Advice on stereotypes: If they're too obvious, they're extremely annoying. But if done well or subverted or whatnot, they can be kind of fun.
Also, don't be too informal in your writing. This goes mostly for creative writing, cuz essays you shouldn't be informal at all, but if you're too relaxed when you're writing, it looks just kind of sloppy. Give your paragraphs/dialogue/story/everything good structure. (I still cringe when I remember the first time I ever wrote something, and anything that wasn't speech was dictated through closed-captioning-like speech, like *whistling* and *singing in the shower*)
ALSO, that reminds me. PARAGRAPHS ARE YOU FRIENDS. It's one of the most basic things we learn when learning about Grammar, that EVERY TIME A NEW PERSON SPEAKS YOU HAVE A PARAGRAPH BREAK. So many of the people that I've seen who experiment with writing just seem to have totally thrown that rule out of their mind. I did, too, when I first started back in elementary school, but it is SO IMPORTANT.
Also (Wow, I was planning on saying only one thing here), lay off the crazy names. Just because it's a fictional world, that doesn't give you an excuse to have your characters named Asfsa, Zaaaajcqu, and Flynrdl (and Bob). Stick with names that people can actually pronounce.
Points that I agreed with strongly are bolded. Initially, I've been avoiding those things since I realized how tacky those were in serious writing, but after some time, I've come to realize some things:
- Subverting cliches and stereotypes and/or remaking them is the best. The reason they're cliches now is because someone once used them RIGHT, and hack jobs think that if they do that too, they'd be awesome too. The thing about cliches is that when done right, they can be genuinely interesting.
For example, docile, beautiful princesses can just be as good as wild, rebellious princesses, you just have to actually give her a personality and develop her character. It can be big, like the docile princess standing up to her evil uncle and asserting her rule, or small things, like learning to press flowers from a servant. Wild princesses can be done horribly wrong as well. It's HOW you present them that determines their effectiveness.
The 'chosen hero' cliche is probably one of my favorite cliches to work with, simply because there's a wide range of possibilities for that. The 'chosen one' status may actually be a bad thing, like in Tales of Symphonia, or is something that's totally different from the implied purpose, or was played out to be a BAD THING, like in Scrapped Princess. The only thing you have to think about when making a 'chosen one' plot is what exactly is the hero chosen to do? Who chose them and why?
- The thing about paragraphs is that they really are like people in that can be your best friends, but if you abuse them, it gets ugly real fast.
Some people go overboard in paragraph breaks.
And don't realize that just because you put a break, it doesn't mean that it looks good.
And that it actually makes it harder to read.
Other people use paragraphs too much to the point that you just wanna cry from the eyestrain. Sure, they're good for information, but they tend to get overboard and include every comment they can think of in the paragraph. It looks hella ugly as well. Amateur writers must learn how to differentiate appropriate breaks from inappropriate breaks because of this. Usually, reading it over either out loud or with a friend works, because you can see how the paragraph flows, and you can see whether it's appropriate or not. Same with really long sentences that lose sight of the subject in that it just goes on and on and on and on until you forget what you're writing about. Sure long sentences are awesome but they have massive drawbacks as well, and the smae goes for short sentences, much like my point with the paragraph things because separation is a vital thing in writing after all.
(lol self-demonstrating)
- Truth be told, I love crazy names, especially ones with good meanings. But it only works when A) You can pronounce it, and B) You can make a plausible, nicer sounding nickname out of it, or C) It's actually a pretty simple name.
For example, my character is named Dagrun Blaire. The first name really does exist, BTW. His friends always call him 'Dee' or 'Blaire', or sometimes even 'DB'. So learn to work with nicknames before you decide to give them a crazy name.
An example of a good, simple, crazy name is (and I apologize for the Homestuck) Karkat Vantas. Easy to pronounce, simple, and still strange enough to be counted as a crazy name.
I can understand the urge to give characters long, ridiculous names, but when making a long name, consider this: Is that the character's full name? How many 'names' make up their full name? Are some of them simply titles given to them? How ridiculous and hard is it to remember? And finally, what do they tell people to call them?
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