I was lucky enough to snag an interview with Pace and Kyeli Smith from The Connection Revolution. They’re two fantastic women who write straight from the heart, and who’re on a world-changing mission.

As part of this, they run an annual World-Changing Writing Workshop. It takes place online (so you can join from anywhere in the world) and the 2012 one will be starting very soon. I spoke on last year’s WCWW, and it was a fantastic, inspiring event.

In the interview below, Pace & Kyeli share some great writing advice. I asked them about:

• What they’ve learnt from the World-Changing Writing workshop, and how their writing has changed and developed over the past three years
• What “The Usual Error” is (they have a great book with that title) and how to avoid it in writing
• How to find time for writing – this is an issue that comes up for pretty much all writers
• Whether all types of writing can be world-changing … what about technical writing, or fiction?
• If they could share one writing tip, what would it be?

Just click the “Play” button to listen. The interview runs for 24 minutes.

Join the World-Changing Writing Workshop

If you’d like to get in on the World-Changing Writing Workshop action, you can find out about it here. That link includes the opportunity to join a free mini-course with short videos (and transcripts) to help you take your writing further.

(Note: I’m a proud affiliate for the WCWW and was one of the speakers last year.)

Pace and Kyeli have lined up six fantastic speakers, including Julia Cameron, of The Artist’s Way fame, Sonia Simone, from Copyblogger, and Kelly Kingman, who’s a fantastic ebook-writer and ecourse-creator.

If you think this might be for you, check out the World-Changing Writing Workshop today: there’s an early-bird discount until 24th May.

Hope you enjoy listening to the interview! I don’t usually run audio or interviews on Aliventures, so if you’d like more along similar lines in the future, let me know in the comments.

My virtual book tour for Lycopolis is going really well, and I thought I’d update you on where I’ve been so far!

But before I get to that, though, a quick announcement:

My teaching/community site, Writers’ Huddle, is open for new members until the end of Friday 4th May.

(Sorry if you hadn’t heard about this before – I announced it on the Aliventures newsletter list last week, but I realised that in all my virtual book touring busyness, I’d not mentioned it here on the blog.)

You can find out all about Writers’ Huddle here. If you want to join, please take a look as soon as you can, as I’ll be closing the doors again at midnight Pacific time this Friday.

In April, my tour of the blogosphere took me to:

Tuesday 24th April – The Creative Penn (Joanna Penn)

Six Great Reasons to Write Your Novel

It was fantastic to begin my tour with The Creative Penn which, in many ways, is where the publication journey of Lycopolis began. Joanna’s indie trail-blazing with her novel Pentecost opened my eyes to how self-publishing had changed. We also share an Oxford connection (both in real life and in our fiction) so I guess I started the tour close to both my virtual and physical homeground.

But there is nothing wrong with doing something simply because you love it. If you enjoy writing fiction – if it brings you alive, makes you happy, keeps you sane – then that’s a good enough reason. It’s more than good enough. And don’t let anyone convince you that it isn’t.

(Read more…)

Tuesday 24th April & Friday 27th April – Book Baby

How to Plan Your Non-Fiction Book to Set Yourself Up for Success

and

How to Plan Your Novel to Set Yourself Up for Success

This was originally one post, which Book Baby very sensibly suggested splitting into two parts. (I sometimes get a bit carried away when I’m writing blog posts, as you might have noticed here on Aliventures…) BookBaby are making waves in the self-publishing world, and if you’re not too confident about the techy side of putting together and distributing an ebook, they have well-priced packages to help you.

Before you start writing your novel, you need a clear idea of who your characters are. You won’t know everything about them at this stage, but you should have a sense of what they’re like as people. What would they lie about, or for? What secrets lie buried in their pasts? What goals and dreams do they have?

(Read more…)

Friday 27th April – Steff Metal

Five Epic Reasons to Be Your Own Boss

I came across Steff a while back, when I was looking for advice on creativity and stumbled across this fantastic post, 25 Ways to Spark Creativity. Steff isn’t just a fantastic writer and blogger – she’s also a devoted metalhead (as you might guess from the name of her blog…) I got into metal around the same time I started writing Lycopolis, and a couple of my characters listen to it too, so this tour stop felt like a great fit.

When you work for yourself, you can be yourself. You can wear what you like (whether that’s PJs, jeans and a band t-shirt, steampunk attire, or anything in between). You can tweet about the bands you love. You can be chatty and friendly and silly with your clients.

(Read more…)

Monday 30th April – Men with Pens (James Chartrand)

4 Simple Ways to Create a Well-Written Ebook

I’ve been reading Men with Pens since my early days in the blogging world. And while James still scares me a little, it’s always a huge privilege to guest post on her blog. The Men with Pens audience are a little more business-focused than the readers here on Aliventures – but they’re just as lovely and thoughtful in the comments.

The good news is that you don’t have to tackle every stage of writing your ebook alone. If you have a blog, email list, Twitter account or Facebook page, you’ve already got at least a few readers or potential customers.

(Read more…)

Monday 30th April – Literascribe (Lorna Fergusson)

Why Every Self-Publishing Author Needs an Editor

Lorna is one of my writing heroes: she’s an inspiring, insightful teacher and she’s also a fantastic editor. (And she lives all of ten minutes’ walk from me in Oxford.) She edited Draft 5 of Lycopolis – I thought I was pretty much done, but she (thankfully) got me to do some radical rewriting. I ended up cutting the 135,000 word manuscript to around 85,000 words in the finished book – and all the reviews and comments I’ve had have confirmed that was definitely the right decision.

