Writers On The Move

10 Bad Writing Habits to Break

Want to write better fiction?

Then see if you’ve developed any of these 10 bad writing habits. If you have, it's time to break them. When you do, your fiction can’t help but improve.

#1. Waiting to Hook Your Reader

Ideally, you want to “hook” your readers with the very first sentence of your story. If you can’t do it in the first sentence, at least do it by the end of the first page.

#2. Including Huge Chunks of Backstory in the First Few Pages

Backstory tends to remind the reader that he is reading a story, whereas plenty of action and dialogue help the reader feel as if he is living the story right along with the characters. Try to eliminate long chunks of backstory as much as you can.

#3. Using Vague or Weak Verbs with Plenty of Adverbs and Adjectives

Why say things like “he said softly” when you can simply say “he whispered”? Strive to use the strongest verbs you can. Strong verbs don’t need modifiers.

#4. Tacking on Too Much Description or Action in Your Dialogue Tags

Dialogue tags are meant to let the reader know which character is speaking. Good tags aren’t noticeable to the reader. But if too many actions or too much description is tacked onto these tags, they begin to stick out to the reader and distract from the story itself. Create a separate sentence if you need to describe what the character is doing as he speaks.

#5. Starting too Many Sentences with Participle Phrases

Participle phrases are a prime example of passive writing. They also stick out to the reader when they are used too often to start a sentence and they distract from the story. Read the work of really good writers and you won’t see many, if any, sentences that start with participle phrases.

#6. Using Few, if Any, Sensory Details

If you want your characters and settings to come alive for your readers, you need to weave plenty of sensory details into the story. Sensory details help “show, not tell” how things felt, smelled, sounded, even tasted to the characters, and therefore, help the reader experience all these story elements, too.

#7. Not Creating a Big Enough Story Problem

What’s at stake in each of your stories? It has to be something BIG! Something the main character really wants to get, solve, or be. If your main character doesn’t really care about the story problem, readers won’t either.

#8. Creating Indistinct Characters

What sets each of your characters apart from the other characters in your story? Be sure each character sounds, looks, and acts differently from all the other characters. Otherwise, it will be too difficult for readers to keep your cast of characters straight.

#9. Not Enough Rising Action

This is probably the biggest bad habit new writers seem to have. They love their characters so much, they hate to see them get into too much trouble or face too many difficulties. But without complications in a story (you must have things get worse and worse for your main character), you really don’t have a story. You simply have a series of incidents.

#10. Unsatisfying Endings

Do your stories end too abruptly with no real resolution? You need to tie up all the loose ends after the climax takes place in your story. Otherwise, you won't have an ending that satisfies your readers.

Use these 10 bad writing habits as a checklist as you're writing your next story to help you break these bad habits.

Want to write a novel? Suzanne Lieurance can help. Check out her Book Boot Camp for Novelists.

Suzanne Lieurance is a fulltime freelance writer, writing coach, certified life coach, and the author of over 30 published books. For more tips, resources, and other helpful information about writing and the business of writing, get your free subscription to The Morning Nudge at www.morningnudge.com.

August Blogging Prompts

It's approaching the end of summer. It's hot and sticky. There are things to do, but chances are you don't want to do much of anything. Instead of letting the heat get the better of you, beat the heat! Pour a cold drink, sit by the fan or air conditioner, and write some cool blog posts,

Here are some ideas of what to blog about in August.

Bad Poetry: August 18 is Bad Poetry Day. The idea is to get bad poetry out of your system, so you can write better. There's value in writing poorly (in any genre), whether it's to get bad ideas out of your head to make room for the good ones or to just write bad material on purpose, just because you can, and to have fun in the process

Plus:

August Holidays: August is Family Fun Month, Romance Awareness Month and National Picnic Month. August 13 is Left Hander's Day, August 15 is Relaxation Day, August 16 is National Tell a Joke Day, August 25 is Kiss and Make Up Day, and August 27 is Just Because Day.

August Food Holidays: There are lots of food holidays in August. August is National Brownies At Brunch Month, National Peach Month, and National Sandwich Month. August 20 is Lemonade Day, August 24 is National Waffle Day, and August 30 is National Toasted Marshmallow Day (campfire stories, anyone?). August: 31 is Eat Outside Day, International Bacon Day, and National Trail Mix Day.

