Have you ever written the greatest novel of your life only to start editing and find you used the word Nice 402 times in your novel? Sometimes even five times or more on a page. We all fall into this. They said. He was nice. Nice day. They roll off our tongue so much in everyday conversation that they haunt the pages of your novel. Well no more. Here are over 150+ alternative words to use in your novel. Instead of NICE try… enjoyable - pleasurable – thoughtful - courteous - lovely - likable - pleasing - gracious - congenial – cordial – admirable - considerate Instead of GOOD try… excellent - amazing - wonderful - pleasant - marvelous - exceptional - fantastic - super – outstanding – terrific - splendid - stupendous Instead of BAD try… awful - rotten - naughty - mean - dreadful - nasty - wicked – lousy- terrible - unpleasant - disagreeable - wretched Instead of HURT try… pained – ached – stabbed – stung – throbbed – burned – bit – pounded – tingled – cramped – agonized - smarted Instead of SAD try… depressed - gloomy - miserable - cheerless - unhappy - forlorn – sorrowful - upset - downcast - tearful - somber Instead of HAPPY try… cheerful - delighted - pleased - glad - joyful - ecstatic - content - jovial - amused - merry - thrilled - elated Instead of LAUGHED try… giggled - chuckled - roared - howled - whooped - snickered - guffawed - shrieked - grinned - cackled - bellowed - chortled Instead of LIKE try… admire - approve - adore - treasure - fancy - marvel - appreciate – respect - cherish - favor - desire - enjoy Instead of SAID try… commented - replied - remarked - declared - stated - exclaimed - shouted - whispered - announced - responded - boasted - explained Instead of BIG try… huge - giant - gigantic - enormous - large - massive - colossal - immense - bulky - hefty - tremendous - jumbo Instead of LITTLE try… small – tiny – petite – miniature – tiny – itsy – bitsy – minuscule – mini – minuet - microscopic – skimpy – wee Instead of RAN try… bolted – sped – hurried – sprinted – jogged – rushed – galloped – hustle – skipped – raced – dashed - fled Instead of WALKED try… strolled – sauntered – tiptoed – trotted – marched – glided – strutted – shuffled – correct – trudged – hiked - paraded Instead of PRETTY try… beautiful - gorgeous - appealing - cute - lovely - exquisite - attractive – elegant – handsome – stunning – fair - dazzling. Instead of LOOKED try… gazed – examined - glanced – viewed – observed – peeked – studied – noticed Instead of SCARED try… afraid - frightened - spooked - horrified - startled - fearful - petrified - anxious - aghast - alarmed - terrified - shaken
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Ouch, you didn’t think anyone would write this did you? Well we are. While most women know what it’s like to be hormonal we decided to hit on a few tricks to put this into writing.
Out Of Habits When a woman is hormonal the body wants or craves different things. While your character may have a bowel of cereal every morning like clockwork, during this dreaded time of the month she may run out and get all you can eat pancakes. You can use these things to subtly hint at the natural workings of a woman without outright writing ‘She’s on her period.” Emotional Outbursts Yes, it’s true. Hormones make for a roller coaster of emotions. It is totally possible to have a woman happy and on top of the world one moment and the next a screaming yelling demon. Something like this can really help move along a story and add in some action during slow times. Just remember you can only use this technique once a month. Sex Hormones changes the sex drive so most often a woman will have either a higher or lower sex drive during this time of the month. They also usually never want to take advantage of this, causing mixed emotions. The woman can very easily act on her desires then back out feeling to embarrassed to go any further. Lady Purse Not necessarily part of hormonal body language, but something to remember. A woman has to have access to her products during that time of the month. This many mean she will carry a purse if she doesn’t normally or maybe a larger purse. Cramps Hormones cause pain. Sometimes just mild aches and bloating to buckled over stabbed in the abdomen pain. This can be a crippling blow to a character if something like this would happen in an intense situation. Remember you can use this to add drama, conflicts, and bring your reader closer to your character. At our latest event we experienced a first. The worst first that has spawned things like stricter review policies on Amazon. A bad apple. This one almost ruined an event that hosts 20-50 indie authors every year. The IABE (Indie Author Book Expo) hosts a yearly event where they put authors in front of various crowds. Lately they have been pairing with a Des Moines Mall to allow people to naturally and casually