I'm an older man who grew up reading mostly 19th century authors. I've struggled to understand why my writing voice felt so unnatural and formal. Your tips opened my eyes. Thank you.

"When in doubt, cut it out" is a motto that has saved me more times than I'd like to admit. If I re-read my work and feel that a sentence is too complex, I cut it out and rewrite it in a simpler way.

The filtering aspect is one I always struggle with and something I have to edit out later (when I remember to).

In all my years writing and consuming writing content, never have I heard passive vs active voice explained so succinctly. Maybe I have, but it finally made sense where as every other explanation had failed. "Is the subject performing the action?" It's so good. Thank you as always for your great work.

I don't understand almost anything you say but I try to watch your videos almost every day to learn English. I send you a virtual hug from Argentina ♥

Love the tip about avoiding unnecessarily complex sentences. It's easy to write a bad sentence if you force that sentence to do too much

Guilty of all 12. It took me over 10 years to break most of these habits, but old habits die hard. What I've found useful is whenever I use a starting action, like in the example you shared: "Elizabeth started to laugh." I find a starting action helps when you want to have it interrupted by a character. "Elizabeth started to laugh... until John gave her a death stare. Then it wasn't funny." I also wholeheartedly agree on cutting unnecessary words. In one sentence it's not a big deal and is easily forgivable. In a 90,000 page novel the work feels bloated for no reason. If a word is going to be included, it should be a detail with a specific purpose. When I had to write a tribute to someone who had passed, I used a sentence: "And taught her daughter how to calculate sales prices at Dunham's." I could have just said and "calculate sales prices." The sentence can survive on its own. But I added Dunham's so the people local to the area might remember the time period when that store existed. I would have left Dunham's out if it had been a generic chain like Wal Mart. But because this particular Dunham's was a specific store during a specific time period, I added the detail for those who remembered the store. Since I manage a website, I also found using a plugin called Yoast SEO helped improve my writing significantly because it has tools to identify passive voice and wordy sentences. It's mainly geared towards marketing articles and website traffic, but I find it's also useful for improving your own writing style when you force yourself to be more concise. Great video, I also love the graphic and font selection. Very easy to read and extremely educational.

Giving examples after every suggestion was the best choice you made in this video. It made a significant difference for me. I'm dyslexic and I'm trying to improve my writing ability as I tend to write on the messy side. This was excellent and thank you doesn't feel enough!

Hi guys! I forgot to wait for the HD to finish processing before I published the video, so if it looks blurry to you, just wait about a half hour before watching. Also, typo at 16:48. It should be "set" not "sat." Sorry! I checked my cards a dozen times, but I always manage to miss something. Dang long covid brain fog! Thanks for watching and for your support!

Strunk & White. Helped immensely when I started taking my writing seriously. Ellen’s tips are very reminiscent of that book, and I’m glad she’s made it so accessible, and glad to know that book still holds up.

Passive voice can be really useful for creating tension, subtext or being efficient with words, particularly when it leaves out the person doing the action altogether. This can be because we don't know who did something: 'The jewels were stolen sometime before dawn.' Or don't want to say (eg avoiding blame): 'Dad, your favourite mug got broken!' Or we're building suspense: 'The door had been left ajar. Voices were hushed as she called out, "Hello?". Or it's just not necessary to say who did it: 'The house was painted a flat, dismal grey that matched the rain-filled sky.' It's a really powerful tool that we often don't notice we're using, so not always bad or a 'no'. 🙂

As a not native english speaker, -ing verbs vs the past conjugation of the same have total different meaning. "She was walking" is she doing the action. "She walked" is already finished. Also, as someone with pretty high aphantasia, I think I experience the writing and reading completely different as someone that can visualize normally: "Yes," she said, walking. // She walked. "Yes." // "Yes." She walked. // Each is 100% different to me.

I truly appreciate how clear your examples are. A lot of writing advice doesn't come with clear examples or information on how to improve specifically, but your advice is fantastic!

