__how to be a successful writer: Sims 4

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books, funny, how to be a successful writer, how to sell books, sims 4, writing, writing tips

The keys to becoming a successful writer on Sims 4 are:

• Writing all day
• Woohoo-ing sexy Sims to keep your fun levels high
• Having thoughtful showers after so you’re fresh and clean and inspired!
• Writing some more

Just by implementing these easy steps into your life you will have lots of royalties streaming in within a matter of days. MONEY! How do you get published on the Sims 4? Well… you just walk to your mailbox and click ‘self-publish’ or ‘publisher’. And that’s it. You’re a writer now and you’re earning money. Perfect! Why isn’t that the way in real life too?

I wish being a successful writer was as easy as it is on Sims 4. It’s nice to play the game and be successful at this career I am pursuing. The seduction of playing out my career virtually for hours on end is too tempting!

P.S. My partner found out that this was the best schedule to get the most amount of books out and royalties in. The key is lots of woohoo and thoughtful showers. I had to try it for myself (and learn a tip or two from the world of Sims 😉 ).

– Ermisenda

Bad Story Telling Ruins Reader Immersion

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aspiring authors, common mistakes that break immersion, how important is it to edit your book, how important is it to proof-read your book, indie authors, keeping readers hooked, story building problems in writing, story telling problems in writing, writing tips

Common mistakes that break reader immersion include:

1. weak mechanics (spelling, grammar, etc.)
2. implausible character behaviors
3. echoing words, sentence styles, and images
4. illogical world building
5. conspicuous exposition (info dumping).

I found this information from Creativity Hacker who had conducted a study on reader immersion. The link to the original article is HERE. Jefferson, the author, put himself through an experiment where every morning he read an indie ebook and read for as long as he was immersed. When the immersion had broken three times, he stopped, and wrote a short report on why his attention had wandered. Then he did this study on the first 50 reviews and synthesised his findings. Now this study doesn’t have lots of participants (only one: the author), which weakens the study, but the findings are interesting!

Jefferson found a fascinating discovery. He broke down the WTF moments (what he referred the problems in the book that broke his attention) into three fundamental issues.

1. Story Building Problems (e.g., cliche plots)
2. Story Telling Problems (e.g., bad dialogue, show vs. tell)
3. Editorial Problems (e.g., spelling)

__three words to avoid when writing

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author, editing, problem words, stories, writing, writing tips

When we write we all have our problem words we have to watch out for. For me, I have a terrible habit of using ‘suddenly’, ‘began’ and ‘started’. Suddenly pulls the reader out of the story and doesn’t create immediacy (which is what I want it to do), it’s a short cut that isn’t very good. The words began and started are words that are delaying action. Rather than saying ‘it started to rain’ just say ‘it rained’. It creates a stronger and richer story. And I know these things but it’s so hard to catch ourselves sometimes. Yay for editors!

Other common words to avoid include: then, in order to, very, really, like.

What are your problem words that you know you should avoid in writing but often struggle to do so?

– Ermisenda

__writing donts: explaining

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author pitfalls, explaining in writing, fiction, novels, short stories, show dont tell, strengthening writing, writing, writing donts and dos, writing tips

I took a creative writing course this semester at university and the experience has been mixed. I have been able to gain some skills and reinforce certain writing dos and don’ts. But one writing DON’T has been irking me.

My teacher really hates any form of ‘explaining’. He wants raw dialogue and/or actions. I know that important writing rule of ‘show don’t tell’. I try to show as much as possible. But what about when you’re trying to weave motive, thought, and reflection? Is it okay to tell sometimes?

Some novels rarely explain. I noticed that generic crime books have less explaining. YA has heaps of explaining. So what do I mean exactly by explaining? I will use a segment from Poisoned Waters as an example.

The hairpin slipped into the lock, and like a surgeon, Sylvia probed. There was a reassuring click and the door opened. With the pin back in her hair, she slipped inside Jacobus’ cabin. When she had first thought of breaking in, she had dismissed the thought. But the thought nagged her until she was rattling the doorknob. She wanted her jewels back. They were hers. What right did he have to take them?

__be a better writer

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be a better writer, capitalization in dialogue, dialogue capitalization, dialogue speech after comma, dialogue troll, editing and writing, editing reference, grammar, speaker tag before speech, why you no easy to punctuate, writing tips

Going through and editing my stories, I have found this webpage to be a great tool for punctuating dialogue. It’s so easy to read, simple to use, and I love that there are subheadings. I was able to remind myself of how capitalization works within dialogue when the speaker tag comes first. This page was shared to me by Anne Schilde and I found it also simple and easy to use.

When you’re writing, you don’t want to have to read a novel of grammar rules. We want something easy and simple to flip to. If not, the flow of our writing and/or editing will be severely interrupted. For any writer who wants an easy reference on how to punctuate dialogue, visit ‘Be a Better Writer‘ or ‘Absolute Write‘. It’s always important to triangulate your information. In other words, make sure other sources of information also agree.

So much of a writer’s life is taken up by editing. We may as well get it right! Do you have any easy-to-use editing reference webpages to share?

– Ermisenda Alvarez

__agent and editor wishlist

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agent, books, editor, help, looking for agent, looking to publish, publishing houses, self-published, unpublished, writer, writing resource, writing tips

Any writers out there looking to publish their novels or seek agent/editor help? Have no idea which editors/agents are looking for what? Well the #MSWL exists! I found this writing/publishing resource shared on a social media site and thought someone who reads Ermilia may benefit from it: The Agent and Editor Wishlist.

The link goes to the Tumblr archive of tweets which were sent out. So for those Twitter-ing birds out there, the agents and editors put their queries under the #MSWL hashtag which stands for Manuscript Wish List.

I hope that helps someone out there!

– Ermisenda Alvarez