It seems that writing dialogue would come naturally to everyone — as naturally as speaking — but writing and speaking are two very different things. The difficulty in writing good dialogue comes with making your dialogue sound like natural speech, but avoiding all of those “uhs” and “you knows” that… Read More »Writing Dialogue (excerpt from my novel included)
At times, you’ve probably been reading a sentence and come across a set of dashes being used to separate out a phrase or a few words from the main part of the sentence. These dashes — also known as em dashes — are often used incorrectly in writing. Many writers… Read More »When to Properly Use a Dash — or Em Dash — in Grammar
Two armies face off across an open field. You’ve set the scene; the battle is about to begin, but what do you do now? How do you capture the chaos and frenzy of hand-to-hand combat on paper? Do you try to gather a sweeping panorama of the battle from an… Read More »Writing a Battle Sequence (Novel Excerpt Included)
Amazon.com is the hands-down leader in the online bookselling marketplace. And—although it’s notoriously difficult to speak with a living, breathing human being—Amazon prides itself on meeting its customers’ needs. What’s the easiest way to drive sales for your book on Amazon? Easy: maximize the content on your product page and… Read More »Optimize Your Amazon Page to Drive Sales for Your Novel
Noah Lukeman is the President of Lukeman Literary Management Ltd., founded in 1996, and he is the author of the bestselling books The First Five Pages: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile and The Plot Thickens: 8 Ways to Bring Fiction to Life. He has valuable insight… Read More »Interview with Noah Lukeman, Literary Agent
I came across this post on Pick the Brain that discuss George Orwell’s essay Politics and the English Language written in 1946. In the essay, Orwell focuses on how to communicate more effectively as a writer. His rules are quite simple and logical, much like Strunk’s advice on writing in The Elements… Read More »Rules for Effective Writing by George Orwell
This is one of those tough grammar questions in writing that even I have a tough time remembering. When do I use who and when do I use whom? The following is an easy way to remember this distinction. Use who when you could replace it with he or she. Example… Read More »Who versus Whom
I came across this article, written by Leo Babuata, that deals with developing good writing habits. A lot of these are logical ideas you’ve probably already heard, but reinforcing those ideas and putting them into practice is another thing. I think his approach is simple and very do-able; it’s just a… Read More »Simple Writing Habits to Complete Your First Novel
I was chatting on a forum the other day, and the conversation sparked the idea for this blog post. When writing your novel, what is the best way to incorporate research and historical details into your writing? I’m not sure there is a best practice for doing this; everyone most likely… Read More »Writing and Historical Research