Excellent rundown. Professional (nonfiction) editor myself and I'm still guilty of some of these. A tip I've given some of the writers I work with (especially ESL): If you're worried a sentence is getting into run-on territory, read it out loud under your breath at a normal pace. If you find yourself wheezing by the end, split the sentence roughly where you started running out of breath. Punctuation is meant to replicate on paper the pauses we naturally take when speaking. Also, could I possibly request a video about how to jot down the first page or two of a novel? Not just the opening plot beat, but literally the first few hundred words. Do you have any advice as to how to get past those first few paragraphs/how to make them count?

I follow most of these tips already, but I've never considered my use of -ing words. A glance at the first few pages of my latest story, made me realize I can do better. Thank you, Ellen! A great video with excellent examples as always.

Why have I never heard of Hemmingway Editor before?! This is gold! Thanks for the recommendation, and for all your tips! They're things that I (generally) knew already, but sometimes forget in the heat of writing. Definitely a great guide for what should be on a sentence-level "cheat sheet" for an editing pass.

i've been removing filter words for a years now and it's SUCH an incredible way to strengthen the connection to the character's POV. another tip would be removing "filler" type words like just, really, very, kind of, etc. or whatever kind of common word you use a lot that could be removed for the same meaning, or replaced with a more specific word. i never considered how vocab choice could change the reading speed, that's very cool! also i found your example sentence "he ran across the yard like a soccer player running for the ball" very funny for some reason. thanks for another great video!

This is, without a doubt, the best writing tips video I've seen so far. I've seen dozens, perhaps hundreds at this point. And yet, this has proposed a set of simple, common, and fatal issues and mistakes, then presented a coherent explanation and provided fluid examples. Thank you very much!

Hemingway Editor is fire. It makes it easy to spot problems. Best $20 ever spent on my writing.

If “disconsolate” is a ninth grade word I’m in big trouble.

I’am a Peruvian filmmaker and scriptwriter. I have started to write a novel picking up a script of mine. I am going thru hell. You can’t imagen dear Ellen how useful and illustrative your videos are!! I thank you so much!!

I also feel (hehehe), that in case of filtering, removing the "unnecessary" ones can help adding weight to the places where you do want to use "felt", "saw" or "realized" etc because the feeling or realizing was the relevant part. If every other sentence is dotted with the filtering words, then there is no difference.

Ellen, as always, you are super helpful. I hadn't thought filter words were that deep. Now I'm looking at my own writing going "Uh oh!" Thank you for real in depth writing advice.

Passive voice has been a struggle for years. A whole editing pass is needed to get that out of my writing…🙃 You can also hit “smelled” and “tasted” with other verbs. “The stench of aged garbage assaulted Jim as he rounded the alley corner” or “the luxurious sweetness of the berry juice coated Joira’s mouth. It lingered. A moment later, but a moment too late, Joira noticed the background bitterness of the arsenic.”

I love the way you explained passive vs active voice. I knew what it meant but it never clicked until now. Now I want to go back to my old works and see if I can make them better using active voice. Your videos are so helpful! Thank you!

I had no idea that filtering was called filtering XD Thank you so much for explaining this!!! I didn’t understand why my story didn’t sound as immersive. I finally understand that I have to remove the character feeling these things to just having these things exist on their own for the character and reader to feel!!!

This video would be a great addition to most Jr/Sr High writing classes. Well done, Ellen.

This is so helpful as someone who never studied the technicalities of writing before. Thanks so much, these tips are amazing!

Your ability to relay information quickly and straight to the point, while also being super thorough is something I am so thankful for! Thank you for sharing these amazing tips that are most definitely helping so many authors achieve their dreams of writing and publishing one day!!

During the early years of my education, I was embarrassed by my writing, but as I matured and became less sensitive, I learned to read what I had written out loud. That made all the difference, and many errors were avoided.

21:30 I'd like to add something about Vocabulary that I learned on test readings. Using a term correctly can lead to confusion if the reader doesn't have the same understanding of that word. It's interesting that now it's trivial to look up unfamiliar words immediately, before going on with the next sentence. When I first read the original Sherlock Holmes stories, I wrote down words to look up later. Now, reading on a tablet or e-paper reader, I can point to a word and get a definition (or translation) instantly. This should remove the barrier toward using a higher vocabulary or highly specific terminology, pushing some readers to learn, and not talking down to those already more familiar with the subject.