However tempting it is, don’t decide that your manuscript is “good enough” and put it online during a free weekend. You want your novel to be as good as it can possibly be, before you launch it to the world. Yes, it’s relatively easy to update an ebook or print-on-demand book – but you really want those first few readers to love your book. (That way, they’ll write reviews, tell their friends, and help you get the marketing ball rolling.)

(Read more…)

Monday 30th April – Cat’s Eye Writer (Judy Dunn)

Eight Powerful Ways to Build a Readership for Your Blog

I know Judy through the blogging world, and I’m really looking forward to catching up with her properly at BlogWorld in New York this June. Like me, she focuses on the intersection of blogging and writing, and she has a wealth of great advice on Cat’s Eye Writer for writers and authors who are looking at getting into blogging or taking things further.

It can be tough to give away your best content, whether that’s in the form of blog posts, recordings, or ebooks. But it’s also one of the most powerful techniques for helping your readers to like and trust you. And if they get great, useful content for free, they’ll be much more likely to take the plunge and buy from you.

(Read more…)

This virtual book tour is to promote my novel Lycopolis, a fast-paced supernatural thriller about a group of online roleplayers who summon a demon into their game … and into the world.

I think it’s the best thing I’ve written (so far!) and I’d love it if you’d buy a copy. Here’s what a couple of readers said about it:

This is one of those books I started reading late in the afternoon and then couldn’t put down. I stayed up WAAAY too late reading it, because it’s the sort of story where you want to read one more chapter and one more after that because you care about the characters, and you’re afraid something terrible will happen to them.

Cheryl M. Reifsnyder (Read the rest of Cheryl’s review…)

This compact supernatural thriller walks the edge between two worlds: reality and fantasy. Ali Luke does a great job of juggling both worlds and then some. Despite the amount of people introduced, and the complications that gives in those two worlds, she manages to keep confusion at bay with her clear and consistent writing, while exploring the characters involved in depth. The action almost jumps off the page, and the fast pace leaves your head spinning.

Vala Faye (Read the rest of Vala’s review…)

You can find out more about Lycopolis here: download the first five chapters, read the prequel short stories, or take a look at the blog with quotes from Underground Book Reviews’ review.

Or if you’re sold on it already, you can get Lycopolis from:

• Amazon.com (Kindle ebook, $2.99 / paperback, $12.99)
• Amazon.co.uk (Kindle ebook, £1.99)
• Smashwords.com (ebook in multiple formats, $2.99)
• Lulu.com (paperback, £7.99)

(And if you’ve already read Lycopolis? I’d love it if you’d recommend it to a friend, or even write a short review on Amazon. Thanks so much!)

Photo from Lorna Fergusson, fictionfire

You might already know that I live in lovely Oxford, famed for its dreaming spires. It’s a great city for writers … and if you’d like to spend a day (or more) learning something new alongside other keen writers in inspiring surroundings, then read on!

I’m working together with Lorna Fergusson from fictionfire and Joanna Penn from The Creative Penn on some great day courses. These are:

• Sat 19th May: Write It! … with Lorna Fergusson
• Sun 20th May: Edit It! … with Lorna Fergusson
• Sat 26th May: Publish It! … with Lorna, Joanna, and me
• Sun 27th May: Market It! … with Lorna, Joanna, and me

All four will be held in Trinity College, Oxford.

Although I’m only involved with the second weekend, I highly recommend the first two courses too, if you can make it to those: Lorna is a fantastic and motivating teacher, and my go-to person for professional fiction editing.

The sessions are aimed at novelists, and we’ll be covering publishing from both the traditional and self-publishing perspectives. Whatever type of publication you’re going for, you’ll need to know how to build a platform and market your work, which is why we’ve devoted a whole day to that.

Each day is just £85 (though you get a discount for booking multiple days) and you can mix and match between the four sessions: you don’t have to come to all four.

If you’d like details on accommodation, just drop me an email and we’ll get that to you.

You can:

• Click here for full details about each course, and biographical details on Lorna, Jo and me
• Click here to make your booking

Over the past five years, I’ve been on a lot of writing-related courses myself, and I’ve found that they’re a great way to devote some focused time to my writing … as well as a guaranteed boost to my writing energy levels.

If you want to learn new tips and techniques this spring, or if you need a little extra motivation and support, then check out these courses, and treat yourself to at least one inspiration-filled day in glorious Oxford.

If you’ve been following Aliventures for a while, you might remember that I published my novel Lycopolis back in November 2011. It’s been getting some lovely reviews on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, and I’ve decided it’s time to spread the word a little further.

From today until 18th May, I’m on a virtual book tour … posting in lots of different places around the blogosphere about writing, self-publishing, blogging and more.

I’ll be updating this post to link to all my different “stops” on the tour, and I’ll also be posting on Aliventures to let you know what I’ve been up to each week.

I’ve also produced print editions of Lycopolis, and if you have a non-Kindle ereader, you can now get an .epub version of Lycopolis through Smashwords.

About Lycopolis

One Hallowe’en, a group of online roleplayers summon a demon, The Prince of Nightmares. Seth, who’s in charge of the game, says it’s “just for fun”. But disturbing things start to happen in real life: red marks appear on the foreheads of the gamers, and they’re all having nightmares about a dark forest.

