Write well. Write often. Edit wisely.
Even your most avid fans may hunger for a different protagonist, a different story world, or even a different genre. Consider options for when readers become saturated by elements of your stories.
Continue reading Reader Saturation—Dealing with Changing Reader Tastes »
A introduction to the narrative modes of fiction—action, dialogue, description, exposition, and thought—and a brief discussion of how they can be combined in novels.
Continue reading Narrative Modes in Fiction—Telling Your Story (Writing Essentials) »
Expletives—there is, there were, it is, it was, and so forth—can make sentences dull. And sometimes they’re just used too often in our writing. Learn how expletives can work either for or against story.
Use word choices to make your stories stand out, to involve readers in the fiction. Tips for twisting common words into memorable passages.
Tone, mood, and style—three of the elements of fiction—each contribute to the feel of a story. Learn what each is and how they affect one another.
If readers aren’t engaged by your story, maybe you’re holding them at a distance, using filtering phrases that keep them a step away from the action and emotion of a scene. Check out these common filtering phrases that keep readers at a distance.
There is not only one way to write a sentence, a scene, a chapter, or a story. Writing a novel isn’t only about plugging in words and events and scenes in accordance with a formula. It’s writing with skill and artistry.
Story passages have a rhythm, a pattern, a sound. Yet I don’t want to talk about rhythm so much as I do flow. Rhythm can affect flow, but it’s only one element that can. Let’s look at other story elements that can interfere with flow. Stories should flow, move along without impediment, and lead ever […]
Fiction can be sterile and bland and seemingly perfect, but sterile stories don’t engage the reader. Be encouraged to bypass the safe and sterile and instead write engrossing stories.
Continue reading The Sterile Story—Don’t Write Another One »
Using clichés is like wearing someone else’s old and dirty clothes. They might have looked good at one time, but they don’t look good anymore. They don’t fit right and they don’t smell too good and they do nothing to improve your looks and bearing.
The reader will focus on what stands out. Turn the reader's attention where you want it to go.
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Copyright © 2010-2018 E. A. Hill Visit Beth at A Novel Edit
Write well. Write often. Edit wisely.
