I’ll often find myself wanting to clarify this one “thing” in my writing so I open up a new tab, to research said “thing” and one rabbit hole of research later, here I am with 1000 tabs up and no writing actually done. So, for my benefit, I limit the amount of “tabs” I’m allowed to have open. In fact, it has to be really important for me to minus my word document and look up because I know my own tendencies. This is why I recommend that if you ever need to further research something for clarification in your writing,  insert a filler word and move on. The filler word should be weird like “pink elephant” for its easily searchable in a word document and found. Come back to it later.

Getting a little to caught up in music

I feel there’s a common theme of distraction here. I cannot write with music really. I end up humming along and just getting way to into it and Oh! Look! Now I’m distracted. Again. If I do happen to be in a focused mood, instrumentals often work best. Chill instrumentals. And even then, it’s probably best I don’t recognize it so I’m not tempted to hum or sing along.

Being too perfectionistic and getting too bogged down in getting everything just right.  

Hmmm… distractible AND perfectionistic? What a great combo! This is more of a mind thing. If I’m ever to get any writing done, I have to tell myself over and over again “you can’t edit a blank page, just keep writing”.

Not having a snack nearby.  

I’m just repeating myself at this point. This is yet another gateway to distraction. Take my word, have food nearby, unless you have a specifically planned break for food.

Not knowing your productivity pitfalls or strengths.  

Hence this list. But it can be different for everyone. It’s simply a matter of knowing yourself and your own unproductive tendencies and having specific ways to counter them. Not only that, but try and play to your strengths as well. If music really helps you picture the ambiance of a story, by all means, utilize that. If it is nothing more than a source of distraction (like it is for me), then maybe resort to some other background noise like ambiance sounds.

Getting too caught up in word counting.  

If I am struggling to pump out some writing, I find I have a huge problem with typing, and then checking the word count like I’m writing an essay for school. This is because I have a word goal I hope to meet every day, and while this does me good, on bad days, I find myself way too caught up in meeting the quota. I haven’t really found a way to combat this if I’m honest. I feel that if I don’t force myself to write at least a little everyday, it is easy to get out of the habit and oh! Now I haven’t written for a month. Yay. But I definitely feel like my writing suffers when I am just checking a “list”. My only tip on this specific tendency is just know, that we all have bad writing days. But I think I ascribe to the idea that something, even if its a bit forced on this particular day, is better than nothing. Really I think that’s the ideology that’s at the heart of productive writing.

“Something is always better than nothing”.

Miscellaneous Dialogue Prompts

~ Brooke F. ~ Leave a comment

“Thanks for underestimating me; I needed the motivation.”

“Tell me, if our hearts were replaced with clocks, would love more?”

“Someone here has to be hollow; might as well be you.”

“I dont remember your face but I remember I love you.”

“Follow close- there’s no telling what’ll be waiting for us.”

“If you were made to mend broken hearts, you would have been born with a needle and thread.”

“Knowledge and understanding are two totally seperate things I’m afraid.”

“I deserve to be loved, not merely considered.”

“You fell so many by the sword yet you cannot save yourself.”

“Please don’t look away.”

“The problem with people who take down giants, Is they end up thinking they’re giants themselves.”

Writing: Royally Messed Up

~ Brooke F. ~ Leave a comment

In a fairytalesque land, where nobles and royalty randomly marry their Princes and Princesses off to strangers, yet another Princess finds herself in this position and, as oppose to agreeing to this fate she runs away only to run into a gang, one comprised completely of royalty and Noble children and teens who refused their parents plans of marriage for them and joined forces once they found each other.

Story Starter Sentences

~ Brooke F. ~ Leave a comment

“Once upon a time, not so long ago, in a land uncomfortably close by…”

“So, I know it looks bad,”

“What could go wrong?”

“Some nay-sayers will say what I did was “illegal” or “detestable” but I’m here to tell you what really happened…”

“Once upon a time, nothing went as planned.”

“I shoulder have believed them.”

“The clock had stopped.”

“Everything was going so well…”

“I can explain.”

“I few regrets per the moment.”

“I’m not exactly sure where to start, but I guess the beginning is typically the best place, so here we go.”

“The sky above was entirely lit.”

“Once upon a time, the end was met.”

“I don’t know what’s with poet’s obsession with rain. It never did me any good.”

“Once upon a time, I grew up.”

“The sun was setting, but that’s when my day began.”

“Things are very different.”

“I looked into the distance, unable to believe my eyes.”

“So this tale starts boring, not gonna lie.”

“Some say I’m cynical, I warn you.”

“It started with an explosion. Do I have your attention?”

“I may have killed someone.”

“I stopped to catch my breath…”

Writing Prompt: Mind Meld

~ Brooke F. ~ Leave a comment

You are born with the ability to see people’s thoughts, swirling in a cloud above their head. You’re accustomed to seeing images, faces, and nearly indistinguishable words above everyone’s head as you go about life. Generally their thoughts are pretty “colorless” and don’t pique your interest anyway. That was until one fateful day when you met them.