Secrets come out, friendships are broken, and the boundaries between the real, the virtual and the imaginary become increasingly fractured as the Prince becomes more powerful. Kay, a student at Oxford, is the only person who realises what Seth is doing – and it’s up to her to stop him.

Lycopolis is a fast-paced supernatural thriller / contemporary fantasy novel, available from:

• Amazon.com (Kindle ebook, $2.99 / paperback, $12.99)
• Amazon.co.uk (Kindle ebook, £1.99)
• Smashwords.com (ebook in multiple formats, $2.99)
• Lulu.com (paperback, £7.99)

You can find out more, and read reviews, short stories, and the first five chapters, at www.lycopolis.co.uk.

My Tour Stops

Here’s where I’ve been so far:

Tues 24th April: The Creative Penn – Six Great Reasons to Write Your Novel

Tues 24th April: Book Baby – How to Plan Your Non-Fiction Book to Set Yourself Up for Success

Fri 27th April: Book Baby – How to Plan Your Novel to Set Yourself Up for Success

Fri 27th April: Steff Metal – Five Epic Reasons to Be Your Own Boss

Mon 30th April: Men with Pens – 4 Simple Ways to Create a Well-Written Ebook

Mon 30th April: Literascribe – Why Every Self-Publishing Author Needs an Editor

Mon 30th April: Cat’s Eye Writer – Eight Powerful Ways to Build a Loyal Readership for Your Blog

Tues 1st May: Write to Done – It’s Time to Start Your Novel: Here’s Why

Fri 4th May: Wordplay – How to Get Feedback on Your Writing (and Sort the Good from the Bad)

Mon 7th May: Keys to Writing – An Interview with Ali Luke, Part One

Tues 8th May: Lateral Action – Seven Powerful Ways to Gain More Confidence in Your Creative Work

Tues 8th May: Digital Book Launch – Seven Great Reasons to Self-Publish Your Book

Fri 11th May: Time Management Ninja – Why Managing Your Time Makes You More Creative

Mon 14th May: Keys to Writing – An Interview with Ali Luke, Part Two

Tues 15th May: Connection Revolution – Write From the Heart and Find Your Voice

If you’ve read Lycopolis, I’d love it if you’d help spread the word … you could post about it on Facebook, tweet about the book or my virtual tour, or even write a short review on Amazon, Smashwords, or Lulu. Thanks so much.

Image from Flickr by Sir_Iwan

There are all sorts of qualities that writers have, but one that I don’t see discussed a lot is faith.

Faith …

… that you do have something worth saying

… that you aren’t wasting your time

… that someone, somewhere, will be impacted by your words

… that you’re making progress

… that you’re brave enough (even when you don’t feel at all brave)

Faith doesn’t mean you never have doubts. Faith means you wrestle with those doubts, and you don’t let them beat you.

Faith doesn’t mean you never give up. Faith means that when you’ve fallen down – again and again – you get up and carry on.

I can’t tell you that the writing path is an easy one. I can tell you that it’s worth travelling. And if you want to be a writer, if your life doesn’t feel complete without writing, then you already have the faith that you need.

Today, faith brought you this post.

I didn’t feel like writing a word.

I didn’t even create an outline.

I didn’t know what I wanted to say.

I just knew that today, someone needed to read this. And that today, I needed to write it.

Eternal thanks to the wonderful and talented Antonina for this photo of me!

Launa from Indonesia asked me, by email:

One of my big dreams is to become a successful writer. I’ve one project right now. I’m planning to make a non-fiction book. But, I’m still confused about how to make an outline. Could you tell me how to make an outline?

What is the different between an outline for a fiction book and a non-fiction book?

Whatever sort of writing you do — blog posts, short stories, essays, articles, novels, non-fiction books — you’re going to need to outline.

That outline could be anything from a few words for your own use to multiple pages in a proposal to a publisher. In general, the longer your project, the longer your outline.

Here’s an example of a blog post outline, from my journal/notebook (basically my electronic brain ).

Seven Simple Ways to Boost Your Mood, Right Now

#1: Walk

#2: Laugh

#3: Chat

#4: Write

#5: Shower

#6: Eat

#7: Breathe

(If you want to read the post that resulted from that outline, it’s one of my pieces on Pick the Brain: 7 Simple Ways to Boost Your Mood, Right Now)

I wrote that outline straight into my notebook, just as it appears here. I knew I wanted a list post (I had the title in mind first) and I decided that it’d be interesting to have one-word subheaders for the list items; this isn’t something I normally do, but I wanted to echo the “simple” of the title.

For anything longer than a blog post, though, you won’t generally start writing your outline straight off: you’ll need to do some other work first.

And before I dig in too deep, I’ll clear up Launa’s secondary question:

A non-fiction outline will normally be more detailed and more definite than a fiction outline (because you’re more likely to stick to it, and you’re also more likely to be selling a book to customers or a publisher on the basis of its outline or chapter list).

Writing a Non-Fiction Outline

If you’re writing a non-fiction book or ebook, an essay for school/university, or even a fairly in-depth blog post, then you’ll want a full and complete outline.

