Category Archives: Writing Tips

Today’s Writing Tip

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Creating characters that stand out can be a challenge. One way you can add color to your characters is by giving them a regional accent. This will automatically have an influence on their personality as readers will associate them with someone they already know from that locale. If they don’t, then they get to meet one through your character. How fun is that?

Capture their accent in writing by deliberately misspelling their dialog to reflect how it sounds phonetically. This is most easily done if you’re familiar with the accent. For example, I have lived in Texas for over thirty years, so I definitely know what someone from Texas sounds like, y’all!

If you really want to get into this, which also requires intimate knowledge of the region, you can add colloquialisms specific to the area. A few here in the Lone Star State include such things as “I was up all night like a tree full of owls” (insomnia) or “When he got home late, she was on him like white on rice” (chewed him out). These can often add some comic relief as well as further defining your character.

Today’s Writing Tip

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Writers and would-be authors usually don’t have any trouble putting words down on paper. That does not mean that it can’t be improved, only that they have potential. No matter how much your Aunt Geraldine likes your stories or thinks you should be on the New York Times Best Seller list, chances are you have room for improvement.

Always strive to be the best writer you can be. Reading books by established authors published by well-known publishers usually (but not always) provides examples of outstanding writing and editing that you should emulate.

This is not to say that you can get there overnight. It takes years of study, practice, and coaching to perfect your style. Have confidence, but at the same time be humble enough to realize there is always, with few exceptions, room for improvement.

Today’s Writing Tip

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I already mentioned this fairly recently, but it’s important enough to bear repeating. Understand there are several types of editors. Proofreaders look for typos. Copy editors look at punctuation and grammar. Line editors look at sentence structure and flow. Content editors look at plot & characterizations.

If you’re lucky enough to have a first-rate publisher, they are likely to provide all of these. If you’re an indie author, then it’s essential for you to understand these different roles. Just because you can come up with a clever story doesn’t mean it will be worth reading unless you can convey it effectively. The skills these types of editors represent can help make sure you do.

Of course it’s going to cost you. Thus, it will serve you well to educate yourself and become the best possible writer so as to minimize the help you require.

If you want more detail regarding the types of editors you can find it here.

Today’s Writing Tip

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What is the one thing that keeps you turning the pages? I think in most cases it’s wondering what happens next. Even if you think you know, then you’ll still want to find out if you’re correct.

The simple term for generating this type of curiosity if of course known as Suspense, which is essential in any story. The more you can build into the story, the more engaged your reader will be. This is not to say that you need constant, nail-biting action. There are all sorts of suspense, most of which boils down to being concerned for one or more of the characters and whether they will be hurt physically, emotionally, psychologically, etc.

One way to build suspense is to throw as many obstacles as possible at your characters. If things are going too smoothly, it’s time to throw something at them that was unexpected. As an author I’ve always assumed when I get my characters into a situation where I have no idea how they’re going to survive or get out of it that my readers will wonder, too.

Today’s Writing Tip

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Be original! If you’re going to rehash an over-used plot vehicle, give it a new twist. If your story is too predictable, you’ll lose readers.

They say there are only a few basic plots, which are used over and over. Boy gets girl; whodunnit? vampires; zombies; psychos; other worlds; other universes; etc. Another example at a more fundamental level is the hero’s journey. More on that some other time.

This is not to say that this is unavoidable. There are some truly unique stories out there, but in most cases, they’re going to be similar to some other story in one way or another. If you want your work to stand out, however, you need to make it original in some way. Some character, setting, or plot twist that makes it different. It can be done, even if it takes some effort.  At the very least, your characters need to be so engaging and real that the reader gets sucked into them, even if the rest of the story is familiar.

Today’s Writing Tip

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You may or may not have picked up on the fact that these daily blurbs are little rants about things I’ve encountered in reading a wide variety of books as much as what I may have learned in formal or informal training sessions.

