: Re: How to avoid constantly starting paragraphs with "The character did this" "The character did that"? This is one of the tics I've noticed in my writing recently, and it's starting to bug me.

@Phylliss352

Vote Up Vote Down

You should try rotating several different ways to start a paragraph: none of them is bad, but overusing any of them is as bad as sticking with your current approach. Besides the "character did X" and "doing X, character did Y" structures already considered, you can:

Pose a question that occurred to the character
Describe the environment
Think like the character
Give some background

Better still, you can combine these. "That made sense. The fete wouldn't be until tomorrow afternoon, so he could deliver the cakes in the morning and still go to..." etc.

Oh, and dialogue can start a paragraph too, as you've noticed.

(0)

Login to post a comment!