That means knowing the start and end of your writing project, and planning out all the major steps in between. For an essay, those major steps might become key paragraphs (or for an article, your subheadings). For a book, you’ll probably have chapter headings plus subheadings for those chapters.

The wrong way to do this is to sit down, write “Introduction” at the top, then try to hit each stage in turn. Unless you’ve already got a good grasp on your topic and idea, this is just going to get you stuck.

Instead, make a mindmap (or you can use another non-linear method, like writing each chapter heading onto index cards, if you want).

Put your topic or title in the centre of a sheet of paper. Write down key points as they come to mind, joining them to the centre. Link sub-points to a larger one; draw lines between related points. You can use different colours, symbols, whatever works for you.

This isn’t just a way to sort your existing ideas — it’ll also help you come up with new ones. As you start to get things onto paper, you’ll find more and more thoughts bubbling up.

Once you’ve got a mindmap, you can outline. I’ll often put numbers on my mindmap to indicate the order that I want to put chapters (or key points) in. Sometimes, I’ll just use the mindmap as my outline, if I’m writing a blog post.

Your outline doesn’t have to go into lots of detail, but it should include all the main chapters or points for your project: don’t leave big gaps in the middle in the hopes you’ll figure it out later. You might want to start at the highest level and gradually add in more information.

Outlining a Blog Post / Magazine Article

For a blog post or fairly informal magazine article, the outlining process might look like this:

• Create a mindmap and get all your ideas down onto paper
• Write your outline:
  • Introduction
  • Several subheadings or key points (perhaps with a link, quote, or other resource for each)
  • Conclusion/call to action

Outlining an Essay

For a English Literature school/uni essay (I’m using Eng Lit because that’s what I studied; you can tweak this for your own subject) the outlining process might look like this:

• Select a question or topic, if you have a choice, then come up with an argument that you want to pursue (your lectures/books should help!)
• Go through the book/play/etc that you’re studying and write down key quotes that relate to your topic and your line of argument; do the same with books/articles of criticism — you’re gathering your evidence here
• Write a plan
  • Introduction
  • Two to four key points that you want to make, depending on the length of your essay
  • A quote (or other example) to back up each point; you’ll definitely want a primary quote (from the text itself) and probably one from a critical work too (at uni level; you’re not so likely to do this in school)
  • Conclusion

Outlining a Non-Fiction Book

For a book, the whole outlining process might look like this:

• Create a mindmap where you jot down all your ideas that relate to your book’s title, or write each idea onto an index card or post-it note
• Group together ideas on your mindmap (or index cards on your desk) — maybe use colours, symbols, or numbers to help you organize them
• Start your linear outline in an easily editable format — electronic, not paper is definitely good here
• Begin by putting in the chapter topics/titles and try to get each chapter in place, even if you’re not certain about some yet
• Add in a few subheadings or key bullet points for each chapter; you might also want to include crucial notes (e.g. a book to read on that topic, an expert to consult) here

If you’re working on the book yourself, that’s probably enough; if you’re working with a publisher, they should be able to show you a sample chapter outline so you know how much detail to give.

Writing a Fiction Outline

Fiction is a little different. While it’s still a good idea to outline, you probably won’t want to plan out every step right at the start.

In non-fiction, your work is generally functional. It’s usually pretty clear what topics do and don’t belong in your book or article. For instance, if you’re writing a blog post on “How to grow great carrots,” you’ll know that a section on tomatoes isn’t going to fit in there.

In fiction, you’ve got a whole lot more scope. Anything could happen. You may know how your story or novel should start … but you won’t necessarily know what happens next.

Every time I’ve tried to write a start-to-end chapter plan for a novel, I’ve gone off the rails after about five chapters. Now, your mileage may well vary here, but my suggestion is that you don’t plan a major piece of fiction from start to end.

Outlining a Short Story

With a short story, it’s probably enough to:

• Know your major characters (probably just two or three for something short)
• Have a one-line description of each scene
• Know how it’s going to end (happily, unhappily, twist in the tale…)

You’ve not got much space to play with during a short story, which means that knowing how your characters get from A to B is important; that’s why having descriptions of the scenes helps.

Outlining a Novel

With a novel, your outline can be a lot looser:

• Know where it all begins, especially the links between your main characters
• Plan the first five or so chapters (so you don’t stall after a few pages)
• Mark out a few  big plot points that need to happen during the middle
• Have at least a vague idea of how it’s all going to end

As you write, you’ll find that new ideas come to you — and some of the ones that you’ve planned no longer fit. It’s often work outlining on a micro-scale with a novel, perhaps by writing a quick plan for each scene as you reach it.

Fiction-writing is, generally, a much more intuitive process than writing non-fiction. I tend to be pretty uptight about plans in most areas of my life, but when it comes to fiction, I’ve learnt to trust much more in instinct and inspiration (and I’m prepared to do a lot more redrafting for fiction than for non-fiction).

So … your turn to create an outline! Today, find five minutes to start planning a writing project that’s on your mind. Jot down some thoughts, draw a mindmap, or play around with some index cards … and you should find that your ideas begin to come together.

I’m always very happy to answer writing-related questions here on Aliventures. If you’ve got a question, or an idea for a post topic, feel free to email me at any point (ali@aliventures.com) or alternatively, you can use the form on my Contact page.

As well as blogging here on Aliventures, I hop around the web, taking advantage of other people’s lovely blogs and readers too (and you may well have found Aliventures through one of my guest posts…)

Here’s where I’ve been over the past week:

All the below links open in a new tab/window so you don’t lose your place here.