Thanks for another great video, Ellen! I can already picture myself coming back to re-watch before line editing sessions. :) Your explanation about how vocabulary level influences pacing was especially helpful! Cheers ❤️

You done teached me to write sentences more goodly. Thankings be to you.

Hi Ellen, I have been a musician and a poet for a long time. I love both of those forms of expression with meter and sometimes rhyme but only if it doesnt get to clumsey! I never liked English as a study form in school, I wasn't an advocate of reading because of childhood disabilities that were not known or studied at that time. I was not a visual learner but audio. I was not an attentive student, if I was not engrossed, ADHD. I was also dislexic to boot. In my 40's I finally learned I could only comprehend writing when going to college on line. When I read the words aloud, I fully grasped the information. I was fully photographic with numbers and math was my natural skill set when I was willing to work at it. I helped both of my daughters through their own struggles in those ways, regrettibly, after high school. You cannot teach what you do not know. My older daughter got her master's and mid stream she conveyed her struggles. Changed everything. Now my reading comprehension is with no audio aids...oh to know and understand. Thanks for all the tips...at some point if I get published and can afford it I would love to contribute to your Patrion site. I already have an editor for my 420,000 words of writing that are teaching of the prophetic from a Scriptural format. Not formed from an opinion, but rather the opening of Scripture to produce it's very own witness. A witness of the same witness, "The double Witness" the things of the prophetic, "Hidden in plain sight." Best regard, Dave yco Thanks for all the tips...at some point if I get published and can afford it I would love to contribute to your P

Two writing/journalism professors influenced me more than the others. My least favorite teacher in college had a rule prohibiting auxiliary verbs: Am, is, are, was and were, being, been, and be, have, has, had, do, does, did, will, would, shall and should, et al. They are so easy to use, and a difficult habit to break. Some are hard to write around, but 99% of the time, they sound better when you do: My least favorite teacher in college relentlessly prohibited auxiliary verbs. The incessant correction stung. I absolutely despised the woman at the time, but she undoubtedly influenced and improved my writing.

Thank you so much for all your help this year! ⛄️

passive voice and strong tone words are never something i struggled with, i hardly even had to think about them because they come so naturally, but it literally just hit me that i filter every single thing i write and that’s why it feels so weak. i had no idea. i just think it’s so interesting how everyone struggles with such different little problems :)

Wow! This is just what I needed to help with my writing. You're a good teacher. Thank you, Ellen.

I'm glad you mentioned filtering in this video. I use filtering a lot in my writing, but I never knew there was a name for it! These tips for avoiding filtering were very useful to me! I think we as writers tend to underestimate how smart our readers are! I, personally, find the need to add on those extra words to clarify, but if you think of yourself reading something with fresh eyes, you can infer many things without the add-ons included. Thanks for the video!

Thank you for this info. Very helpful. Until I have these memorized, this is my quick reference list. I have full notes describing what to do if I need further guidance. Thought this might help others too. 1) length 2) word size/obscurity 3) tone of words 4) passive, filtered, simile 5) body parts 6) "was x-ing" 7) "started" & other unnecessary words. Examples of filter type words: Thought Knew Saw Felt Wondered Smelled Tasted

I think this is the best video on writing tips I've ever watched! Really helpful and thorough

I never even realised how much filtering I was subconsciously putting into my writing, until I watched this. A real Eureka moment, this will help bigtime with my redrafting, thank you!

"Was ing" really resonated with me. I really appreciate your observations. Very revealing and informative. I will heed your advice.

Thank you Ellen! Especially for the vivid examples and compromised explanations - great video!

I've been editing my book for two years now. Every page is covered in red ink (the revised first draft). I've have no direction, just running off of "well that feels funny so what do I do?" I was completely lost in the process, second guessing myself about every edit. "Am I getting rid of essential information? Am I cutting meaningful character development? Am I taking out unnecessary detail? Am I taking a layer away from the story?" This video has helped me find the ground again. Thank you so much!!

These examples were very helpful. I tend to write long sentences with unnecessary words/descriptions and struggle to put my finger on why it feels so chaotic.

