#i love you lots 🫂 ty for being so sweet!! and good luck w your writing!! i’m cheering you on!!!!!

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

hihi ari, whenever i re-read your fics, i try to learn from your writing style and prose and incorporate those elements into my own fics, but it's kind of a struggle? maybe because it just flows so well that i get lost in the story again HAHAISDHAD but how do you minimize the amount of times you write "you"? thanks a ton!!

from 🌖 anon

hihi 🌖 anon!!!! YOU ARE SO KIND. have i mentioned that…. just knowing you re-read my fics at all makes me soso happy but knowing you use them for reference is just ???? idk i’m just very flattered and i appreciate you so much 🥺🥺

as for your question!!!

honestly that’s not really something i consciously think of when writing, i think it’s more like. a skill you build up? kind of?? word variation is super important when it comes to any kind of writing, and in xreader fics especially the second-person pronoun is obviously super common… so i understand your struggle!!!!

honestly my first tip is just. to write your fic, then go back and change stuff!! if you notice a particular paragraph where you is used so much that it feels repetitive, try to change that. bend the sentences in ways where you doesn’t need to be used in the first place!! i think that kind of editing can be really fun :> this is a super simple example but like.

”you sigh. you then roll your eyes.”

^ this clearly doesn’t flow the best!!

instead, you could tweak the second sentence to be more like this:

”you sigh — followed by a roll of your eyes.”

now it sounds a lot better. there are a ton of different ways to go about it, and it’s an easy fix!!

you is usually used when you’re describing actions, so another idea could be to describe a certain action or movement in more depth to fill the gap between that action and the next.

you sigh — the breath flowing from your parted lips with an air of defiance. he quirks his brow. ”whatever,” comes a roll of your eyes.

…. or something. I’M JUST SPITBALLING HERE TO BE CLEAR i’m really not good at giving advice on writing i think bUT. i hope you understand what i’m saying!! learning to bend language like that is a lot of fun and i think it comes to you naturally once you’ve gotten used to it. :3

so basically — you don’t necessarily have to avoid using you while writing, because you can always go back and edit parts that sound repetitive!!! but thinking about repetition while you’re writing is also good….. a small thing i do sometimes is to replace you with a — removing the possesive pronoun from the action itself!! so instead of ”you sigh.” it becomes ”a sigh.” followed by something that lets your readers know the sigh came from you.

a sigh — the breath flowing from your parted lips with an air of defiance.

now there isn’t a you at all!! but your readers still know that. you sighed. and even the emotion behind it…… i’m not very good at show don’t tell as you can see LMAO but i think it still works!!!