Men with Pens: How to Write a Free Ebook in Just 7 Days

If you want to put together a short ebook (or “report” or “mini-guide”) to promote yourself or your business, this post is aimed at you. I break down the writing process into a seven-day plan … and you can use this for pretty much any sort of content, too. (So if you’re writing fiction, or an epic blog post, take a look.)

Write to Done: How Much Should You Write Every Day?

This post stirred up some great comments, and it’s been fascinating to see how different writers approach their work. As a younger and more anxious writer, I tried and failed to follow advice to hit some magic number of words (often 1,000 words per day) … but we’re all different, and I wrote this to help you find the right routine for you.

OxonDigital: Two Great Reasons to Write an Ebook – and Three Crucial Tips for Getting it Done

In case you didn’t guess from the Men with Pens guest post, I’m a big fan of ebooks (in fact, I’m writing the book on them … Publishing Ebooks for Dummies, scheduled to come out this September ) but I’m also aware that an ebook is a pretty daunting project for many writers and business owners.

In this post, I explain why an ebook is a great business asset, and I give three tips on getting it written. The post is aimed at non-fiction writers, but even if you’re a novelist, Tip #3 applies to you…

Heads-up! From April 23rd to May 18th, I’m going to be on a virtual book tour for my novel Lycopolis, visiting lots of different writing-related blogs in the process.

If you’d like a guest post or interview from me, or if you want a review copy of Lycopolis, just let me know in a comment below or send me an email  (ali@aliventures.com). I’d love you to be part of my tour.

(Image from Flickr by *clairity*)

A lot of fiction-writers struggle with dialogue. It’s tough to make fictional people sound convincing; it’s even tricky to punctuate dialogue correctly.

But dialogue is an essential part of your story. It makes your characters seem real; it’s often vital to the plot. It keeps your story fast-paced and easy to read, partly because of the way dialogue breaks up a page of text.

I usually find dialogue much easier to write than action or description. Even so, I’ve picked up plenty of tips over the past few years – and I’m hoping these will help you too.

#1: Your Dialogue Needs to Sound Real

Your dialogue should be convincing, so your readers can “hear” the conversation that’s taking place. This means:

• Don’t let characters give long, unbroken speeches. In a normal conversation, there are interruptions, questions, or at least visual cues (e.g. someone nodding or frowning).
• Use language that’s appropriate for your character. Most people will use contractions (“isn’t” rather than “is not”) when they talk; some will use non-standard English like “ain’t” or colloquial phrases.
• Don’t always have your characters speaking in complete sentences. They might just say a single word or phrase, or they might trail off.

Here’s an example, from Orson Scott Card’s novel Ender’s Game:

“You’re in deep poo,” said Peter. “They found out what you did to that kid at school, and now they’re gonna make you do time out in the Belt.”

“I’m only six, moron. I’m a juvenile.”

“You’re a Third, turd. You’ve got no rights.”

The dialogue isn’t a true representation of how children speak (especially as Card’s child characters are extraordinarily intelligent) – but it sounds realistic, with the use of contractions like “you’re” and non-standard words like “gonna”, as well as the insults (“moron” and “turd”).

#2: … But Not Too Real

It’s all too easy (and I’ll confess I’ve fallen into this trap) to go a bit too far in trying to make your dialogue realistic.

Yes, if you listen to any real-life transcript of conversation, there’ll be a lot of pauses, “ums”, “you knows”, run-on sentences, and so on. Your job as an author, though, is to give a flavour of real dialogue, not a faithful reproduction.

This, for instance, could be a verbatim reconstruction of a conversation, but it’s going to (a) quickly become annoying to read and (b) make the characters sound slightly moronic, even if they’re not supposed to be.

“Um,” she said, “I dunno … that is … well, perhaps you’re right, I guess.”

“Yeah, of course I’m right,” he said. “Like, I’m always right, you know?”

Save the pauses, “you knows” and “ums” for when you really want to convey hesitancy or uncertainty; don’t use them as part of every conversation.

#3: Keep Dialogue Tags Simple

A dialogue tag looks like this:

• He said
• She answered
• John asked

It’s the speaker’s name (or a pronoun referring to them) plus a speaking verb. This “tags” the dialogue as belonging to a particular character.

When I was a budding writer at primary school, I remember being taught to vary dialogue tags – we had to come up with a list of different words to use instead of “said”. While this is a great exercise for building a child’s vocabulary, it’s a useless one for real writers.

Readers don’t notice the repetition of “he said” or “she said”. We’re so used to reading these that our eyes just skim on over them.

But if you throw in a few unusual dialogue tags, those will stand out. Tags like “snarled” or “expostulated” probably don’t belong in your story, unless you’re writing a humorous piece.

The tags I tend to stick to are:

• Said
• Asked (it seems weird to me to have “said” for a question)

I’ll occasionally use “whispered” or “yelled” if a line needs to be delivered at a particular volume!

It’s also a good idea to avoid using adjectives with your dialogue tags. Often, your character’s tone will be apparent from the words they use; you don’t need to tell the reader “John said angrily” or “Susan asked impatiently”.

