Tagged: authors
Writing Pitfalls: Pacing
Unlike with some things like dialogue or grammar, pacing in a novel is not that easy to fix. Every author writes differently (obviously) so of course everyone is going to make different mistakes. The only tried-and-true method for working out pacing issues is getting a good developmental editor, but I’ve decided to write some tips to help you avoid the most common pitfalls when it comes to pacing.
Pitfall #1: Not enough/too much background information.
One of the problems that I most commonly encounter, particularly in fantasy and science fiction is that the writer is trying so hard to have a fast-paced story that they leave out information that could help the reader actually understand the story. In fantasy it’s important that you reveal information about your world and the rules therein to your reader or they’re really not going to care what’s happening. The same goes for science fiction, which also has the added difficulty of explaining science to both newbies to the genre and hardcore fans.
As a writer it’s hard to separate what information you’re imparting to the reader from what information you have up in your head that seems obvious to you, the creator. One of the best ways to figure out whether you have enough background is to get some beta readers. If they’re left with more questions than answers by the end of the novel you’ve got some more writing to do.
Conversely, if a reader doesn’t need to learn about every family’s bloodlines, motivations, hair colour, eye colour, etc. then you’ve got some rewriting to do to take out that irrelevant information. It’s important for the reader to be able to distinguish secondary characters from one another but if you as a writer really need to focus on making your main characters pop out. This not only helps the reader follow your story but helps with the plot so you don’t get too bogged down in secondary character subplots. Continue reading
Writing Pitfalls: Dialogue
I don’t claim to be a writer or even an expert on books in general, but I know what I like as a reader and what other people like to read in general. That’s why I’m writing this 10 part series to help writers, especially self-published writers, improve their writing.
I can’t tell you guys how many times I’ve wanted to throw my Kindle or my book at the wall because of bad dialogue. You could say I’m exaggerating but I’m being completely honest when I say that if your book has awesome characters, a fast-paced plot and solid world-building but has bad dialogue I will not be able to finish it. I have had to give up on more books than I care to admit because of wretched dialogue.
All of the mistakes with dialogue basically boil down to three main categories, which I’ll go into detail below.
Pitfall #1: Stiff dialogue.
Example: “Why hello Gerard! What a lovely day it is outside, is it not? I believe the chief meteorologist Jonathon Ziegelgansberger predicted a temperature of 90 degrees, which is 15 degrees above the seasonal average. In our little town of Cosmo our main industry is tourism, therefore I expect all of the businesses will see a 100% increase in sales this financial quarter.”
How to fix it:
I swear the example above is not an exaggeration of some of the dialogue I’ve read in books, both self-published and traditional. Dialogue is a tricky thing but the main problem I seem to see is that authors don’t read their dialogue aloud to themselves. They don’t consider whether the way they write is the way a person would actually speak in the real world. Authors: you need to make your dialogue flow naturally. I have two very simple tips below to help you:
1. Read it aloud to yourself. If you stumble over words or it sounds ridiculous to your ears, that’s a good hint that your dialogue is stiff.
2. Ask yourself if a person with the character’s socioeconomic status, upbringing, education level, etc. would speak that way in the real world.
These are some pretty simple steps to fixing stiff dialogue but very, very few authors even bother to do them and editors don’t seem to catch it. Continue reading
Discussion: ARCs
For those of you who aren’t hip to the book community lingo, ARC stands for advanced reading copy. Basically, before books are published authors send out a certain number of copies to reviewers to generate hype for when the actual release date is. Bloggers seem to love them, publishers like giving them out to a certain extent and most self-published authors are eager to send them. But not everyone seems to like them.
From a blogger’s perspective I do like ARCs. It’s nice to get physical copies in the mail because, hey, free books. It’s also nice to get ebook ARCs from my favourite self-published authors because it’s very hard to wait until the actual release date for a book you’re excited for. Some bloggers say they feel pressure to get and review ARCs but personally I’ve never really felt that pressure. Maybe I just have too much of a “I don’t care what most people think” attitude.
What I want to know now is: If you’re an author, would you say there are substantial benefits to sending out ARCs to bloggers? What are some of the benefits? As a book blogger, do you feel pressure to seek out and review ARCs? Do you like the idea of ARCs in general?
Discussion: Blog Tours
No, this isn’t my usual ‘good or bad?’ discussion, but rather just a place to share experiences. In this case, I want to share blog tour experiences. And just in the spirit of fairness I’ve devised questions for authors, reviewers and blog readers so everyone can participate!
Authors: Have you ever done a blog tour? Did you organize it yourself or did you go through a tour company? Which company? Would you say your tour was beneficial in terms of sales, exposure and reviews? Why or why not? If you had the chance, would you do a blog tour again?
Reviewers: Do you tour with some blog tour companies? If so, which ones? If not, why not? What are some of the benefits of joining a blog tour? How have your experiences been with blog tours (i.e. good or bad)?
Blog Readers: As a reader, do you enjoy blog tour posts (i.e. cover reveals, book blasts, guest posts, interviews and/or reviews)? Why or why not?
Discussion: Book Review Request Forms
As I cryptically hinted at yesterday I will be changing the way I accept book review requests in the future to avoid such a horrible backlog. How will I do this? Well, instead of leaving authors with no guidelines which they seem to take as an invitation to be lazy, I will make them fill out a form. Yes, some authors will rail against the injustice of it all and how much time it will take, but those are the authors I really wouldn’t want to review anyway. If you can’t follow my rules, I’m not going to read your book. Plain and simple.
So my question for you guys is this: What would the ideal book review request form include? Would you ask authors for things like the genre, book blurb, target age group, etc? Do you think a review request form is the way to go? Or should I be trying something else to avoid my backlog as well as badly behaving authors?