Dialogue. It is a necessary evil if you have characters. They must communicate, after all. Someone has to talk. It is also some of the most challenging writing you’ll do. Why? Because you need to know your characters enough to speak for them. As them. Use their vocabularies, not yours. Reflect their histories and...
What are dialogue tags? They are the little he saids, she saids of the literary world. While many of us learned in school to vary our dialogue tags so we don’t just use ‘said’ all the time, the fact is, if you can’t substitute the tag you have now with ‘said’ and still understand...
I was thinking about how to meet the needs of our clients today, and it occurred to me, I should ask writers what they are looking for in an editing service! So, this is your chance: tell me what you want in an editor. We will try to incorporate as many of your suggestions...
Stories are built upon their strong skeletons of plot and structure. Each scene should contribute to the story, not wander away from it. Once all of this is in place, however, it is the details that change that plain flat cake with canned frosting on it into a many-tiered masterpiece. Have you ever read...
This was written by a client of mine, Morgan Gallagher. Despite our differences (she lives in the UK and I’m in the States), we have managed to form a wonderful relationship while working on her first book, Changeling. I had asked her to write a short blurb for my Client Testimonial page if she...
Today we have a wonderful guest post by Heidi Turner. She has put into words my feelings exactly; it bothers me to no end when I buy a book and find errors. Help us all make books as error-free as possible! Enjoy Heidi’s wonderful post and be sure to visit her sites listed at...
Today we welcome Adi Alsaid, the author of Somewhere Over the Sun. He has graciously written a guest post for us about his experience working with editors on his novel. For those of you who are afraid to work with an editor or who don’t know what possible benefit an editor can give you...
Are you a professional author? Are you self-published? Are you a professional if you self-publish? Some people seem to think that if you self-publish, you are not a professional. I beg to differ. With the big publishing houses taking fewer chances on new writers, the chances of being picked up and published is smaller...
I went visiting today over to the Word Whisperer and dropped off a nice blurb on character description. Do you believe your readers need to know everything about a character including their shoe size? Unless it is pertinent to the story, who cares? Take a walk over to Shakirah’s site and learn how to...
No matter what kind of story you’re writing, you need to set the scene. Have you ever read a book and felt like you were really there alongside the characters? That author set the scene so it became real to you. This is what you want to do, no matter if you are writing...
