E. Tip of the Day: Do not use the same descriptions your main character uses for herself for other characters, settings, etc. or vice versa. For instance, if your heroine describes herself as a banshee in a fight, use a different description for her when other characters refer to her actions in that same fight, such as calling your heroine a “wild woman” instead of a “banshee”. Otherwise it seems like characters are mind-reading each other. 🙂 And even if your characters have the mind-reading ability, unless it’s intentional they shouldn’t necessarily be using the same words to describe each other. It will only bore your readers.
If you’d like to learn if your characters are mind-reading each other when they shouldn’t be, do a search for the descriptions used by your main character. If any of the same words are used in those descriptions by other characters, you may want to try using a thesaurus. There’s a lot of words to choose from, so be creative. 🙂
This is a really great post. I noticed this happening when I began my edit. I was using “key words” used by one MC for another. A very great reminder. I really like your blog. Will follow!
Thanks, Maggie! I try to keep the posts writer-friendly and interesting. 🙂