#4: … Or Take Dialogue Tags Out Altogether

You definitely need some dialogue tags in your short story or novel, but you don’t need to tag every single line of speech. Here’s another way to assign dialogue to a character:

John looked up from the paper. “I don’t see what all the fuss is about.”

It’s obvious that John’s speaking, because the dialogue comes straight after his action.

You can do it the other way round, too:

“He should have been home by now.” Sarah paced around the room, pausing long enough to glance out of the window at the empty street.

If you have a conversation between two people, you can sometimes get away with just having the lines of dialogue, with no tags at all, for a short space. This works especially well if the characters have quite different speech patterns.

Here’s an extract from Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit by P.G. Wodehouse. The first line is Wooster’s, then the second is Jeeves’.  If you’re at all familiar with the characters, it’s very easy to tell who’s who!

“Under the tiddly-poms of whatever-it-is … How does the rest of it go?”

“Under the bludgeonings of change their heads are … pardon me … bloody but unbowed, sir.”

“That’s right. Your own?”

“No, sir. The late William Earnest Henley, 1849-1903.”

“Ah?”

“The title of the poem is ‘Invictus’. But did I understand Mrs Travers to say that Lord Sidcup was expected, sir?”

…and it goes on with a few more lines before there’s a line of action.

#5: Every Speaker Should Get a New Line

Something that’s obvious when you just have dialogue, but not so obvious when you have a mixture of dialogue and action, is that each new speaker should have a new line.

This, for instance, is incorrect:

“Could he be right?” David asked, turning to Rachel. “I don’t know,” she said.

Instead, it should be:

“Could he be right?” David asked, turning to Rachel.

“I don’t know,” she said.

(You could get away without the “she said” here, too, because the new line indicates the change of speaker.)

If a character does something just before they speak, you’ll also want to move their action onto the new line.

“Could he be right?” David asked, turning to Rachel.

She shook her head. “I don’t know.”

#6: Punctuation Goes Inside the Closing Quotation marks

Dialogue can be fiddly to punctuate, because of the quotation marks. The main thing to remember is that punctuation goes inside the closing quotation marks. This applies whether it’s a full stop, exclamation mark, question mark, or comma.

It works like this:

“I don’t know.”

“What!”

“Is that right?”

“I think so,” she said.

If you’re ending dialogue with “she said” or any other tag, then the dialogue sentence should finish with a comma, not a period, and the tag should start with a lower-case letter (unless it begins with a name, obviously).

If the dialogue is followed by action, it should end with a full stop like any other sentence. Compare these:

“I found out all about it,” she said.

“I found out all about it.” She turned away.

In both cases, the punctuation still goes inside the quotation marks.

#7: You Can Break a Line of Dialogue in the Middle

Most of the time, dialogue tags or associated actions go before or after the dialogue. Sometimes, though, you’ll want to position a dialogue tag or action in the middle of the speech.

Here are a couple of examples:

“No,” she said. “No, I don’t believe you.”

“What the hell?” Tom looked around at the others. “Did any of you know about this?”

Usually, you do this to indicate a pause. It’s also a useful way to get the dialogue tag in near the start, if a character is going to deliver several sentences of dialogue.

If you split up a sentence, then the second part of the dialogue should start with a lower case letter. (At some stage I was taught the exact opposition – that the second part should always start with a capital – but it seems like that’s not how it’s supposed to be done!)

“Well,” Jane said, “perhaps we’d better agree to disagree.”

Whew! Dialogue is a lot of fun to write, though it can be tough to do well – it’s definitely a good idea to go back and edit your dialogue carefully after writing the first draft.

Got any questions about dialogue? Just drop a comment below.

If you found this post useful, I’d love if it you’d share it with friends – by emailing or Tweeting it, or by linking to it from your Facebook account. Thanks!

Image from Flickr by Piddleville

One common issue that standard writing advice covers is how to cut down your first draft.

And this advice comes up time and time again for a good reason. It’s easy to over-write, perhaps telling the reader things that you’ve already shown them, or using five words where one would do, or repeating yourself unintentionally.

But under-writing is a problem too – and one that I don’t often see tackled.

Under-writing often shows up in a failed attempt to reach a word-count:

• You were supposed to write a 1,500 word essay for school, but you finished in 800 words.
• You’re entering a 2,000 word short story competition, but your story is over after 1,000.
• You know that novels in your genre should be at least 80,000 words, but yours is only 50,000.
• You want your blog posts to be at least 500 words, but they keep coming out at 300.

So what can you do about it?

Your first task is to establish whether or not the work is, in fact, complete. Perhaps you’ve written a fantastic novella, and there’s not really any scope to expand it (even if that means that it’s going to be tough to get publishers to take it on). Maybe you could use that 1,000 word short story for a different competition.

It’s tough – really tough – to be objective about your own work. If you’re concerned that a piece might not be working at its current length, ask a friend (ideally a fellow writer) to take a look. See whether they think it’s rushed or incomplete.

Assuming that you do want to expand your work-in-progress, though, here’s how:

Don’t Pad it Out

This is a bad habit that some people get into during their schooldays: instead of expanding a too-short piece, they pad. They add “fluff” – unnecessary, unwarranted material that weakens what they’ve written instead of strengthening it.

