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The historical significance of urban centers
The impact of cultural and technological advances
The role of urban centers in shaping society
The terrible first draft
First drafts are allowed to be terrible, but compared to the final masterpiece you will produce, they shouldn't be as terrible.
If you're a beginner, you need to give yourself permission to write terrible first drafts in order to get the practice at writing that you need to become better. If you're a professional, your first drafts shouldn't be as terrible as all that.
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MORE IDEAS ON THIS
Introduce new characters with a gesture and flourish
Think of a signature gesture that communicates your character’s general vibe — anxiety, comedy, power — and show them doing this.
Now think of the first thing about them that strikes your senses — do they smell amazing or terrible? Have they tightly curled, wild-lookin...
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Keep surprising the reader
Each time a character appears, reveal something new about them. Build them to be complicated and contradictory like your closest friends and family are.
Do the same for your minor cast. Build them to be complicated and contradictory like your closest friend...
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Keep increasing the pressure your characters are under to create irresistible pressure to change
The more you focus on making your characters vivid and three-dimensional, the more moved your reader will be by them. Engage your reader with your character and their decisions, and they will become immersed with their story.
The more you focus on making your characters vi...
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20 reads
Related collections
Other curated ideas on this topic:
The first draft
The first words you write are the first draft. Writing is thinking. You'll rarely know what exactly you want to say when you start writing.
The time you put into editing, reworking and refining turns your first draft into a second draft, and then into a third. If you keep refining it o...
Lead with the need
Because most of us start rambling with our insecurities - don't try to write a final draft on the first try. Allow yourself a few first drafts, then flip it.
Take the final sentence, the conclusion, and move it to the top. This inversion forces you to lead with the need. Then, you'll find ...
Write in the first person
- Writers at their most natural when they write in the first person.
- Better to have an opinion and say 'I', 'we', 'us', 'me' than to take everything into a passive voice.
- If you aren’t allowed to use “I,” at least think “I” while you write, or write the first draft in the fi...
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