6 Signs You're Not a Strong Writer

[@andrewmcdowellauthor]

Great video, Nour. The dialogue, boring parts, and repetitive parts have been my problems, and I think I have made them in my works in progress. Right now, though, I'm more concerned with getting them done, so I've been trying to remind myself that first drafts can be bad and that stuff can get edited and cut once done. Hopefully, when that time comes, I'll be able to fix them.

[@NourZikra]

Thanks, Andrew! And we all make these in our WIPs, so don't worry. You're allowed to make mistakes in the first draft. You'll revise them later.

[@andrewmcdowellauthor]

@@NourZikra Thanks, Nour.

[@Pikacrew1]

This was the unofficial peer review I needed. Thank you so much! Im going to look over my work and see if I can fine tune things with these guidelines.

[@sharonefee1426]

I totally did the first mistake at my early stages. But at some point I started to take myself together. The more I take a story seriously the less dislogue it will have (sometimes it's more fun than me trying being good. They end up not published.) About annoying characters. I didn't write anything of what you described, but my friends said about my character "You may love him, you may hate him, you can't stay indifferent.". Cause let's be real he does not have filters

[@MiningforMac]

Yet another great video Nour! Thanks for the advice!

[@Mattdasecondog]

as someone who is currently writing, I tend to have ideas but at the time of displaying them I desperately try to add more and more words to make the chapter longer and they are only boring filler that don’t contribute much.

[@gracekim25]

I probably should do more reading 😅

[@cjboyo]

Who writes to make quick money😂. There’s about a million easier ways

[@corrosivecub]

erotica authors lol

[@mandy_was_here5382]

I'm guilty of number 6 but I am getting better and not telling the boring details haha. I think I've done all of these at some point though.

[@99thJediWarrior]

Well, my self-awareness has gone up a bit more since I watched this. I'm guilty of two of these at least and I hate it... particularly the repeating part and the dialogue bits. I can make engaging characters well enough, ive certaily had a good amount of people tell me that.

[@jacindaellison3363]

I will keep the whole dialogue tip in mind. In some movies, I have felt bogged doen by oodles of dialogue and God help you if it isn’t interesting! Btw, I have a question: my character is reading research on a particular subject-it's imperative for her character arc but how do I write it without dragging the scene and defintely not filling an ENTIRE chapter with copy pasted words from the articles she reads!

[@NourZikra]

Use summarization to give readers the gist of what she read. For example, you can quote a sentence or two from the research and then summarize the general message of the articles in a brief paragraph or two. Remember that readers don't care for all the details in those articles she's reading; they just want the general idea. So summarizing is a great way to do that.

[@jacindaellison3363]

@@NourZikra Thanks Nour! Lol, I've forgotten I had posted this question. 😅

[@NourZikra]

@@jacindaellison3363 Any time! I'm just now catching up on comments. 😄

[@kb2vca]

@@NourZikra Coming late to this party, but I wonder whether it might make good sense for this protagonist to be arguing with another character about the significance or reliability etc of the research so that the ideas she gets from her reading are not simply "dumped" but are part of a to and fro between characters (conflict). That changes this "research" findings from reportage (telling) to showing ( how each character responds to the data).

[@absolutelycitron1580]

Damn I thought I went ham with dialouge! 90%?!?!

[@andrewverlaine]

"Your main character is annoying" This can be different reasons, but the particular type of annoying character you describe here sounds like a kind of wish fulfillment or excuse for the author to vent about types of people/behaviours they don't like themselves, through the medium of their character. Like you say, this doesn't make for a likeable/admirable hero (though it could work in a more satirical novel?) I guess more readers might get into it if the person the MC is being violent towards is very highly unlikeable (even if the MC isn't just acting in self-defence). Anyhow, it sounds like a key problem with this type of annoying character is the author is so keen on venting about their own frustrations that they are losing sight of how readers will react to their work. Personally, I think it's fine to purely write for oneself for a first draft, but if you're publishing you do need to think about whether readers will be on the same page.