- Nov 30, 2017
- 199
- 755
I'm pleased that Dr PinkCake is aware of his writing weakness and is working on it. I was recently rereading some scenes from the first episodes where the same words and phrasing are used by various characters.In your previous Q&A, you mentioned that your writing was your weakest point and needs improvement. Since then, how and what did you do to learn and improve?
Without overanalyzing what I write, I analyze the text more during quality assurance these days. I'm focusing on words I use a lot, and I either replace them, delete them or rewrite sentences because of them. I know my writing has improved, my proofreader still manages to find plenty to fix, but he's been happy with the overall improvements lately.
Whenever watching a movie or reading anything, I analyze sentences differently than I did before. I find it fascinating how scriptwriters and authors can string sentences together in ways I wouldn't think of. I draw inspiration from that while trying to expand my vocabulary.
Another thing I do more often these days is deleting sentences that tell too much. In some cases, a sentence doesn't have to be said; the player will understand this without it being there. So, I think "show, don't tell" a lot more when writing and let the player put together the puzzle pieces and draw conclusions from that.
It tends to hurt their lines, because no one speaks exactly the same way; we all have language tics, our favorite expressions, our accent. There are those who use emphasis, those who do not finish the sentences, those who abuse interrogative formulas, etc.
I'm not asking for great literature, but a little more impersonation inside the dialogues is welcome.
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