It is OK to start a sentence with nouns or pronouns! Your sentences will be more active. :-) Passive verbs are not always welcomed in written English as you think. In my opinion, "I love bicycles and this love inspires me." is a better than "Loving bicycles inspires me." Also, complex sentences WILL come the more you use the language. So don't stress it! It is OK! :-)

Actually, this is an interesting question. As an example, here are the different ways I might write "I am confused about how to start a sentence." "I am unsure about how to start a sentence." "How would you start a sentence?" "All of my sentences sound the same." "It is annoying that all my sentences begin the same way." My examples are all basically the same idea just mixed up a little. Maybe, after writing, look at all your sentences and see if there is a way you could combine some of them. Also, if you can, reading is really useful. It will expand your vocabulary and maybe even your creativity. Hope I helped a little.

Hi Effy. I think one thing that can help is to put the focus on something else at the beginning of a sentence. For example: "Today/yesterday, I saw one of my good friends at the store." "The night life where I live is kind of boring, so maybe I should try going somewhere else." "Football is something I find rather boring, but most of my friends seem to like it." Hope this helps.

Thank you Hall. That is very helpful.

"Remain" just means "stay". This verb can be "performed" by anything: humans, animals, inanimate objects, etc. "Be retained", however, works just fine. Since "retaining" can only be performed by a human, it would either be "The security chief should monitor the data, which should be retained for 30 days." or "The security chief should monitor the data, which he should retain for 30 days." (The first is better.) "Remain" means "stay. "Retain" means "keep".