I'm a former assistant editor with advice about how to write novels, comic books and graphic novels. Most of my content applies to fiction-writing in general, but I also provide articles specifically about superhero stories.

Beginning authors tend to overuse “said bookisms,” which are words used to replace the word “said.”  For example, in the sentence “I’m ready!” he declared, declared is a said-bookism.

Using more than a few said-bookisms per page will probably make the dialogue feel melodramatic and stilted (“I’m hungry,” he uttered). Some common said-bookisms are wrong because they aren’t actually a way to speak.  For example, “I knew you’d come back,” she smiled lazily conflates two actions: the speaking and the smiling.   No, she didn’t smile those words.  It would be clearer and more publisher-friendly to change the phrase to “she said with a smile” or give the two actions their own sentences.

Additionally, animal-sounds are unusually annoying.  It doesn’t take much of him clucking and her purring to sound absolutely ridiculous.

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If your characters are comfortable, chances are that the story isn’t doing anything interesting. “Could you pass me a crumpet, dearie?” Far too many manuscripts get bogged down in characters chatting. Scenes that focus on chatting are typically boring and pointless. Fortunately, you can easily fix these scenes by adding discomfort and conflict. What if the two conversants hated each other but couldn’t avoid talking? What if John and Margaret had utterly failed on a joint project at work and they could only keep their job by moving past what had gone wrong? Or what if John were obnoxiously, madly in love with Margaret? Suddenly the scene has potential. Dramatic possibilities abound.

Here’s a webcomic to help remind you to keep things uncomfortable.

I found these two articles on writing male speech and female speech quite useful.

This article will help you write tight and effective dialogue, courtesy of Shut Up, He Explained.

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How to Improve Your Characters

1. How to Name Characters (Superheroes and Otherwise)
2. How to Develop Interesting Characters– Easily!
3. A List of Character Attributes
4. Writing Male Characters
5. Please Don’t Model Your Characters on Your Friends
6. Don’t Make Your Villains Unnecessarily Evil
7. Why Secret Origins Usually Fail (“Leia’s my sister!?!”)
8. How to Make Your Character’s Job Interesting
9. How to Use Characters with Mental Disorders
10. Don’t Let Minor Characters Steal the Show
11. How to Make a Character Likable
12. Please Don’t Use Generically Nice Characters
13. Writing Villains Vs. Writing Heroes
14. How to Make Your Love Interest a Real Character (Banana Slug)
15. Be Careful With Crying Characters (Marissa)
16. Which Female Characters Are The Most Awful and Why?

How to Improve Your Titles

1. 10 Words that Will Probably Ruin Your Title
2. 10 Common Mistakes of Novel Titles
3. How to Write Titles That Sell (Novels and Chapters)
4. Your Title is Bad, But You Can Fix It (Part 1)
5. Your Title is Bad, But You Can Fix It (Part 2)
6. Your Title is Bad, But You Can Fix It (Part 3)
7. Your Title is Bad… (Part 4)
8. Your Title is Bad… (Part 5)
9. Your Title is Bad… (Part 6)
10. Your Title is Bad… (Part 7)
11. Your Title is Bad… (Part 8 )
12. Your Title is Bad… (Part 9)
13. Your Title is Bad… (Part 10)

Structuring Your Story

1. How to Survive to Page 2
2. Writing a Novel’s Synopsis
3. How to Handle Backstory
4. How to Do Multiple Narrators and POVs With Style
5. How to Convey Information the POV Doesn’t Have
6. Be Careful with Sequels
7. How to Write Strong Introductions (Novels)
8. The Five Worst Novel Introductions
9. Don’t Wait to Introduce Your Main Character
10. Common Problems with First-Person Narration
11. Common Problems with Third-Person Narration
12. Organizing Your Plot: Five Kinds of Central Plots
13. Story Structure
14. Cover Your Plot Holes– It Might Be Hilarious

Becoming a Professional Writer

1. Eight Facts About Writing That Surprise Inexperienced Novelists
2. Another Eight Facts About Writing That Surprise Inexperienced Novelists

Plotting and Pacing

1. Start Your Story As Everything Goes Wrong
2. Make Your Story Interesting with Urgent Goals
3. Your Introduction Should Not Read Like an Atlas
4. Don’t Let Your Characters Walk Away from the Story
5. How to Make Traveling Interesting
6. How to Beat Disbelief and Immerse Readers
7. Plot Elements That Cannot Be Added Lightly
8. How to Avoid Info-Dumping
9. Training Scenes

How to Avoid Common Writing Mistakes

1. 5 Common Mistakes of First-Time Authors (Part 1)
2. 5 Common Mistakes of First-Time Authors (Part 2)
3. 5 Common Mistakes of First-Time Authors (Part 3)
4. 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 4)
5. 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 5)
6. 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 6)
7. 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 7)
8. 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 8 )
9. 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 9)
10. 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 10)
11. If You’re A First-Time Author, Do Not Self-Publish!

Dialogue

1. Avoid These Common Dialogue Mistakes
2. Don’t Use Bad Accents
3. Keep Your Dialogue Tight

Other Writing Mechanics and Miscellaneous

1. How to Beat Writer’s Block
2. Don’t Quit Your Day-Job!
3. How to Pace an Action Scene
4. How to Write Gripping Scenes
5. Write Concisely!
6. Eliminate Gimmicks in Your Writing
7. Don’t Abuse “There’s”
8. 9 Words That Should Never Start a Sentence
9. A Few Notes on Punctuation
10. Make Your Story Intriguing, Not Cryptic
11. A Writer’s Guide to Guns and Firearms
12. How to Do Settings and Scenery Well
13. Don’t Tell Readers What the Character Isn’t Doing

Genre Writing

1. Common Pitfalls of Romance (ReTARDised Whovian)
2. How to Make Your Love Interest a Real Character (Banana Slug)
3. How to Write Comedy
4. How to Write Parody (Tom)

Editing and Refining Your Work

1. How to Take Criticism Well
2. Applying “Rules” of Writing to Your Work
3. 100 Questions to Test Your Story
4. Style Checklist
5. How to Make the Most of Beta Reviews
6. How to Evaluate Your Writing with Google Analytics

Getting Published and Self-Publishing

1. What is a Query? How Do I Write One?
2. Sharpen Your Story With a Two Sentence Synopsis
3. More Two-Sentence Synopsis Tips
4. Marcus Hart Explains: How to Self-Publish
5. How Much Will It Cost Me to Self-Publish?
6. Why First-Time Authors Should Not Even Think About Self-Publishing
7. Why Self-Publishing Might Work for You
8. Which Comparable Works Make For The Best References?

Target Audience

1. How to Write for Kids (Tom)
2. How to Write for Kids (B. Mac)
3. Your Readers Are Not the Same as You!
4. Market Trends: Teen Literature is Selling Quite Well

Blogging

1. How to Monetize a Website: Ads or No Ads?
2. How to Format WordPress Text for Your Website
3. Organizing Your Site
4. You Can Do Better Than Archives
5. Edit Your Comments!
6. Don’t Pull Rank On Your Readers!

Marketing

1. How to Design Strong Header Art

Authorial Mindsets

1. Mental Issues in the Workplace
2. Think Like an Editor (Marissa)

Social Commentary in Fiction

1. So You Want to be an Opinionated Author
2. Writing About Racism
3. How Valid is Diversity Criticism?

Did this index help?  Please submit it to Stumble!