Yeah. Its not mine
"Percy, look at this paragraph!"
"What?"
Percy is awesome, he awesomely pulled out his awesome sword and awesome shield and kicked the bad dude in the chest before awesomely chopping his(or is it her? Its a monster, who knows) head off.
"You used "Awesome" 6 times in one sentence. Plus, you don't even have a shield."
"So? Plus, I don't need a shield, because I'm awesome like that"
"Oh my gods, Percy.."
12.1 Synonyms-Equivalents
Repetition is usually a huge problem for me. I tend to use the same few words again, and it gets kind of boring. So here are some alternate(a synonym for synonym) words that could be used for some commonly used phrases.
A Name- Do you ever use a name too often? Like, Percy does this, and then Percy does this and then this, or he did this or him and you have way too many of all of them? Change a few "Percy"s into "him"s or "he"s, make sure it's clear who you're talking about, then, if you STILL have too many of them, just describe him a little.
The Son of Poseidon, the hero, the demigod, the black haired boy, the green-eyed delinquent(good fanfic on this website, btw),or something like that.
Just make sure it's clear which demigod, if there are two sons of Poseidon, which son, etc.
Emotions- Emotions are often used to describe a person, and young or new writers may write something simple, like,
Leo was happy.
Leo was sad.
Leo was nervous.
Instead, write:
Leo was delighted, he jumped up and down excitedly, waiting to uncover his new invention.
Tears rolled down Leo's face. He sobbed into his blanket, thinking about Calypso
Leo chewed on his lip as butterflies fluttered in his stomach. Today was the day.
And that's-simply put-boring. So, here are some synonyms or ways to describe emotions(some of them are just ways to portray how they feel, not actual synonyms)
Happy-Ecstatic(extremely jump-up-and-down happy), bright, glowing, cheerful, delighted, eyes shining, the corners of his/her mouth curved upwards(instead of smiled)
Sad-Tears rolling down their face..., depressed(do not use this lightly!), down, whimpering(usually for animals, but you could use this on Percy too), lip trembling, trembling, sobbing
Nervous- Chewing on his/her lip, eyes darting, leg bouncing up and down(can also be used for impatience), butterflies fluttering in his/her stomach, eyes wide, like a deer caught in headlights(more shocked than nervous)
Pretty(adj.)-Beautiful, charming, cute, elegant, fine, gorgeous, appealing, exquisite
Embarrassed-Cheeks burning, head ducked down
Cold- Shivering, blue lips, pale, rubbing arms for warmth
Tired-Rubbed his eyes, blinking, eyes drooping, exhausted, spent
These are just a few common words I thought of off the top of my head, comment with other words you'd like to see.
So, it really isn't difficult coming up with these. Read more, expand your vocabulary a bit. The more you do, the less you need to use my next step:the Thesaurus. The Thesaurus is a magical little essay lifesaver that allows you to search up words and give you all the synonyms it connects with the word you used. Be careful when using the synonyms from the thesaurus though-many may not be words you know, and therefore do not know how to use. If you find a word you like but you have no idea what it means, or just any word, search up the words. Usually they have a little sentence under it, using the word in a sentence. But those are just for single words. If you wanted to "show, not tell"(in my 1st grade teacher's words, it makes a lot more sense now), you'd have to use one of those descriptions. But don't worry, it's easy! What I do, is I imagine myself feeling that same emotion. Then I imagine myself acting on that emotion. Basically I act it out. I pretend i'm sleepy and my eyes drop, I relax, I blink and rub my eyes. And then you just use whatever you did in a sentence to describe it.
So yeah, that was today's lesson. I guess. Comment with whatever. I'm tired, but I need to finish a paragraph about how Fahrenheit 451 shows that individuality is beneficial. Eighth grade, guys, Eighth grade.