: Re: How to make my story structure less repetitive? Someone told me that the way I write is almost like I'm writing from a template, how do I break away from this? I always end up with this:

@Kevin153

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Is it possible that you are writing a novel but your skills and/or interests are better suited to a screenplay? Your descriptions sound more like stage directions than like those in a novel. If your plot, characters and dialog are strong, but not your descriptions, maybe a play or a screenplay would be more your strength.

If you do want to write a novel, you'll need to make your descriptions more rich. Details in a good book usually play double duty --they set mood, convey emotional content, echo or reveal plot details, foreshadow conflicts, and most importantly, place you in the mind or the perspective of the character. Details that are just perfunctorily listed are meaningless and tedious for the reader.

One final note --it's hard to make the present tense sound natural in a narrative. The past tense is typically a much easier voice to write in, because it's how we almost always hear stories told to us in real life. Just recasting in the past tense makes your sample paragraphs automatically sound much better to me: "Gabrielle awoke to the sound of her phone’s loud beeping alarm. Yawning, she rolled onto her back and sat up, rubbing the crust out of her eyes. She begrudgingly patted down her nightstand until she found her phone, quickly unlocking it and silencing the alarm."

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