Are you stuck in the writing doldrums? Has your prose become lackluster and stale? If so, it might be time to change up your writing style and infuse some fresh life into your words and stories. Every writer has his own writing style–a particular combination of skills, techniques, characteristics, and practices that develops into his unique voice. […]
July 23, 2014 by 41 Comments NarrativeIs Your Story’s Voice Turning Away Readers?
A story’s voice is always a hot topic among writers. What is it? How does it work? How can you get one? The difficulty in teaching about a story’s voice is that it’s one of those “you know it when you see it” things. Recently, I encountered a powerful example of voices that work—and voices […]
December 1, 2013 by 45 Comments Most Common Writing MistakesMost Common Writing Mistakes: Weak Character Voice
Voice. It’s one of those elusive elements in fiction that everyone talks about—and no one can quite define. We all nod sagely when agents and editors harp on it, but secretly we’re hoping no one asks us to explain how to actually create it. And just when we think we’ve figured it out for ourselves […]
November 10, 2013 by 58 Comments Writing Inspiration7 Suggestions for How to Choose Your Next Story Idea
The most important decision a writer will ever make is which story to write. Sometimes this will be an easy decision: the “right” story will be staring us in the face. But sometimes the choices can be overwhelming, and we find ourselves wondering how to choose our next story idea. If you’re like me, you […]
August 25, 2013 by 35 Comments ProseThe One Rule for Choosing Your Story’s Tone
Choosing your story’s tone can make or break your book. It will affect every single page you write. Tone guides readers in figuring how they’re supposed to view a story. Funny? Serious? Edgy? Sarcastic? Wielded with understanding, tone will help you create a more cohesive story and will pull readers that much deeper into the […]
August 29, 2012 by 26 Comments CharactersHow to Find Your Character’s Voice
The single most important factor in getting readers’ attention is a strong, unique, and personality-heavy narrative voice. Voice is what defines both your story and your narrating character. You can think of voice as your story’s unique fingerprint. If your book were a band, this would be the sound that makes it recognizable. So if […]
July 11, 2012 by 18 Comments NarrativeHave You Set the Right Tone for Your Story?
Tone is one of those things, along with author “voice,” that can be difficult for us get our heads around since to some extent it just happens. But tone, even more than voice, is something we can—and should—deliberately consider and plan for the good of our stories. Think of tone as sort of like a […]
February 10, 2012 by 28 Comments NarrativeThe Value of Good Customer Service
This post is by Carrie Spencer. Hi all! My name is Carrie and I’m a customer-service-aholic. Yes, I just made that word up. I’ve been in the restaurant business for twenty-two years as a bartender, a waitress, and a manager—occasionally all at the same time. In order to be successful in the restaurant business, you […]
February 1, 2012 by 72 Comments NarrativeDon’t Even Think About Using First-Person Unless…
First-person is a popular narrative perspective, among both authors and readers, since it allows the narrating character to directly address readers by funneling the entire story through the narrator’s head, using the pronoun “I”—as in, “I went dragon slaying that fateful day”—versus the third-person pronouns—as in, “she went dragon slaying that fateful day.” First-person POVs […]
December 28, 2011 by 18 Comments NarrativeHow to Choose the Right Words for Your Story’s Tone
Words are the link between the ethereal realm of our imaginations and the concrete reality of our books. So it’s no surprise that our choice of words is the single most important factor in our presentation of our stories. It’s also one of the toughest, since there are millions of words for us to choose […]