discover authors. This year they expanded into doing live readings on stage to bring in a bigger draw. As with any event some authors sold out and others did not sell at all. Overall, it’s a friendly event with a host that bends over backwards to try and please her authors. To be honest, she’s too nice as we saw many people constantly demanding new spots, different tables, and leaving before tear down time. Each time she accommodated them. These weren’t even the bad apples. The first step into the bad fruit barrel came from a report from the mall that authors were rude to staff and security. IABE was already on shaky footing because is this continued this event would have to find a new location. Then, the topper on the rotten cake. After the event was over the mall made it know there was a thief amongst the authors. They had caught, on camera, an author stealing a money bag from one of the mall kiosks. This footage was handed over to police for the thief to be found. Even worse, the thief reached out on social media trying to say he ‘found’ the bag. A believable statement if they were not caught on camera. Ohh, yes before the footage came out there were suspects. Like a mystery detective, each author was analyzed. The reality was the thief was the least expected person. A children’s author, outwardly nice, who donated several books to the raffle, was the culprit. It was a heart-breaking situation as the mall decided the IABE could no longer be there. After some pleading, it was allowed back under much stricter rules. Just like there became stricter rules on book reviews on Amazon after a bad apple, there is now more rules placed on this Midwest event. What’s worse? IABE is a nonprofit that helps bring classes to children around the Midwest and is currently working towards investing in a printer to provide small indie authors cheaper printing. One bad apple risked it all for every author. So, what’s the point of this articles. To raise awareness. People, even authors, are not always as they seem. It’s these bad apples that ruin the writing world for other authors. Don’t let this happen to you, and don’t be that bad apple. You only have one tweet in a whole flock to catch someones attention. In comparison this is like on bird in a whole flock calling for his mate. It’s hard, but it cane be done. So how do you get heard? Well, first of all it’s not by posting links to your book over and over. This will get you unfollowed, in twitter jail, or just ignored. What you need to do, and this is the same for all social networking, is give people what they want. Twitter over the last several years has become a large information network, more and more be dominated by trends and news. This means, research should be done on trends and trending hashtags. You can look at trending hashtags on Twitter each day for a good idea, but this obligates you to get on every day and come up with appropriate content. So, what do you do? Well, if you have a lot of time on your hands you can log in everyday, look at trending hashtags and articles, write a relative blog post, and then blow your twitter feed up with content relating to the most popular hashtags. Another approach is building your following via interaction. Since twitter is like riding the rapids do it quick, preferable within an hour of the post going live and never later than 24 hours after the post went out. Share posts that you like. Comment and share opinions on others. Twitter works the best when using it to connect to people. Keep it short. Even though Twitter has a 140 character limit, leave a little room. Anywhere from 15-25 characters less. This leaves room for others who want to retweet your post or add a comment. Retweet and tag others by using their @usernames. People appreciate positive sharing and are more likely to follow you back. Set up a content plan and plan out specials that air on certain days to gain consistency. Monday could also have a joke of the week while Friday might be the cocktail of the week. Also you could feature other authors on Wednesday, tagging them and singing their praises to help build good faith. Want to know another trick. Interacting with people with the largest influence will help your page more. This is simple math as they usually have more active followers than anyone else allowing you to get your message or even yourself out in front of a larger crowd. Some sites such as Klout, Twellow, and Commun.it allow you to see who among your followers has the greatest degree of authority. Focus on helping others solve their problems. Offer quality advice. Share big media articles and use trending hashtags to drive up your relativity. People will like a post about current events, but they’re seldom going to like a post about your book which they have never heard of. |
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