Today, I’m guest posting on Victoria Mixon’s blog with the post “5 Writing Rules You Should Break“: Writers and pirates have more in common than you might think. Aside from the truth that we all enjoy roaring out a hearty, “ahoy, matey,” now and then, the biggest commonality is the fact that neither of us […]
November 7, 2010 by 31 Comments Researching Your Novel4 Ways to Avoid Writing Dated Fiction
Conscientious writers work hard to get story details right. You want the language your characters use to reflect their lifestyles and personalities. You want their books, movies, magazines, and music to ring true in your recreations of the real world. And you need all the references and explanations of technology, style, and even health care […]
October 24, 2010 by 27 Comments NarrativeUse Motion to Spice up Your Scenes
Ever had one of those days when you sit down at your computer, only to find your character twiddling his thumbs? I was having one of those days last week. Chapter seven of my work-in-progress features all kinds of exciting conflict, including a long-awaited confrontation between two friends-turned-enemies. I got to introduce a fabulous new […]
October 10, 2010 by 17 Comments Dialogue6 Ways You Can Use Dialogue in Your Story
Dialogue is one of the hardest-working components in fiction—but only if you take full advantage of it. It’s easy enough to make your characters talk to each other and even relatively easy enough to make what they say interesting to readers. But if interesting is the only burden your dialogue is carrying, it’s not doing […]
September 29, 2010 by 37 Comments DialogueDon’t Overuse Names in Dialogue
One of the biggest challenges for any writer is creating realistic dialogue. It’s surprisingly difficult to recreate the patterns and nuances of human conversation. If you can write ace dialogue, you’ll have agents, editors, and readers all clambering at your door. You can start by making sure you’re not falling into one of the most […]
September 22, 2010 by 32 Comments DialogueWhy Every Protagonist Needs a Dialogue Buddy
Although some successful novels feature lone-wolf characters who face the world and its challenges by themselves, clever authors will sidestep the pitfall of leaving a main character without someone to talk to for the majority of the book. Your protagonist’s fellow conversationalists can be varied and multitudinous over the course of the book—but usually, you’ll […]
June 16, 2010 by 40 Comments DialogueInfo Dumps Don’t Belong in Dialogue
Dialogue is such a handy little technique that we sometimes try to force it to carry more of a load than it should. One of the loads dialogue should never have to bear is the weight of info dumps. When characters start telling each other things they already know, just to keep the poor ignorant […]
June 9, 2010 by 37 Comments DialogueWho Said What? – Identifying Dialogue Speakers
Dialogue is one of the most interesting and useful parts of any story. As readers, we all love a witty conversation, but what we don’t love is when we have no idea which character is saying what. Why Failing in Identifying Dialogue Speakers Is Sure to Give Readers a Headache Having just finished a memoir in […]
April 25, 2010 by 63 Comments Editing Your Novel10 Ways to Write Skinny Sentences
If brevity is the soul of wit, then economy is the energy of prose. Let’s hear it for skinny sentences! Don’t get me wrong: I love complex, twisty, beautiful sentences. As Aleksandar Hemon pointed out in an interview with The Writer magazine: I like to push language toward poetry, to activate the dormant possibilities inherent in it. […]
April 14, 2010 by 21 Comments BackstoryBoring! How to Diagnose Your Bad Backstory
Backstory is the history of your character—the part of the story that happens before the story. As writers, it’s often tempting to think readers are every bit as fascinated with our characters backstories as we are. But don’t be fooled. Readers are only interested in what’s going to happen next. If your character’s favorite cat getting […]