Hi Ellen, great to wake up to a new video this morning. I so look forward to them and find your channel is one of the most valuable on KZfaq. Merry Christmas 🎄 and take care xx

The filtering advice makes sense for 3rd-p stories and those that are more plot-driven. The desire is to move the focus slightly more toward the events and slightly more away from the character's experience and the authorial narrator commentary. I disagree about 'filtering' when it applies to 1st-P and the story is more character-driven. The desire there is to move the focus more toward the character's experience and a bit away from the events themselves. In both situations, the story still gets prime focus, but if we compare 'I saw the tail of a fox sticking out from the brush' with 'The tail of a fox stuck out from the brush', the difference between those two in 1st-P is not at all the same as the difference between them in 3rd-p, as far as the effect they have on the story and the reader experience. 'Rebecca saw …' is a statement from the author/narrator, who does not play a part in the events at all, so removing a filter word in 3rd-p does make a certain amount of sense, as it can help make the author ego much more invisible, which if not invisible, can distract from the story. In 1st-P, the story is about the character's experience, and readers are bonded closer to the protagonist than they are to the story, bc in 1st-P everything is delivered to the reader directly through the protagonist/narrator rather than through the author. So what would be considered 'filter' words there actually help keep the focus where we want it-on the character's experience. 'I saw …' is not an 'authorial intrusion', it is directly shown as an experience the character is having, which is the goal. 'The tail of a fox …' in 1st-P only creates more distance between the reader and the protagonist. And in 1st-P, that is NOT the goal. The takeaway here is that advice regarding 'filter' words differs in whether it will help your story or actually hurt your story, depending on the POV, the balance between character-driven and plot-driven, and how the story is told. The bottom line is that advice on 'filter' words greatly depends, and simply abhorring them isn't always an automatic improvement. It can actually be a detriment to not use these words for certain ways of writing your story. Suggestions and guidelines are fine, but there are no 'rules' that can be applied in a one-size-fits-all fashion to your story. Every single case is an individual judgment call, which applies to all artistic decisions. There are no shortcuts. I feel that this is an important concept for a writer to understand, and to NOT blindly assume that 'filter' words are automatically problematic, bc they ARE not.

This was so helpful. Thank you. I am not an author but have to write a lot for my work. I am taking in all your tips to enhance my writing.

Liked it much and agreed with most. One thing . . . as for me, one of my most valued and EVER PRESENT practices is - ALWAYS BE SUBTRACTING! I ALWAYS keep my radar on high alert for ways to cut down my sentences. In other words, I do my best to make it a habit, an “actual habit” if I can, to CUT-CUT-CUT words from my manuscript. As one writer once said, if your story can live without it, it should have never been there in the first place.

Fantastic advice. This must have taken quite some time to put together. I'm going to rewatch and take notes. Thank you for this. We all struggle with most/all of these. My additional advice that really helps me: read other authors who are noted for their outstanding prose. Exposure to greatness elevates your own prose. That being said, be careful not to overstretch (IMHO). Let them inspire you, not take control of your pen. Otherwise, you end up with an unnatural voice. (Point #8 I think.) My other bit would be. Read your work aloud. This is related to the sentence-length advice. Your work has a rhythm and reading it out loud will help identify those issues.

I've never heard of that Hemmingway editor app but I'm absolutely using it now! I'm always scared that I'm using a lot of passive voice or consistent filler words that my brain doesn't notice. I think this will help with a lot of those problems going forward :) Also, I don't think I've ever heard of "filtering" words before but it'll be another thing to keep an eye out for.

She comes up with a new video when you need her the most! Thank you Ellen for reminding me that I still need to write my novel!!!

I used to write a lot but took a break for a couple of years. I'm considerably rusty and I'm trying to not let that get the best of me. Something that I've always struggled with was starting a sentence. I always fret over how I start my sentences to the point where it bogs me down to try and force changes, which makes my writing feel stagnant and bland? I wrote down all the tips you shared, and I'm going to focus on utilizing them to improve my work. Great video

I find having the action performed by a body part good for writing sensual moments in my romance/erotica; it's like zooming in with the camera lens in that it's poor to shoot a whole scene that way but being useful for highlighting small touches when you want to, and potentially crucial for building the larger matrix of framing, pacing, and mood.

