Extra Simple writing tips

Came up with some great world-building? This scene have a bit of foreshadowing you haven’t created yet? Something going on that you can’t just dump straight on the page? Use the comment feature to note down new ideas, information you need to remember, edits you want to make later and anything else that doesn’t fit right there in-text.

Sometimes, right in the middle of writing a scene, you create a new world-building ‘fact’ or layer. You need to keep track of the lore. It has to be consistent. It might also be complex and link back to something you’ve already written or a scene that comes much later (and maybe doesn’t exist yet). You don’t want to info-dump all that on the page, but noting it down on another doc or a scrap of paper isn’t a perfect solution. It could be lost, or you could forget which scene it refers to when you come back to it later.

That is why I absolutely love the comment feature. Think of them like little digital sticky notes to yourself that don’t lose their stickiness and get lost. If character C says something that reveals something secret about their intentions or background that the protagonist doesn’t know yet (and in fact, you haven’t written it yet or just discovered it yourself), then you can add a comment explaining the subtext and when the protagonist will realise this later.

“Character C drops a hints that they saw it in person, not just heard it secondhand like everyone else. They were hiding around the corner watching it happen because they have a secret relationship with Henchmen F. Protagonist will discover this a later chapter. Not sure how yet. Discover a letter maybe? Or maybe protagonist will see them and confront?”

(attatched to a piece of dialogue)

I also like to do this when I think of edits. I reread the last few pages of my WIP before I started writing again for the first time each day to ‘get back in the zone’. But sometimes in doing this, I can get distracted with editing and rewriting, instead of writing new scenes. So, to stop myself from getting bogged down by edits, I use the comment feature to note down my ideas for edits and changes for the scene that I can come back and do later.

"Thinking about changing this scene, needs more description. Is it sunset or sunrise What if Protagonist reacts slightly differently? Make sure you add in the changes to Character B's personailty that you made in chapter 3. He's not from X city anymore, or  a redhead."

On the otherhand, when I am doing rewrites, sometimes a scene just causes too much frustration and ends up worse and/or nothing like how it started. Consider using the comment feature to copy-paste the original scene into a comment above or below, before you start rewriting. That way, if things get out of hand, you have a copy of the original to compare and contrast.

Building on that, when you finish your very first rough draft, save it and open up a brand new doc and start copying it over and rewriting it as you go. The act of physically rewriting it will force you to focus on what you are reading and get a deeper understanding.

The comment feature is always there and can be shifted to the side while writing so that it doesn’t distract you.

Give it a go!