In a piece of fiction, padding might look like:

• Long digressions into a character’s thoughts or feelings
• Chunks of description
• An unrelated sub-plot
• “Surprise” events that aren’t prepared for by the narrative

In a piece of non-fiction, padding might look like:

• Too many personal anecdotes from the author
• Three very similar examples where one would do
• An unnecessary tangent
• Complex, academic language to fill out the word count

Padding is frustrating for the reader. All those extra words don’t add value – they just diminish the power of the rest of your piece.

So what can you do instead?

Expand Your Work

There’s a crucial difference between expanding something and padding it, even if the two look similar at first glance.

Expanding your work means going deeper. Padding it means staying on the surface.

When you expand a piece of fiction, you can:

• Add a relevant sub-plot: one that sheds light on the themes, heightens the tension in the main plot, or reveals crucial information about the characters.
• Include the next part of the story: take it further in the character’s lives (perhaps what you think is a finished novel is just part one).
• Look for places to add more tension and conflict. A minor incident could become something much worse.
• Turn important passages of summary (“telling”) into action and dialogue (“showing). If your hero did something terrible in the past, show us the event or the effects of it, don’t just tell us in a sentence or two. Read Understanding the “Show Don’t Tell” Rule for more help on this.

When you expand a piece of non-fiction, you can:

• Include a different perspective or point of view. This is a great way of digging deeper into a topic.
• Add useful examples, and give enough explanation to ensure the reader understands them.
• Recommend other resources – books, articles, blogs, etc. This is a great way of letting the reader take control of their journey, so they can dive deeper into the aspects of the topic that interest them.
• Add extra sections (or chapters, if you’re writing a book) to cover ideas that have occurred to you since you started working on the piece.

You might find it useful to print out the too-short piece, so that you can write notes on it easily. Work through scene by scene or chapter by chapter or paragraph by paragraph, and look for places where you could go deeper. Focus on giving extra value to the reader, rather than simply increasing your word count.

A Worked Example

Here’s a short article I wrote for the Aliventures weekly newsletter. (If you’re not on the newsletter list, you can find about it here – there are free ebooks when you join up. )

Why you (probably) shouldn’t write every day

When I started out as a writer, I was convinced that “proper” writers wrote 1,000 words a day. (I got the “1,000 words” from a few different places, including Stephen King’s excellent book On Writing.)Trying to fit in 1,000 words around a full-time day job, though, was really tough. If you’ve tried it, you’ve probably found the same thing: it’s do-able for two or three days in a row, but after that, you soon start hating the sight of your work-in-progress.

Writing shouldn’t feel like a chore. Sure, sometimes you need to overcome a bit of reluctance or resistance so you can sit down and write – but, overall, you want to enjoy your writing.

So … don’t write every day. Unless, of course, you really want to! For me, writing on three – four days each week felt about right; for you, the balance might be slightly different.

This is especially true for bloggers. I’ve read a lot of posts recently that indicate a backlash against the “blog every day” principle that held sway a few years ago. There’s no point in you churning out half-hearted content that readers will ignore; it’s much more effective to write one or two great posts a week.

There’s a broader point here, too. Not all writing advice will work for you. Try things out, by all means … but don’t ever feel bad about ditching something that’s not a good fit.

This mini-article is just 240 words. That’s about average for my newsletter pieces: I want them to be fast, snappy reads that deliver some useful thinking points without taking up much time for the reader.

But let’s say I wanted to use that article as a basis for a post here on Aliventures. It would need to be at least twice the length to work well as a blog piece (and probably three – four times the length would be better).

I’ve got plenty of options for expanding the piece, using the list from above:

• #1: Include a different perspective or point of view
• #2: Add useful examples
• #3: Recommend other resources
• #4: Add extra sections

#1: Expand this to look at both angles, with half the post covering “why you should write every day” and the other half covering “why you shouldn’t write every day”.

#2: Add in quotes from writers who give different perspectives on how often is the right frequency, and on how many words they usually write per day or week.

#3: Link to related articles, perhaps on finding a good writing rhythm, writing consistently, writing around a day job, and so on.

#4: Change the topic and focus on the point that I make in the last paragraph: “Not all writing advice will work for you.” That way, “Write every day” could become just one point in a much longer post.

I wouldn’t use all four methods at once – but one or two combined could turn this quick newsletter article into a much more in-depth resource.

So, over to you! Choose a piece of your writing that’s too short for its intended purpose, and use one of the four above methods to expand it.

Enjoyed this post? Make sure you don’t miss the next one. You can get updates straight to your RSS reader or straight to your inbox (just pop your email address in below).

 Image from Flickr by Lord Biro

The writing path is rewarding and varied – but it can also feel very long. If your definition of “success” is to be a best-selling author and you’ve never written more than a few pages, it’s easy to get discouraged.

Instead, focus on reaching new milestones on the writing path. These are nine that I think are well worth celebrating (and I’d love to hear your suggestions and thoughts in the comments).

Note: you might not necessarily hit these milestones in order.

#1: First Completed Piece

Your very first short story or poem or article is a huge achievement. (Granted, you probably wrote something along these lines in school – but that still counts.) Every time you tackle a new type of writing, you’ve got the chance to reach this milestone again.

I wrote plenty of short stories in school, but the first one I remember really liking was a modern-day retelling of the Beowulf legend when I was 12-13.

Try it: Have a go at something new this week. If you normally write non-fiction, try a short piece of fiction; if you normally write fiction, try poetry or a very different style.