Bonus: Fiction writers, you've taken characters out on day trips over the summer months. Time to send them on vacation. No, I'm not talking about taking a break from your writing (although you can do that too). Send them out of town (or even on a staycation). They can have some fun, of course, but something always goes awry on vacay. Throw some challenges at your characters during their "time off" and see how they handle it.

Take you characters out of their normal routine, it will get you out of your routine, as well, and maybe even help you expand your creativity. Have fun!

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Debra Eckerling is the author of Purple Pencil Adventures: Writing Prompts for Kids of All Ages. She's a writer, editor and project manager/goal coach, as well as founder of Guided Goals and Write On Online, a live and online writers’ support group. She is an editor at Social Media Examiner. Debra is also a speaker/moderator on the subjects of writing, networking, goal-setting and social media.

Freewriting Frees You From Your Inner Editor

How do you get rid of that inner editor—the devilish one that sits on one shoulder, whispering,

“That’s not very good. What makes you think you can write? You can even spell!” Or “Doesn’t that need a comma there?” Or “Is that the right word? I don’t think so.”

Freewriting or flow of consciousness is a great exercise to shake off that devilish inner editor and get yourself back into a fun, playful sense of creativity. I think Natalie Goldberg (Writing Down the Bones and Wild Mind) was one of the first who promoted this form of writing.

The rule for doing this is there are no rules. Choose a topic. Set a timer for ten minutes and put pen to paper. Do not stop for any reason. Don’t worry about commas and spelling and grammar. Don’t think about what you’re writing, just write whatever comes to mind, even if it’s “I can’t think of anything to write. This is a stupid exercise.” Something will come to mind. Go from there, see where it takes you. You may end up on a topic far from the one you started with.

But what do I write about? Anything you want. Something you see out your window, something that’s bothering you, a resignation letter to your boss, a mini-murder mystery in which you kill off your boss. When I teach beginning writing classes, I ask my students to make a list of 5-10 things they’d like to write about. Then each picks one and we do the 10-minute exercise.

Take something from your Work In Progress. Have your character talk to you or write you a letter. Write a page describing your setting. Pick a feeling and write everything you associate with that feeling: what’s your physical reaction? What smell does it evoke? What color do you associate with this feeling? Any tastes come to mind? Music? What memories?

You might end up with pages of drivel, but you might also find a diamond in the rough, something that could help with your WIP or be the beginning of a whole new novel.

Try it. You might enjoy it!

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A native Montanan, Heidi M. Thomas now lives in North-central Arizona where she blogs, teaches

writing, and edits. Her first novel, Cowgirl Dreams , is based on her grandmother, and the sequel, Follow the Dream, won the national WILLA Award. The next book in the series, Dare to Dream, and a non-fiction book Cowgirl Up! A History of Rodeo Women, have just been released. Heidi has a degree in journalism and a certificate in fiction writing.

8 Regrets to Avoid When Self-Publishing Your First Novel

Guest post by James A. Rose

We all have regrets. They are inevitable in some form throughout life. The goal though is to restrict regret as much as possible either through learning from our own mistakes or from the mistakes of others. The process of self-publishing a novel is no exception.

This task is a complicated one with a rather high learning curve. Unfortunately many authors become overwhelmed by the sheer volume of work that goes into the management and promotion that follows the launch of their first self-published book. This can happen to the best of us. The skill set required to sell a lot of copies is different from the skill set needed to write a great novel.

Let’s go over some of the common regrets we in the publishing industry have heard from authors, so you can circumvent the mistakes and get it right the first time.

1. Don’t underestimate the importance of a great book cover. Perhaps no aspect of a book screams amateur more than a low quality book cover. Don’t even try to make your own cover. Research the vital components, hire a professional designer and provide your input. A good designer should work with you until you are satisfied with the outcome.

2. Learn the art of writing a superb jacket copy. Those two paragraphs are so important to get right and because the jacket copy will also be used as a description in marketplaces, mastering this task can be a driving force to at least decent, if not great sales numbers.

3. Don’t fall for marketing scams. Once your email starts getting spread around amongst the business community you will undoubtedly begin receiving spam from marketers claiming to get your book on some bestseller list for only $3,000. Don’t buy it.