As a trained scientist who worked at NASA for over 20 years, one of my biggest pet peeves is when a book is blatantly WRONG scientifically. This occurs on a regular basis on television and in movies, which is likewise annoying. A rant of mine that goes way back was directed at the movie “Armageddon” which was so wrong in so many ways, it was downright pathetic. If you’d like to read it, you can find it here.

Needless to say, if you write science fiction you’re going to stretch things beyond everyday Earth life. However, don’t violate the known laws of physics without providing rationale for doing so. Invent new laws if you like, but make them believable. There’s a whole lot of room for speculation in theories like quantum theory, parallel universes, and blackholes, but make it convincing.

And along those lines, be aware of the difference between science fiction and fantasy. If you don’t know the difference, you probably shouldn’t be writing in one of those genres.

Today’s Writing Tip

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The entire point of fiction is to create a story. Nonetheless, it needs to be convincing. It may have never happened, but the reader needs to believe it did or at least could. When a story isn’t credible, it becomes one of those items mentioned yesterday that throw you out of the story, a huge faux pas.

Create any possibility you want, just make sure the reader will be convinced. Characters need to be believable, situations credible (no matter how extreme), and plots convincing. This is the fun of creating a world, making it real. If it’s real inside your head, that’s only part of the battle. You need to convey enough detail to your reader for them to believe it and envision it, too.

Today’s Writing Tip

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One of my favorite sayings is “No life is ever wasted: You can always serve as a bad example.” Of course as an author, replacing “life” with “book” works as well.

Nothing is more disruptive to enjoying a story than being thrown out of it for some reason. This can occur due to the usual suspects like typos and misused words, an inconsistency such as an eye-color change, losing track of who is speaking, poor scene transitions, viewpoint character unclear, and so forth.

When this happens, put it to good use. If something throws you out of a story, stop long enough to figure out why. Then make sure you’re not guilty of the same thing. You can learn from all writers, whether more or less skilled than you are.

Today’s Writing Tip

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As noted yesterday, editing is important. Nothing ruins what would otherwise be a good story faster than typos, misspelled words, misuse of homonyms, poor sentence structure, too many adverbs, etc.

The first level of editing is your responsibility as the author. You will miss things such as typos and missing words because you will “see” what you expect to be there. One way to avoid this is to read your work out loud. That way you are more likely to focus on the words on the page and notice anything missing.

It’s also helpful for line editing. If you find yourself saying something different than what’s written, it is likely a hint that you should reword it accordingly. If it’s awkward when read aloud, it needs to change. A few of my books have been produced as audio books. In a few cases, my narrator caught some awkward sentences that were reworded for clarity, demonstrating how well that works.

Today’s Writing Tip

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Editing is essential, but it’s extremely difficult to edit your own work. Hiring an editor isn’t simple. Besides the fact there are several different types of editor who perform different functions, many are simply clueless. Just because they can read they think they can edit. I have seen many indie books where the poor, unsuspecting author paid someone to edit their story and definitely didn’t get their money’s worth.

I don’t know about you, but the last thing I want to do is put out money and then not get what I expected in return. There are a couple ways to approach this problem.

1. When you read a well-written, nicely edited book, find out who the editor was from the author. There’s always a chance the author did a flawless job and the work wasn’t a credit to the editor at all, but it’s still better than no reference at all.

2. Make sure you have a clear understanding what you expect the editor to do. As noted earlier, there are many different kinds, from someone who functions largely as a proofreader who identifies typos (and if you’re lucky, incorrectly used words like those pesky homonyms), to those who essentially rewrite your entire story or even check your research.

3. In most cases you’ll get what you pay for. This, of course, is often the problem. Struggling authors can’t always afford an editor. This can be a huge mistake, just like slapping one of those rather pathetic canned covers on it. However, there is a way around it that can work and that is to arrange a beta exchange with another author. Just make sure both of you are skilled enough to do the job and you agree on your expectations, format, etc.

There’s a description of the different types of editor on my other website here. Yes, I do editing and my rates are based on what you want as well as the condition of your manuscript, of which I’ll want a sample so I can give you a personalized bid.