Angela Misri is the up-and-coming Canadian author of the new mystery series, A Portia Adams Adventure. The first book in the series is called Jewel of the Thames and is actually featured on Kindle at the moment for $4.60. But what I really wanted to share with you is the adorable Fiction Writing series that…
Dialogue is one of the tale-tell signs of believability for characters in writing. “Hello,” Michael said. “Anna, it’s been nearly seventeen years since I’ve last seen you. My, you look the same. Brown hair, brown eyes, about five feet, six inches.” “Hi Michael,” Anna said. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen you. I’ve recently…
Recently I have been obsessed with dialogue and how to create good dialogue. When I say “good” I mean creating dialogue that moves the story ahead, that has a purpose rather than just taking up space. Part of this new found obsession is because I have dived back into graphic novels. I really enjoy reading…
The secret every one of us learns after many years of writing is that writing is not just about that flash of inspiration. It is mostly about re-writing and editing. Lots of it. When editing your chapters, I suggest the following: Read it aloud and fix any sentence that sounds stilted. Check your dialogue. Is…
In other words, dialogue tags. Dialogue tags are words that identify the speaker. Dialogue, at its best, is tricky; at its worst, nightmarish. But get it right and you have got one of your main ingredients of your novel nailed. However, trying to write great dialogue that moves your story along and is not stilted…
I don’t normally feature websites for writers and it is so rare to find a website who’s only focus is encouraging writers to write literary fiction. Bill Cole emailed me recently to let me know about his website
Novels, on average, have about 300 pages. At 250 words a page that would make a 75,000 word novel. Regardless of the abundance of words, it’s the first few pages that determine a reader’s interest in a story and whether they will