Jul 21 2008
This short article will help beginning novelists avoid another five common mistakes that will usually cause publishers to throw out a manuscript.
Jul 20 2008
Beginning authors usually try to visualize objects by describing their color. Their characters have brown eyes and black hair and inhabit a world of green bushes and brown tables and grey clouds. Or, if they have a thesaurus on hand, maybe the grass will be emerald and the sky will be azure.
Color hardly ever suggests anything interesting about the character or object. For example, let’s say that my villain’s eyes are blue instead of green or brown. Who cares? Do blue eyes suggest anything about the character or advance the plot? If not, then the the detail is irrelevant and should be removed. Most color usage is irrelevant.
Jul 19 2008
Cadet Davis reviews and revises the titles of 30 manuscripts submitted to a writing workshop. This will help you evaluate and improve your titles.
Above Average
Jul 18 2008
It is tempting to write historical celebrities into any historically themed work (“look, there’s Winston Churchill!”). If you do so, please avoid these common mistakes.
Jul 17 2008
I read a story today that started with the sentence “This story has to begin with a small lesson in geography.” First, starting a story with a geography lesson will earn you an instant rejection (see question #8 under the fantasy subheading). But I was almost as annoyed by the self-referential “this story.” When you remind the reader he’s reading a book, it’s harder for him to immerse himself in the fantasy.
Jul 17 2008
Cadet Davis reviews and revises the titles of 30 manuscripts submitted to a writing workshop. This will help you evaluate and improve your titles.
Above Average
Jul 16 2008
This article gives nine tips to writing a title that grips readers and sells your book.
1. Tell us enough about the book to make us want to read it.This is what separates bland, forgettable titles like The Dragon from classics like His Majesty’s Dragon. The more we can surmise about the plot, the better.
2. Do not use imaginary place names.Readers haven’t heard of Asgardia, Lukawanda, or whatever your fictional kingdom or city is called.Your invented words won’t interest us because they don’t mean anything to us.I think the place names most appealing to prospective readers are those that use English words, like the Temple of Doom. We can guess what a temple of doom is.
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Jul 16 2008
Cadet Davis reviews and revises the titles of 30 manuscripts submitted to a writing workshop. This will help you evaluate and improve your titles.
Above Average
Jul 15 2008
Just because a character has an accent doesn’t mean he has to ruin all of his scenes. This article describes how to keep your characters from sounding like Hagrid.
Jul 14 2008
When an interjection like “well” starts a sentence, it’s usually wasted space. If you start sentences with any of these common offenders, double-check to make sure that they actually contribute something to the sentence. Otherwise, please remove them.
Jul 14 2008
Don’t have your characters spend too much time musing about events that have already happened in the story.
When characters are preoccupied with something that’s already happened, the author has probably lost track of where the story is going. You can give your story forward momentum by drawing our attention to what’s just around the corner. If someone tried to kill the protagonist yesterday, we will care more about what the assassins are planning for tomorrow than what the character thinks about the attack today.
If you are interested in building on what has already happened in the story, it will probably be more effective to try to have your characters investigate the mystery. But an investigation is very different than just musing with your friends and confidantes. An investigation will add evidence, either by looking for clues or trying to get witnesses to talk. Investigations are superior to musing because the search for information adds more to the story than just talking about what has already happened. (There’s also more potential for conflict, particularly if someone’s trying to sabotage the search).
Here are a few common scenarios that frequently lead to characters musing about the past.
Jul 14 2008
The Associated Press describes a California town that is so xenophobic that it has a vigilante “Border Patrol” tear down all the road signs that might help motorists find it. What a delightfully gruesome detail. Would you like a writing assignment? Write a detail that describes a fundamental flaw of a place or character. The more flavor, the better.
Jul 11 2008
The authors that try to present political or religious opinions usually confuse their opinions with insights. How is your message different from what people have already heard about abortion? For example, your readers have already heard many people chant “abortion is good” and “abortion is bad.” Is your story just another voice in the chorus or will it actually add something? Why will anyone care about your opinion? Do you have any unique perspective on the subject material? Do you have relevant professional or scholarly experience? Are you personally affected by the issue? Etc.
Jul 11 2008
Authors shouldn’t tell cue their readers to laugh. Consider the following comedic exchange. “What’s the difference between the Yankees bullpen and Pizza Hut?” asked John. Mary shrugged. “Pizza Hut delivers,” said John. They laughed. “They laughed” cues the readers to laugh at John’s joke.
That’s insulting to your readers. If your comedy is effective, readers will know when to laugh. Reminding them to laugh at something that wasn’t funny to them will just draw their attention to ineffective writing.
Here are some situations that are usually examples of laugh-tracking:
Jul 10 2008
Gimmicky writing is when a writer tries something “new” that annoys readers, rather than actually giving a better reading experience.
Jul 10 2008
Jul 09 2008
Jul 07 2008
One common superhero archetype is the national paragon, a hero designed to represent a country, ethnic group or other group of people. The most obvious example is Captain America, but the list is long. For example, Hadji from Johnny Quest exists only to charm snakes and hack computers. (Also, have I mentioned that “haji” is an ethnic slur?)
Here is a list of potential problems with using national paragons…
Jul 05 2008
Reviewer: I like your work, but I think that [some aspect of your writing] is flawed.
Author: Oh, that? I meant to do that.
Reviewer: Ahh… do you think you could fix it?
Author: But that would ruin the style of the piece!
Deliberately inflicting substandard writing on your story for “stylistic” or “literary” purposes is usually a prelude to rejection. If your reviewers were able to discern that it was either stylish or literary, they wouldn’t be complaining about it.
Here are a few areas that are especially prone to intentionally bad writing…
Jul 03 2008
Like The Fantasy Novelist’s Exam, we’ve written a list of questions to help you identify problems with your writing. Continue Reading »
Jul 03 2008
Sword-and-spell fantasy is a genre that attracts many prospective writers, which is good. Unfortunately, many of those authors are unpolished. Fortunately, there is an author’s test that will help fantasy authors diagnose some of the most common problems in their book. I find the following list of plot elements particularly useful:
Jul 01 2008
Jun 28 2008
This short article will help beginning novelists avoid another five common mistakes that might cause a publisher to throw out a manuscript.
You can see the first two articles in this series here and here.
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Jun 26 2008
This short article will help beginning novelists avoid another five common mistakes that will usually cause publishers to throw out a manuscript.
This article is a sequel to “Five Mistakes of First-Time Novelists,” which you can read here.
Jun 25 2008
This short article will help beginning novel-writers avoid five common mistakes that will usually cause publishers to throw out a manuscript.
Jun 21 2008
This article will help you identify and eliminate potential gimmicks in your writing. For example, Gadsby was written without the letter ‘E.’ This is the ultimate gimmick, an attempt by an author to try something new that ends up rubbing readers the wrong way. Remember, you’re writing a book, not playing Scrabble.
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Jun 14 2008
Nintendo needs to make a Wii Fit zombie game. It would mix hand exercises (hacking at zombies with a fire-ax) with aerobics (RUN!). Plus, the game could work in Eternal Darkness’s insanity effects by having the Wii Fit board wobble to simulate the world going funky on you.
–Cadet Davis
Jun 05 2008
This article will help you create and develop characters.
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