VLOG | Jeremy Swearengin

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The third act breakup isn’t the problem. The reason for the breakup is. If your breakup can be solved with one honest conversation, your breakup isn’t earned. It simply is delayed. A delay happens when two characters who clearly love each other have a misunderstanding and don’t speak for forty pages. That’s not conflict, that’s an author keeping them apart for page count. An earned breakup occurs when the thing keeping them apart is the same thing keeping them apart for the whole novel. The wound. The fear. The betrayal. The breakup isn’t a new problem it’s the old problem surfacing because the relationship got close enough to threaten it.
#writingtips
#jeremyswearengin

The third act breakup isn’t the problem. The reason for the breakup is. If your breakup can be solved with one honest conversation, your breakup isn’t earned. It simply is delayed. A delay happens when two characters who clearly love each other have a misunderstanding and don’t speak for forty pages. That’s not conflict, that’s an author keeping them apart for page count. An earned breakup occurs when the thing keeping them apart is the same thing keeping them apart for the whole novel. The wound. The fear. The betrayal. The breakup isn’t a new problem it’s the old problem surfacing because the relationship got close enough to threaten it.
#writingtips
#jeremyswearengin

A prologue about the founding war, a character explaining a magic system to a person who somehow doesn’t know it. Many fantasy authors spend too much time describing their world. Take your world building to the next level, by using your characters to reveal their world. A baker doesn’t see a market like a soldier. What would a thief notice first when they walk into a tavern? If grain is rationed the thief counts loaves, or they flinch when bread is thrown to a dog. A reader doesn’t need to know your magic system, they need to know the consequences of your system.
#jeremyswearengin #themithraeumcabal

A prologue about the founding war, a character explaining a magic system to a person who somehow doesn’t know it. Many fantasy authors spend too much time describing their world. Take your world building to the next level, by using your characters to reveal their world. A baker doesn’t see a market like a soldier. What would a thief notice first when they walk into a tavern? If grain is rationed the thief counts loaves, or they flinch when bread is thrown to a dog. A reader doesn’t need to know your magic system, they need to know the consequences of your system.
#jeremyswearengin #themithraeumcabal

Bad dialogue isn’t usually bad lines. It’s the specific habits, and almost every manuscript has at least one. 1. Every character sounds like the author. Remove the character tag, can tell which character is speaking? 2. Characters say what them mean. Real people almost never do. “I’m angry” is a stage direction, real people make jokes when something hurt s, or answer a different question than the one asked. 3. Dialogue tags do the work the dialogue should. “I hate you” she said angrily. We already know she’s angry because she said she hates him.
#jeremyswearengin #writingtips

Bad dialogue isn’t usually bad lines. It’s the specific habits, and almost every manuscript has at least one. 1. Every character sounds like the author. Remove the character tag, can tell which character is speaking? 2. Characters say what them mean. Real people almost never do. “I’m angry” is a stage direction, real people make jokes when something hurt s, or answer a different question than the one asked. 3. Dialogue tags do the work the dialogue should. “I hate you” she said angrily. We already know she’s angry because she said she hates him.
#jeremyswearengin #writingtips

Author treasure is now going global! You will find a coded cipher at Jeremyswearengin.com, decode the secret message, identify the location, send me an email. That’s all you have to do and I will send you a coin!
#themithraeumcabal #bronzecointreasurehunt #jeremyswearengin

Author treasure is now going global! You will find a coded cipher at Jeremyswearengin.com, decode the secret message, identify the location, send me an email. That’s all you have to do and I will send you a coin!
#themithraeumcabal #bronzecointreasurehunt #jeremyswearengin

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