1. Present Tense This is the default tense of nearly all beginning writers. The trouble is that few established authors use it. It’s more of an exception than the rule. So when you write your book in present tense, it’s like you’re marking it with a giant stamp that screams to every agent, publishers, and […]
There are many posts about how to title your book. Even Bookfox has one. But not as many writers concentrate on how to discuss the book title inside the book. It’s a powerful moment when the reader finally encounters the title of the book inside the pages of the story, and yet we don’t talk […]
One of the best ways to learn how to write is to learn by imitation. So if you want to write a fight scene, you should look at writers who have come before you. Below are a variety of fight scenes: some just with fists, some with weapons like swords, spears, and knives. All of […]
Writers can often feel burned out or directionless. Here are 5 podcasts for writers to help inspire, educate, entertain, and get them in the right mindset.
It’s time to write a big fight scene in your novel, but you don’t want to botch it. That’s understandable. I’ve read enough badly written fight scenes to know that it’s truly easy to write a boring, predictable fight scene with nothing at stake, where the reader doesn’t even care who wins by the end. […]
Everyone tells you to write scenes. To show, not tell. But what if that was … bad advice? Or at least limiting advice, because virtually every great book in history uses summary and “telling” in at least a few places in the book. And surprisingly, some books use summary for MOST of the book. And […]
When one of your characters is on drugs, you want to accurately portray the thoughts, actions, and speech of what someone would say on such a drug. But some of you might not want to take Ecstasy or Cocaine or Toad Venom in the course of your casual “writing research.” This post will rescue you! […]
Smell is the best sense to use in your writing. Yes: it’s better than sound, better than sight, better than touch. There’s something about smell that bypasses all of the normal roadblocks in our brain and goes straight to memory and animal instincts. It’s primitive. It’s elemental. If you want to really immerse a reader […]
Nothing can ruin a book faster than bad dialogue. It makes readers roll their eyes and give up on your book. Fantastic dialogue, on the other hand, reveals character, gives us a sense of place, provides tension and emotion, and helps move the plot forward. To help you out with writing dialogue, I’m going to […]
If there’s one essential element to make your fiction more entertaining, it’s writing better dialogue. Dialogue entertains readers, delights agents, and thrills publishers. If you have fantastic dialogue, it will cover a multitude of narrative sins. I’d recommend bookmarking this post so you could come back to it (because I’m about to download a massive […]