4. Proofread your book with a failsafe, compound eye, OCD precision. After you proofread it, give it to someone you know, then an editor, then a professional proofreader, then a beta reader, then you check it two more times, etc. Simple mistakes have more impact on perceived quality than you might think and a couple mediocre reviews from people calling you out on this can certainly be a detriment to sales.

5. Diligently check references for any contractors you hire to work on an aspect of your book. I don’t know if there is an Angie’s List for author services but if not, there should be. Too many authors have been burned by shoddy services rendered.

6. Put a delay on launch advertising. It might be best to wait a few weeks after your book release before you splurge on advertising. This will give advance readers a chance to post their reviews and point out any mistakes your already ‘manic proofreading’ overlooked.

7. Properly formatting an eBook is not as easy as it sounds. Let a pro handle it and be sure to preview the book on a variety of e-readers before posting the book for sale. Another great tip is to include a link at the end of the eBook where a reader can go to leave a review.

8. To print or not to print, that is the question. Well, the answer is sort of both. Print, but don’t print too much up front. Print 25-100 copies to send out as advance reader copies or promotional giveaways. This is important because some reviewers will only read a print copy and fans will get more excited over receiving a print copy in the mail rather than a free eBook download. It also couldn’t hurt to have some copies to put in a few local bookstores. Just make sure the store has agreed to accept them before you have them printed. On the flip side you don’t want 1,000 copies getting moth eaten in a spare bedroom.

Hopefully, these tips will help you avoid some costly setbacks and put your new book on the fast track to success, if there is such a thing. Marketing a book is a skill that must be mastered just like any other. Don’t obsess too much over it or let the job distract you from writing your next masterpiece. Most authors don’t find success until their second or third book anyway. Be content to let this first book be your jumping board.

James A. Rose is a writer for InstantPublisher.com, a full-service self-publishing company with 100% of all work performed in-house. We have been helping authors realize their dreams for the past 14 years. Whether you're printing a novel, how-to book, manual, brochure or any type of book you can imagine, our step-by-step instructions make publishing your own book simple and easy.
You can also find James at Facebook.com/InstantPublisher

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MORE ON WRITING

Multiple Point of Views – Good or Bad?
Setting – It’s Not Just Background
The Value of Finishing Your Writing Projects

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Self-Promoters Take a Page from Taylor Swift's Book

Riddle: So Why Is Taylor Swift a Terrific Marketer?

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ANSWER: Because she knows the real meaning of the word “assertive.”

I fear the word “assertive” has gotten a bad rap in the last couple decades.

People often associate it with being brash or downright overbearing, but it’s a skill we all need in business (in our case the world of publishing) when we must negotiate a contact or make ourselves heard in the din of a hundreds of thousands of books being published each year.

But Taylor got it right. She thinks creative people should get paid for their work. She stood up for that idea. She wasn’t afraid to use her financial clout to do it. And—here’s the biggie. She doesn’t hesitate to do it!

Recently, Taylor pitted her case against Apple--financially the world’s most influential company—who planned to launch a free promotion for their new music streaming business, Apple Music. She did it with an open letter on her blog (ahh, the power of the written word!) and a tweet or two. And she did it without mussing her hair or raising her voice or resorting to a lewd gesture.

She assured Apple that she loved them, threw in a few more compliments like “I say this with love, reverence, and admiration for everything else Apple does,” but she still socked it to them. In something like sixteen hours they were smart enough to buckle--which, by the way, can also be a smart marketing and/or public relations move. Swift and all their other musicians will get paid.

And now we can all add the word “assertive” to the lexicon of skills we need to survive, to influence. She used a gentle voice that convinced others that her protest was not about making more money for herself but a matter of principle and passion. Now the rest of us can be assertive and know that can mean engaging and focused as well as strident.

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Nonfiction Bio

Carolyn Howard-Johnson brings her experience as a publicist, journalist, marketer, and retailer to the advice she gives in her HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers and the many classes she taught for nearly a decade as instructor for UCLA Extension’s world-renown Writers’ Program. All her books for writers are multi award winners including the first edition of The Frugal Book Promoter published in 2003. Her The Frugal Editor, now in its second edition, won awards from USA Book News, Readers’ Views Literary Award, the marketing award from Next Generation Indie Books and others including the coveted Irwin award.

