“That is the question,” said . . . er . . . mused Jack. As you prepare your entries for the upcoming contest, consider the way you use dialogue. Have you read books where every snippet of dialogue ends with “he said” or “she said”? These phrases become boring and redundant. I’ve heard that our […]
Archives for 2011
Second Annual NOVELWritingSite.com Contest!
April 8, 2011 By 5 Comments
All year, you’ve been learning how to hone new skills that you can apply to your stories. Ready to see how you’ve improved? This contest gives you the opportunity to have professional writers take a look at the first five pages of your story–the pages that will hook a reader’s interest. We’ll give you positive […]
Writing Lesson 2.28 – Are Your Scenes Boring?
April 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment
In my last tutorial, I talked about heroes who are too perfect. In that same line, writing scenes that are too nice will lose your readers’ attention. Scenes that just meander on in Niceness, exuding lovely scenery, quiet dinners, bits of dialogue that mean nothing are boring. Something has to happen, even subtly, or the […]
Are You Polishing Your Contest Entry?
March 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment
You have about a month to brush up your first five pages for entry in our second annual NOVELWritingSite Writing Contest! Use the archive lessons to help you! More details next week!
Writing Lesson 2.27 – Begin with the End in Mind
March 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Some people seem to think that to tell a story, you just start talking and to write a story, you just start writing. Simply string two or more words together to make a sentence and repeat until you have a book, right? If you’ve tried your hand at writing, you know it’s not that simple. […]
