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Last post we reviewed basic rules for formatting and writing good dialogue. Today, let’s dive a little deeper. Writing Tip for Today: Writing effective dialogue relies on speech that sounds natural, is easy to read and that maintains and heightens a scene’s tension. Here are some more tips: Mix it Up When you write dialogue, […]
Many who write novels seem to lean on Prologues to start their stories. Here are the pros and cons. Writing Tip for Today: Good reasons for and against including prologues in novels and memoirs: Prologue Purpose Including a prologue in your novel suggests that certain bits of background information are necessary before the story proper […]
Writing unforgettable dialogue should be on every writer’s bucket list. Iconic passages such as, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities come to mind. Do you wish you could write […]
Three Ways to Sink Your Fiction We should aim for realism in our fiction, right? In order to connect with our readers, they need our stories to reflect real life. In most cases, yes. But there are exceptions. Writing Tip for Today: Yes, we need readers to connect with our stories, but watch out for […]
When setting a scene, fiction writers often swing to one of two extremes. Either the writer gives too few clues or else the writer describes the scene in excruciating detail. Writing Tip for Today: Let’s look at how you can set a scene that gives enough information without drowning in details. When and Where Each […]
I’m a firm believer in scene writing as the best method to bring a story to life. But if your scene is slow or weighted down with extraneous information, it will have a hard time energizing readers to continue reading. Writing Tip for Today: Three of the easiest tips to improve your scenes are outlined […]
Many of my novel writing students tell me they hope to educate readers about a topic they feel passionate about. I always cringe when I hear this! I want to yell, “Don’t write with the aim to teach me something! Just tell me a good story!”Writing Tip for Today: What are some of the unhappy […]
Novel writers long to be understood. That is, we long for our readers to understand our characters. As we toil endlessly toward the goal of showing not telling, EXPLAINING can derail our plans.Writing Tip for Today: RUE or Resist the Urge to Explain, is a handy acronym for battling telly passages in novel writing. Who Needs […]
The character arc demands that a writer supply the character’s motivation to the reader. One of the easiest, and most insidious ways to accomplish this is with ye olde info dump.Writing Tip for Today: What is an info dump and how can you avoid it? Take a Tip from Secret Agents. Agents in spy movies only give […]