Howard-Johnson is the recipient of the California Legislature’s Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment Award, and her community’s Character and Ethics award for her work promoting tolerance with her writing. She was also named to Pasadena Weekly’s list of “Fourteen San Gabriel Valley women who make life happen” and was given her community’s Diamond Award for Achievement in the Arts.

The author loves to travel. She has visited eighty-nine countries and has studied writing at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom; Herzen University in St. Petersburg, Russia; and Charles University, Prague. She admits to carrying a pen and journal wherever she goes. Her Web site is www.howtodoitfrugally.com.

Your Character's Smirking...or Is He? Synonym Pitfalls.

This is a smirk.
And from what I know of this character,
he probably just kissed his brother's girlfriend
or killed someone's best friend.
Not a nice smile.

I've been running into a problem lately: characters I otherwise like are constantly smirking. I'm reading the third book now where this word appears in conjunction with friendly amusement, tenderness, or affection, and if I were sitting down with the authors, I might not be able to resist quoting The Princess Bride: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

To Smirk or Not To Smirk

To me, a smirk is cocky, smug, or cruel. At the very least, it's a teasing sort of smile, or a "hah! I got you!" Smirking is what the bad guy does as he pulls one over on your hero, not what your hero does when he tells the heroine that he loves her.

But after so many counterexamples, I thought maybe I had my definition wrong. So I looked it up.

Oxford: "to smile in an irritatingly smug, conceited, or silly way."

Merriam-Webster: "to smile in an unpleasant way because you are pleased with yourself, glad about someone else's trouble, etc."

Apparently back in the day it used to mean simply "to smile," but we're not back in the day, and even if you're writing historical fiction, it's a dangerous game to use an old definition of a word that now has quite a different meaning.

Other Smiling Words

I've come across the same thing with grin. To me, a grin is a big, face-scrunching smile, usually silly, mischievous, humorous, or teasing. It's not the kind of thing you usually do in, for example, a sentimental or bittersweet moment.

Laughing Words

Synonyms for 'laugh' can cause problems too. If your tough manly man giggles, that's interesting characterization. Maybe he's really a little girl at heart. Maybe he gets nervous easily in unfamiliar situations. But you'd better mean it if you use it. If a character guffaws at something that's not so funny to the reader, you might lose credibility. Unless, of course, over-laughter is part of his personality. Again, great characterization--but only if you mean it that way.

Walking Words

I read a book where no one walked anywhere. Instead, everyone paced. They paced to the door, paced across the street, paced to each other. And I don't think they ever actually walked back and forth, which is what I think of as pacing. It was almost as if the author had been told not to use "boring" words like 'walk.' This author also rarely wrote 'small' or 'little,' replacing them instead with 'minute.' By the end, I was almost throwing things at my Kindle and yelling, "Stop pacing, you minute boy!"

There are many, many sort-of synonyms for walk: stroll, stride, saunter, amble, trudge, plod, hike, tramp, march, stride, wander, ramble, tread, promenade, roam, traipse, take the air; advance, proceed, mosey, perambulate, etc, etc..

They all mean different things, and most can be good--in the right place. But if you start using one over and over--especially if it conveys the wrong meaning, you risk annoying your reader. And don't ever use "perambulate" unless you mean it to be funny.

Looking Words

Gaze, glance, gape, stare, peer, peek, watch, examine, inspect, scan, scrutinize, consider, observe, ogle, espy, etc., etc.

Again, most can be good in moderation, but the current book I'm reading had a line like this: "He glimpsed up quickly." No...to glimpse is to catch a quick look at something, usually before it disappears or you move past it. You can't glimpse up. Then there was this: "He glanced one eye over his shoulder." 'Glance' is intransitive (has no direct object). You can't glance something. You have to simply glance.

'Said' Words

Don't even get me started. Maybe I'll explore this subject next time. I'll just say now that if you use a dialogue tag like "admonished" or "theorized" more than once or twice in a book, reconsider. And if you insist on using lots of unusual synonyms for 'said,' make sure the meaning really fits the dialogue. Don't just use a word you randomly pointed at on your "synonyms for said" cheat sheet.