Thank you! Amazing video, thanks for helping all of us!

Fantastic. This is so good. I could listen to these all day. Super helpful.

I have been a Bibliophile since my childhood and to be very honest this was the best decision of my life. I also started writing rather than only reading but at that time KZfaq was not that popular so all i wrote was from whatever i learned by reading. Still i got a 8.5 in IELTS. So instead of making excuses we should try to work everything out.❤

He started running across the yard, like someone who, across a yard, might run.

Thank you, Ellen! It’s always a joy listening to your explanations and examples and your videos have developed over time and are so exquisite! I‘ll never get tired of your advice. And besides, as one of your patreons, I know you‘re also a wonderful person so again: Thank Thank Thank you!

Hey, ☺️ great topic. I'm reminded of high school English. We had a week of precise writing. In this exercise we wrote a paragraph. Then we made the paragraph shorter and more precise. After, we shortened the sentence a second time, without leaving dangling modifiers. 🤔 I still use precise writing skills, in the Internet age. I keep my sentence tight ✨ Cheers 🎉

Thanks Ellen! You do such a good job of 1) giving "best practices" 2) pointing out specific times where exceptions may apply, and 3) acknowledging that the sound and flow of the writing and what the author wants to accomplish trumps all =) Thanks for another informative video!

All the line level tips I needed in one video. I'll be sharing this with my CP's.

The simile tip and the "was" tip is helpful. I remember in an editing class, my teacher commented on one of my stories and noticed a simile he didn't think needed to be there, but I didn't know why. Also, I'm SO aware of how often I use "was" instead of more active sentences.

This was incredibly helpful, thank you! I have to improve on most of these tips. But tip 10 was insightful in a different way! I always feel like my writing is very mediocre for different reasons, but one of the reasons is because I can't write on a difficult vocabulary level. I could never write something like 'We need to talk about Kevin', because I don't have that English vocabulary level. But you showed me that you don't need that to create an impactful book with a personal style. This really helped me with my confidence

I really love that you use examples when giving tips. I truly enjoyed this video. Thanks a lot!❤

the word "that" is my nemesis. take it from me, it's not *that* important, pun intended. If any one is looking for writing advice, you can probably cut it out a bunch, which, I've found can help make your sentences flow better, and just tidy them up into something more immediate. "that" is good/necessary for somethings, but I find it's helpful to review and be like, "how many that's do I really need in this chapter?" and the answer is usually much less. Lol. happy writing! great video!

Not a writer, but love to read the occasional novel. As a girl in STEM, I love the objectivity and clear instruction here. I hope you know your videos are super entertaing to people like me as well as educational to young writers. Super interesting watch!

FYI: As far as sensory info, a pro tip is to use that to cover more than one goal. Of course, everything we write should serve at least one of the following three purposes: world building; development of character; or move the plot along. Since we are bombarded by sensory information all the time (probably millions of them a second) the ones we choose to write about should have some meaning for the character. For example: the tang of damp earth, etc. could become The tang of damp earth and the ferment of damp earth evoked memories of ..... In this case, our writing serves two purposes: world building and character development. Thankis, I hope this is helpful

Thank you, Ellen. Well done and extremely helpful. Merry Christmas!

Thank you so much Ellen. This is very helpful. I’m in the process of editing my new book. Your video has shown me what mistakes I’ve made and how to fix them. What a life saver.

Great advice. Hemingway app is a great free tool, but keep in mind its algorithms are low tech. Readability, for instance, uses a formula that doesn't consider vocabulary or sentence structure but instead just number of characters per word and number of words per sentence. It can produce unexpected results. "She was uncomfortable and embarrassed" is scored as Grade 12 but these are all words that most second-graders, if not first-graders, should know. It's good as a rough guide or sanity check, but I've worked with clients who demand the writing stays at X grade level in Hemingway and the results are inferior to what they would be if a more intelligent algorithm were used to score readability.

Probably one of the very best writing guides I've seen & heard. So precise and succinctly explained with excellent do/don't do examples. Also very, very thorough. Superb Ellen, thank you.

