Most writers know the basics of capitalization: we should always capitalize the first word in a sentence, and we also capitalize personal names, place names, and other proper nouns. Today, I’m looking at some other common questions around capitalization: Brand names Christian Terms Nicknames Organization names Racial or ethnic identity Titles Other Uses Brand Names …
As the title suggests, this is a book about blogging as a Christian in a world that seems to rate sensationalism over truth and quantity over quality. The two authors provide a compelling case for more purposeful blogging from Christians. Neither is a megablogger. Instead, they are both average people, like you and me. They …
Some of you may know Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi of Writers Helping Writers. Well, today they are releasing a new book, and I’m part of their street team. I’m handing the blog over to them so they can tell you a bit about their Writer’s Showcase event, new book, and a great freebie to …
Yes 🙂 You should definitely write your novel in first person or third person point of view. But which do you choose, and what are the other alternatives? Let’s look at the alternatives first. Depending on who you ask, there are between three and twenty-seven different points of view in fiction. No, I can’t imagine …
This is another question I’ve seen authors ask online. It’s a good question. Dialogue is a necessary part of fiction, because dialogue it drives a lot of the plot. But it is possible to have too much dialogue? I suspect the answer is yes. It is possible to have too much dialogue. And like the …
This post is part of the monthly Author ToolBox Blog Hop, organised by Raimey Gallant. We now have over 40 blogs participating. To find more Blog Hop posts: Click here to visit the main Blog Hop page Click here to find our posts on Twitter Click here to find our Pinterest board Writing Strong Interior Monologue …
Over the last three weeks, I’ve discussed various aspects of writing dialogue and dialogue tags. I’ve covered: Tips for writing realistic dialogue in fiction Why “said” is the most effective speaker attribution Tips for writing strong action beats Today I’m looking at three more options for writing dialogue tags: Body language Dialogue cues Interior monologue …
Last week, I discussed why “said” is the most effective speaker attribution. No, I’m not a fan of creative dialogue tags (she apologised unrepentantly). But using “said” all the time can get boring and repetitive, and we don’t want our fiction to be boring or repetitive. What can we do? Fortunately, there are several alternatives …
Last week, I shared some tips for writing believable dialogue, given that dialogue is one of the main ways we can show plot movement and characterisation in a novel. But no discussion around dialogue is complete without adding advice on dialogue tags. Dialogue tags are how we indicate to readers which character is speaking. There …
Dialogue is one of the most important aspects of a novel. Great dialogue enhances characterisation, and moves the plot forward. But stilted or unrealistic dialogue makes a novel difficult to read, and can encourage the reader to abandon the novel (#TrueStory). Dialogue needs to read like words real people will say, but it also needs …
