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There are various ways to add emphasis to your writing, which will bring importance to the words and phrases in your novel. Italics, CAPITAL LETTERS, Capital Initials, exclamation marks (!), interrobangs (?!), bold and underline will all add emphasis to your writing. But which way is best? And are there…
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Pacing and Flow: Editing Tips to Keep Readers Engaged
Have you ever read back through your manuscript and felt something wasn’t quite right? Possibly your dialogue drags, or perhaps a scene that felt great when you were writing it now feels too short, with missing details. You’re probably bumping into issues with pacing and flow. If you want to…
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Compelling Characters
Creating compelling characters is one of the most crucial aspects of writing fiction. You want to write characters who leap off the page, characters who you’d like to meet in real life, characters who truly resonate with your readers. But this is not easy! The Heart of Your Story: Why…
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More Self-Editing Tips for Fiction Authors
If you’ve just finished the first draft of your novel, and reviewed my original list of 10 self-editing tips for fiction authors, please read on for the next 10. (There are 24 tips in total, and 24 is the best one of the lot…) Of course hiring a freelance editorial…
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Self-Editing Tips for Fiction Authors
If you’ve just finished the first draft of your novel, now it’s time to look at my list of self-editing tips for fiction authors. The better your manuscript is before you send it to a fiction editor for some professional attention, the better your final, published book will be. Authors…
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Five Common Writing Mistakes
Being able to write well is a gift – but it’s not without its challenges. It doesn’t matter how good your writing is, there are always things that you will miss, and below I have listed the five common writing mistakes that I see most frequently. A copyeditor will help…
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Writing Compelling Dialogue
Writing compelling dialogue will elevate your novel from good to superb. Dialogue is one of the cornerstones of a novel – writing it well will gift your reader with an immersive experience. Dialogue can add depth to your characters, giving them individuality and personality. But many authors find it hard…
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What Even is DIALOGUE? What is dialogue in a novel? It’s how you represent the way your characters are speaking. In books, it tends to be encased within either ‘single quotes’ (common in the UK), or “double quotes” (common in the US). There are many rules relating to dialogue and…
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What is Dialogue Within Dialogue?
Dialogue is just another word for speech. Generally, dialogue is separated from standard text using inverted commas (also known as speech marks). These can be either single ( ‘ and ’ ) or double ( “ and ” ). Which style an author chooses is down to personal choice, although…
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What is Phonetic Dialogue?
Is it OK to write speech phonetically (phonetic dialogue) to illustrate an accent or lisp? The answer, as with pretty much everything else, is ‘it depends’. There is a time and place for differentiating characters based on how they speak – for example to indicate a different social background or…