Easily - easily easily easily - your best video! I have a question (for anyone willing to answer) about the passive/active voice: I use these kind of sentences a lot: " Rebecca saw the tail of a fox sticking out from the bush 'What is that?' " to avoid using " Rebecca said " a lot. But I like avoiding the passive voice a lot too. What do I do? Me, proactively trying to figure out an answer: " The tail of a fox stuck out from the bush. Rebecca bumped into Carl. 'What is that?' "

I love all these tips! Though I personally LOVE seeing smilies in books (particularly fantasy, thank you to Sarah J Maas who uses these in excess xD )

This was amazingly helpful as all your teaching videos are, thank you so much! You're the best 🥰

Thank you so much for your videos! I'm writing more of a mindset and how-to book to help people begin homesteading, but I'm reviewing my communication and how I deliver a message. I can be spunky and firey, and I want to convey my personality without burning or scaring off my audience. Ultimately, I want my message to be received, and your videos are helping me to refine my style of communication. I appreciate you!

This was really helpful! The way you explain things so effortlessly and easy to grasp! Active and passive voice! Wow!

BTW, It would be good if you used chapters to easily find a specific point in the video.

The instruction in this video is for amateur writers engaged in writing genre fiction (melodrama) and nonfiction aimed at the mass market. In other words, works written for an eighth grade reading level. If you write for adults with a brain, your thoughts and your sentences will necessarily be more complex and nuanced. Henry James, Charles Dickens, Marcel Proust and William Faulkner (to name only a few) wrote long, complex sentences with multiple dependent clauses and heightened vocabulary for a public conditioned to read polysyllabic prose. Their works appear among the most important novels ever written. But that was then. Such authors would have difficulty being published today. Publishers are in the business of making money, not art, and they publish books today aimed at the barely literate. The sad truth is that the contemporary reading public is conditioned by TV, video games, and the ever lower standards of our public school system to read monosyllables that express simple, often infantile ideas. Therefore, if you are writing for the mass market, the advice in this video is on point. Conversely, if you are writing for educated people, you write to their level of proficiency. Know your audience and write accordingly, but with one eye on your editors demographic.

This video definitely made me rethinking about how I have been writing my sentences. I appreciate how Ellen was able to give examples of strong sentences vs weak sentences.

I just found your channel and I can’t love it more!!! English is not my mother tongue but, anyway, your tips are incredibly helpful and I enjoy listening to your explanations. Thanks so much!!

I typed in the text from Adam Nevill into the Hemmingway editor and its all red and yellow... I guess this is just a classic case of "Do as I say don't do as I do"

Do you think you could talk about the “overarching message” of books - the point, the truth or lessons within books. How to figure out what your message is, and maybe examples from you books or others? This is something I’m struggling with and I can’t find a lot of recourses on the topic..

Thank you! This really helped me to be more aware of some mistakes that I make in my writing. And it is great that you gave specific examples for each one. 👍

Every one of your videos is incredibly helpful. Thank you!

Hi Ellen, nice video simple and easy to understand. My question is how to maintain the main theme of the writing, while detailing. The purpose to maintain the reader's attention engaging, and arouse the curiosity. The second one, is how to use new words, and how come we know that our audience is familiar with the usage of those one's? Are there, any tips to build the main theme of the novel, the characters building, and the theme of the novel? Regards SyedTariqMuneerJafry Freelance Content Writer

I am a self taught 15 year old writer. Watching this video made me feel like my w.i.p. is trash! Being a non native speaker naturally means I have a very bad vocabulary, word choice, and other language related stuff. I need help with this mess that I call a story. I struggle with making the narrator not feel bland and writing too much dialogue.

I'm trying to better my speaking skills and learned that conversational storytelling is a game changer. Watching your video brought up the mistakes I've been making during practice. Pretty much all of them with the exception of long sentences. In the past I wrote: "As I was enjoying my pina colada the ground beneath me started to shake..." Now: "As I enjoyed my pina colada the ground shook..." Just, soooooo much better :) Thank you.

This was just what I needed. Thank you Ellen.

