Writing Tips

12 - Beginnings

I grabbed his hand and ran through the forest, jumping over leaves and making sure that he wasn't tripping anywhere.

I couldn't understand why they were chasing us, but I figured it was probably because we just stole 69 kilograms of chocolate—which was starting to weigh me down, to be honest.

I found myself breaking into a clearing, swearing under my breath.

I looked around, trying to find some escape route that would help us get away, but I couldn't find anything.

I started to cry.

I knew I couldn't continue, because wow is this writing bland and wait a second did I literally use the same word to begin every single one of my paragraphs?

I just did. Again.

What word did I use?

"I."

Me, myself and I.

The subject of this story of course.

Now you'd think that every paragraph starting with the subject would be fine because, you know, it's the subject, but really... It gets quite boring. And confusing!

Have some colour in your fancy shmancy writing. Play with some words! Sentence structures!

Your paragraphs don't have to start with the subject and if they all do, it gets really repetitive. This, I noticed, happens a lot during first person point of view books. Mostly because the person writing is the subject and they like to focus on that the most.

Bad idea though.

They always told me in school: Don't use "but" or "and" to begin your sentences! Or any preposition, for that matter!

And I understood. But look, I just did.

Why?

Because it's creative writing!

This is not formal writing, and though you'd still want grammar like that of formal writing, some things don't need to be so white-collared.

Start your sentences with and! Start your sentences with but!

But don't do it too much, or else it would defeat all purpose of me telling you this

If you have a problem with always using the subject first (for example always starting the paragraph with "I"), try thinking of it in a different perspective.

What is happening around this character? Why? How? Synonyms? Add some detail?

Build around that

I grabbed his hand and ran through the forest, jumping over leaves and making sure that he wasn't tripping anywhere.

My mind couldn't process why they were chasing us, but I figured it was probably because we just stole 69 kilograms of chocolate—which was starting to weigh me down, to be honest.

It wasn't long until I found myself breaking into a clearing, swearing under my breath.

Looking around, I tried to find some escape route that would help us get away, but I couldn't find anything.

Tears started to fall from my eyes when I realized that there was no way I could escape this.

I knew I couldn't continue, because you probably still think this is a little weird and it is, because the word "I" is most likely sticking out like a sore thumb to you now that I mentioned it earlier. Seems like I used "I" a lot in that previous example but the thing is, I didn't!

Maybe I did.

But it's only because I am still the subject in that story. Other than that, I'd say I improved it a lot simply by changing up the beginnings of each paragraph (really, they were just sentences).

I hope you get it a lil

Morale of the story: be careful, mostly when it's 1 POV, that you don't start every paragraph the same way, and have some fun boys! This be creative writing!

ur -10 writer is oot.