#2: First Reader(s)

Some writers work in secret for years without sharing their writing with anyone. Your first reader (or group of readers) definitely counts as a milestone. That might be your spouse or best friend, or a group of strangers online.

I’m pretty sure my mum was my first reader, helping out with homework assignments and encouraging me as a fledgling writer.

Try it: Unless you’re writing purely for yourself (e.g. a journal), your writing isn’t really complete until it’s read. Find someone who you can show your work to – you don’t even need to ask them for any feedback or comment.

#3: First Critique

If showing your work to a reader is scary, getting a critique is doubly so … but it’s a hugely important part of your development as a writer. Feedback doesn’t just let you see where there’s room for improvement: it also indicates what you’re already doing well.

When I was 14, I started going to a writing workshop group, sharing my work with (much older, more experienced) writers. It was nerve-racking at first, but everyone was hugely supportive and thoughtful in their feedback.

Try it: Look for a local or online writing group, and share your work with other people. In my community/teaching site, the Writers’ Huddle, lots of members are posting work for critique – and getting excellent feedback and suggestions.

(Note: the Huddle is currently closed, but if you visit the information page about it, you can enter your email address and get notified as soon as it reopens.)

#4: First Publication (Online)

Today, anyone with an internet connection can be published. It’s very easy to set up a blog (or to create an account on websites like fanfiction.net) so that you can publish your own work online. Yet, while the technology is simple, this is still a significant step as a writer: you’re putting your words out there for the world to see.

I’ve been online since my teens, and writing for most of that time. The internet has played a huge role in shaping who I am as a writer, and some of my teenage experiences with collaborative writing online inspired my novel Lycopolis.

Try it: Head to WordPress.com and set up your own blog. (I recommend WordPress.com because it offers a good balance between flexibility and ease of use; if you want something even more straightforward, try Blogger.)

#5: First Publication (Print)

Even though more and more people read online nowadays, your first print publication is still a major milestone worth celebrating. Having an article in a magazine or newspaper means a lot – especially as this shows that an editor has liked your work enough to publish it (even if you’re not getting paid).

I wrote one or two very short pieces for my church magazine when I was about 10, though the first publication I was really proud of was a short story (titled “The Goblet”, I think) for a subscription-based teen magazine when I was 15.

Try it: Look for opportunities to write for small publications – perhaps the local press, or a specialist journal or magazine. You might also try letters to newspapers or big magazines (some even pay, or offer prizes).

#6: First Payment

One of the best milestones as a writer is when someone pays for your work. This is a true badge of honour: not only did your work find editorial approval, it also added sufficient value to the publication that they were willing to pay you.

I had a couple of small short story prizes around 2007-8, but the first really exciting payment I had was when I stumbled into freelance blogging in early 2008: that opened up a whole new world for me (and, four years on, it’s why Aliventures exists).

Try it: It can be tough to break into paying markets – but there are definitely opportunities around. Build up connections with writers and editors, and consider magazines, blogs and copywriting (websites, leaflets, etc for companies) as well as fiction and poetry (it’s tougher to make money from these).

#7: First Book-Length Draft

Some writers are perfectly happy working in short form – articles, flash fiction, poetry, blog posts, and so on. Even so, a book-length draft is a reasonable goal (short stories or poems could be compiled into a collection, for instance). And many writers want to complete a novel or non-fiction book.

My first novel draft was finished when I was 15. It was, frankly, pretty rubbish (draft two wasn’t much better). It was really more of a novella than a novel – 40,000 words or so – but it was the longest project I’d ever managed to complete.

Try it: I know that “write a book” is a daunting project, one that many people put off from month to month and year to year. But if you write just 500 words a day on your book, you’ll have a finished 80,000 word draft before six months have gone by. What’s stopping you?

#8: First Completed Book

A first draft is a great achievement – and one that you can be justly excited about. But a first draft isn’t a finished book. Your next step on the path is to complete your book – to redraft, edit, and polish. I’d define a “completed” book as one that you’re willing to send out to agents and publishers: it’s as good as you can make it.

My first completed book was a fantasy novel, written while I was an undergraduate at university, and finished a few months after that, before my 22nd birthday. I did send it out to agents (no luck…) and then decided that I wanted to write something more ambitious and less genre-bound.

Try it: Do you have a NaNoWriMo draft tucked away in a bottom drawer? Dust it off, read it through, and see whether there’s enough good stuff there to make it worth a second draft. Don’t worry if it’s currently full of plot holes, sloppy writing, clichés … all first drafts are like that.

#9: First Published Book

Do you dream of seeing your book on the shelves, or at least in virtual stores? For many writers, the publication of a book is the end goal … and it’s easier than ever to achieve that now, with all the possibilities of ebooks and print-on-demand opening up the publishing world to individual authors.

I completed my first book before I was 22 … but it took another four years for me to publish a novel, which was a new book, Lycopolis. (In between, I published a few non-fiction ebooks – including my Blogger’s Guide series.)

Try it: To get published, you either need to find an agent/publisher – which means sending out your finished manuscript – or you need to bring that book out yourself. Either way, you need to take action. Get started this week on something that helps bring your dream closer.

If you want a little help hitting those writing milestones, make sure you’ve got access to my library of free ebooks (pop on over to this page to find out more), exclusive to my newsletter subscribers. Once you join the (free!) newsletter, you’ll also receive quick tips straight to your inbox every Wednesday to help you go further with your writing.