Thank you for these tips. Actually the truth is that contemporary reader comprehension is far less proficient than years ago. Well-written, complex, long sentences were once the writer's norm....as long as the sentence was grammar correct. So no, the problem is not the correctly written long sentence. Proper writing should challenge the reader and force them to engage their own writings skills. When I was a student in the 1960s, we were expected to correctly smith sentences of more than three clauses. The dumbing down of reader comprehension and composition writing, is the result of the American public school system. Fortunately, traditional sentence structure and punctuation are still taught in Europe.

I always struggle with avoiding over-description. Could you please make a video on that?

An amazingly dense and pragmatic set of tips. Have to admit, I was dubious when I saw the bold video title. :) For me, the section on filtering was the most pertinent as it's an easy trap to fall into when a book encompasses many POVs, as mine do.Thanks very much!

26:48 First off, I wanted to say a big thank you for this video cause it very much did help me recontextualise a few things and made me think about my shortcomings, strengths, and my own creative voice. 1. Complex Sentences. I think one thing I can struggle with is the use of flowery language or prose. Sometimes I can get a little more long-winded than I need to while describing certain things. So I have to think about what the situation is, and if more descriptive sentences are even the way to go. 3. Passive Voice. I think you're right about Passive Voice and that most of the time writers want to align themselves more on the side of Active Voice to engage the reader. But there is some benefit to giving Antagonistic characters Passive Voice when using Third Person Omniscient, so as to prime the audience for responses during combat. Though, I'd need to reread my passages to see if I might be giving the reader too much unnecessary and unengaging Passive Voice. 4. Filtering. I could see myself using some Filtering when it's not needed, but I am writing Third Person Omniscient so there is a bit of a degree of having to make sure the audience is attached to what's going on when I switch so often, even during single chapters. But it's a skill I need to develop and make sure I'm not expecting too much of the audience and doing my job to make it easy for them. 9. Simile. I think my biggest writing sin as far just literal words-on-the-page writing is after I do action scenes. I think my action scenes are the best part of my work, but the caveat is that I switch from prose when not in action, to frank, hyper-specific details. After a fight scene is over, I often struggle to make my writing interesting again and do too much: 'He did this.' 'She did that.' kinda stuff. My crutch is using Similes when I catch myself being too frank after action scenes. So I need to hold myself more accountable in this regard. 11. Starting Action. This is probably the only thing I mildly disagree with in the video, but again, I agree more than I don't about the subject. The function of a Starting Action is to prep the audience. "She leaped over the banister, left hand wound back, ready to deliver a Hail Mary haymaker right into his teeth." This being said, if you commit to a Starting Action, you have to understand that as the writer, you now have to either deliver, or deliberately subvert the audience expectation that you set up. "Except no she didn't. Her foot caught on the railing and her teeth took the whooping instead as she faceplanted utterly in front of everyone on the sidewalk." You can do a lot with Starting Action, and if you're actually trying to tell action-focused stories, or stories that have a lot of action in them, you should be willing to play with these concepts. But you don't want to spam them for sure. And using Starting Action at all invariably means there's at least two parts to that writing convention, so part two has to be worth it. Thanks again! This video really did help!

Ellen, any chance you can do a video about negative character arcs? I really love the series you made recently where you went through all the beats in a story, but it seems that this mainly applied a positive arc? So, for example, I'm wondering how the Q2 section where the character struggles because of his lie is different in an arc (flat or negative) where the character believes the truth in Q2. What causes them to stumble in this section if it's not the lie? Thank you.

The examples are so helpful. They take the point out of the abstract and make it concrete and more easily understandable. Wish all writing advice was like this.

LOVE the examples. Thank you!

Weather to write in short or longer sentence,the best writing is originality,how one want to write would have been better rather to put formulas,which is aching,don't you know.Write according to your abilities, otherwise there would be always confusions

This video is nicely put together. Clear and precise. And great tips entailing examples. Thanks. .

Thank you, thank you! This is the most helpful video on writing I’ve ever watched. Your advice is actionable and the examples you provided really helped solidify the concepts you discuss. I’m such a visual learner so it was great to see things laid out so clearly and plainly.