Writing Help

I have another question.. or rather I would like your opinions.
The story I was working on about the character who lost his memories, well I'm currently writing the chapter where he gets his memories back and I was wondering how I should go about presenting it. The last chapter ended with him on his knees and everything flooding back, so technically the readers know that the next chapter is 'his past'. Up until now I've been doing flashbacks in italics, but they are only a couple of paragraphs or clips of a conversation. However, I can't see doing an entire chapter in italics o___0 that would be painful, if not for them, for me. Should I make a note at the beginning of the chapter like "One year earlier" or something similar? Or do you (anyone) think that its necessary for any of those things, can I just continue on with the chapter without any sort of initial warning or do you think that would cause unnecessary confusion?

You could set the stage with the first sentence or paragraph. Describe him in a place that the reader knows has nothing to do with the present setting. If it's a childhood memory, describe things with a 'younger' voice/mindset to show it's set in the past. Or tell it as he's remembering it - he just recovered those memories, now follow him as he sorts through them. However you do it, it should only take a paragraph for the readers to catch on that these are the memories recovered in the last chapter.

If you have some easily confused readers, you can always put an author's note at the top of the chapter warning them that it's a flashback chapter.

@melodysnow - I think that since you ended the previous chapter with his memories flooding back, it would make sense to the reader that the ensuing chapter is a flashback. (no need to use italics for a whole chapter))

If you want to solidify that you could put the date at the beginning of that chapter, as seen in some novels.

You could also end the previous chapter with an italicized short paragraph indicating/hinting that what follows is a flashback - and end the flashback chapter with another italicized paragraph that ushers that reader back into the here and now - the character reflecting on the things he remembered, etc...?

I guess it would depend on what you're comfortable with.


(Sorry if that doesn't make much sense)

@Arigatomina: At the end of the last chapter he was on the floor of a doctor's office, his memories start in a light mood at the train station, so the change of scenery would definitely be drastic. I was just wondering if something like a flashback warning was necessary for things like this.

@Miko: I've always seen the date at the beginning of the chapter, but like I was saying to Arigatomina, I wasn't sure if that was always necessary. I like the idea of the short italicized paragraph you mentioned, I had never thought of doing that. Thank you for the suggestion (and yes it made sense ^^).

And thank you both for your thoughts.

I need advice from some grammar nazi/english major types. Sentence structure. I'm in a rut. All of my sentences seem to be falling into two molds:
____, but ____.
If ___, then ____.
And with action it's almost always:
___ and ___, despite/because of/in order to ____.

A few years ago it was pointed out to me that I'd fallen into the habit of describing all actions like this:
While ____ing, he ____ed.
And I was doing it constantly without even noticing or considering whether the two verbs could be done simultaneously. Once it was pointed out to me I was stunned that I'd gotten so repetitive without noticing a bit. I cringe when I read the stuff I wrote during that phase. Now I avoid any "___ed while ___ing" type sentences. Which is part of the reason I'm now in a yet another rut.

Advice? Tips? Helpful links? Or any authors with a variety in their sentence structure? I tried rereading some of my favorite books that I have on hand and their sentences are just as repetitive as my own if not worse. It doesn't stop me from enjoying their work, but it does make me worry that reading them is going to encourage my already entrenched habit.

I had a teacher once who, when we wrote essays, told us that we weren't allowed to start any of our sentences with the same word twice. And even though that's impossible while writing a multi-chapter or even a short story, its a good thing to keep in mind. It forces you start your sentences differently, so that you avoid that sort of repetitiveness. Use a noun whenever possible or start with a verb. Write a short descriptive sentence or a fragment in-between all the ones with commas. Variety is something you really have to concentrate on while you're writing, if you find yourself using "if, then, but" to many times, go back and re-word one or two of them. Space them out, so to speak.

But my best advice would be, to always watch the first word of the sentence. Using verbs and nouns to start with, keeps you from abusing those molds so much because you have to pay more attention to how you use them.

Thanks for the advice. ^^ I just skimmed the way sentences start in the most recent chapter I've written and not a single one of them starts with a verb. I don't think I've started a sentence with a verb (outside action scenes) in over six years. o.o; In order to break myself from starting every sentence with "___ing" I stopped using them entirely. Adding some back now and then would help.

Hi there ! I joined not long ago so please excuse me if this question has already been asked milions of times.
For english isn't my mother langage and because nowadays 80% of it "talken langage" I totally lost all the litterature in my English. I can cope with synonyms and the link, if not i always have a dictionnary and a thesaurus ( not sure its the right word ) in hand.
My main problem here comes down to how to aspess things.
Example : Express annoyance : twitching eyebrows, cringing teeth.
I'd like to expand my vocabulary into that direction and I don't really know where or what to look for this. I know that to expand my vocabulary i need to read, read read, but even then i lack some things.
Does anyone has a advice, helpful website, anything really that could help me with this ?
Thanks in advance !!

I've been thinking about making a thread here in the group for us writers who don't have English as our first language. Where we can ask about things like expressing ourselves the right way. Anyone think it would be a good idea?

Anyways, I found a site over a year ago when I was looking into idioms, that's for people who have English as a second language: http://www.usingenglish.com/
I found quite a lot of useful stuff there, and hopefully it can give you a hand as well.

Personally I've picked up most of my vocabulary through reading a ton of English books and online stories, and watching a ton of movies and series. It was hard to read English at first, and a book could take a long time to get through, but it's gotten easier and easier. (To the point where I've virtually stopped reading books in Norwegian. I just have more fun reading English.) I pick up a word here and a phrase there, mostly without even noticing I've done it until it shows up when I'm writing something.

I also spend a lot of time thinking in English, mentally practicing phrases and pronunciation. All the stories I write have been developed, so to speak, in English, so there is no translation involved when I write it down.
I think I'm probably different when it comes to that compared to others who have English as a second language, because English is my preferred language to write in. I don't only write in English because I want to share online, I do it because I find English a much more enjoyable language to write in compared to Norwegian.

Even so, I do find my English lacking sometimes (it feels lacking quite often actually), and I am glad to have someone I can ask for help when a word eludes me. And of course I have thesaurus.com and dictionary.com bookmarked for easy access.
I have a small personal rule when it comes to using the thesaurus and dictionary to find a word though. If I don't know the full meaning of a word, or am unsure which is the right way to use it I don't. I never use words I can't explain properly, or use properly, in a story.

*takes deep breath* Yeah... I get rambly about these things... feel free to ignore me and move on.

Actually Ferus I think its a great idea. I am often impressed by the works of those who have english as a second language. For a start a lot of you write so well. There are small markers in your writing sometimes (speaking about non-english authors in general here) that flag to me that its not your first language, but they are not the howlers a lot of english speakers make who just cannot be bothered. You guys care and it shows. I actually beta read for a couple of good friends for whom english is a second language because I know they want to learn, and I can teach them the little nuances that they haven't picked up yet. And hell, its only with that kind of support that you learn right? I think there should be a lot more support of that kind for writers like yourself out there. I will freely say that is anyone needs advice on english specifically I remain happily at people's disposal. Its just a shame there are so many who are english who cannot be bothered with good grammar and a spell checker (I am thinking fanfiction.net for all of you that know it, so many howlers on there its awful)