Using Synonyms (plying, wielding, manipulating...)

Just because there is a synonym doesn't mean you should automatically use it, just to cut repetition or avoid "boring" words. Be sure that the synonym means what you think it means and that it won't make your reader think you're joking. (Ascertain that the synonym signifies what you postulate that it betokens and that it will not induce the peruser to opine that you're jesting.) And generally only use words that are in your active vocabulary. Else the danger is too high that you'll misuse them.

Obviously, styles differ, and if yours is more flowery, more of these types of words might fit. Sometimes you can play with definitions and stretch words for creativity's sake. But you have to do it intentionally...and carefully.

How to Avoid the Issue

Perhaps the real problem is that we often write too many of these types of words to begin with. A critiquer friend of mine calls them "stage directions": all the looking, laughing, nodding, smiling words. Maybe it's best to simply cut down on them altogether. Then we won't have to rely on innacurate or laughable synonyms.

Melinda Brasher currently teaches English as a second language in the beautiful Czech Republic. She loves the sound of glaciers calving and the smell of old books. Her travel articles and short fiction appear in Go Nomad, International Living, Electric Spec, Intergalactic Medicine Show, and others. For an e-book collection of some of her favorite published pieces, check out Leaving Home. For something a little more medieval, read her YA fantasy novel, Far-Knowing. Visit her online at http://www.melindabrasher.com.

Blogging and Google Rankings – Do You Really Want to Use that Content in Your Blog Post?

Everyone is working to keep their blogs regularly updated with content. Content is a must. It’s all about content, content, content.

In fact, content marketing is the reigning king.

Because of this, everyone does whatever they can to keep their websites with updated content on a regular basis:

People write their own posts
People buy content from freelancers or content mills
People buy PLRs (Private Label Rights)
People accept guest posts
People reprint the content of others from article directories
People use content curation
People use newsjacking
So on and so on

But, is all content the same? Is all content acceptable?

In other words, whether it’s your own content or you’re accepting a guest post, if the article is NOT useful and quality content, if it’s poorly written, if it’s linking back to a spam site, should you use it?

For example: Maybe you agreed to be a hosting site for a service that provides virtual book tours. The content their authors provide for the posts is very poorly written and is primarily promotional. Is it okay to use?

The simple answer is to these questions is NO.

In case you’re wondering what constitutes fluff or ‘poor quality’ content, you need to determine if your content is valuable.

To determine if your content is valuable, you need to answer a few questions:

Does the content offer the reader useful information?
Is it engaging or thought provoking?
Is it controversial (the good kind)?
Is it entertaining?
Is it shareable?
Do you think the content is ‘quality’ enough to appear in the results of a Google search query?

If your content doesn’t hit one of those targets, then it’s most likely fluff.

Okay, what if the content is fluff, but it has ‘good’ keywords in it? Is it okay to publish it then?

Well, it depends on four things:

Are you blogging to sell something?
Are you blogging to increase your mailing list?
Are you blogging to increase your authority in your niche/industry?
Are you looking to ‘please’ Google and improve your ranking?

With Google’s latest algorithms, keywords don’t pack the same punch they used to. Search engines spiders can get the gist of the entire content. They base ranking and ‘whether they’ll use that post’s link in the results of a search query’ on the overall content, not just the keywords.

In other words, Google can pretty much detect fluff and garbage, even if you have great keywords.

So, back to the title question: Do you really want to publish that content on your website?

If you’re blogging to sell something, increase your mailing list, gain authority, and boost your ranking, then you should definitely AVOID posting fluff or poor quality content to your site.

Poor quality content can easily lower your Google ranking, which will reduce your authority, which will make people think twice about signing up for your mailing list, which in turn will put a damper on your sales.

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Want to learn more about writing content to boost your results? Then check out:

BECOME AN SEO WRITER IN JUST 4 WEEKS
It's a 4 week e-class that will teach you to write super-charged articles and content that will be reader and SEO friendly, shareable, engaging, and will increase conversion.

It's interactive, in-depth, and through WOW! Women on Writing, CLICK HERE to learn more.

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MORE ON ONLINE MARKETING

Should Authors Profit from Advertising When it Benefits Their Audience
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26 Reasons Why a Writer Should Blog

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