I really hate reading books where rhetorical questions are asked all the time. Mainly because they are used in the wrong way. Check out this web site that I found. It backs me up on the miss use of rhetorical questions. 🙂
Enjoy.
http://www.articlesfactory.com/articles/advice/should-you-use-rhetorical-questions.html
~Kelly J.J.~
Please do not use slang. It’s annoying enough to listen to someone in reality use slang and can’t seem to speak in proper English, but to write your characters using slang makes your writing dated. And it’s a stereotype. It makes poor dialogue. Use slang with caution.
~Kelly J.J.~
Write about real people, not just players for your high-concept concoctions. Your characters should grow with the plot. The two should work together. Make them interesting. Although do not make your characters perfect. To make them realistic, you must give them a flaw. No one is perfect. (Obviously) And with that flaw or flaws you give to your characters, it allows you to grow them as people. Which makes them realistic. We all learn from the good and bad experiences. That should be the same for your characters.
~Kelly J.J.~
~Kelly J.J.~
There are several points to writing a good romance novel. All romance books go by a formula. A well known formula. Two people meet, they fall in love and something happens that tries to pull them apart, and then the conclusion. That’s pretty basic. There are a few points the really make it good:
1. the romance develops in a believable way.
2. romances are based on a mutual admiration and respect for the others strengths and talents.
3. romances are willingly sacrificial.
4. feature a well-matched pair.
5. unwavering love.
~Kelly J.J.~
“A good story is about life, with the dull parts taken out.” -Unknown
~Kelly J.J.~
A lot, I mean A LOT, of people would disagree with me on this. Which is fine, it’s your story. You do what you want to it. Please, do hear me out. Many people do it, even best selling authors do it. It’s something so common that there is a name for it. It’s called ‘Said Bookisms’. Heard of it before? Maybe you use it. I remember there was a time where I would write ‘He snapped’, ‘She yelled’, ‘She muttered’ as my dialogue tags. I thought it was the best thing for dialogue. Boy how I was so wrong…….
‘Said Bookisms’, is a form of amateurish writing. It’s also another way of talking down to your reader. You do not need to hold someone’s hand while he/she is trying to read your story. With ‘Said’ Bookisms, you basically ‘tell’ the reader how your character just spoke the dialogue. Why not let your readers infer or know how your characters are speaking without you telling them straight out?
There are people that LOVE ‘said’ bookisms. However, readers like me and editors HATE them! With the tone and mood of the scene and the way your characters word their sentences (more like how you word their sentences.), it would not be hard, at all, to figure out how someone is speaking.
I posted something earlier. It talked about ‘showing’ the reader. Not ‘telling’. If you ‘show’ the reader the emotions of the characters, then it would be very very easy to know how the dialogue is being spoken. Dialogue tags are for the reader to know who is speaking. A lot of times, you can substitute dialogue tags with action tags.
Think about it. When you read, you hardly notice the word said. However, loading your story up with synonyms of said, just makes the dialogue heavy and pulls the reader out of your story. It also ruins the rhythm of it. Please stick with ‘said’. If you don’t believe me, just Google ‘Said Bookisms‘. There are a lot of sites that explain why it is bad to use them in your writing.
Please Do Not Write: she shrieked, he snapped, she yelled, she cried, he whispered, he muttered and so on.
Please Do Write!: he said, she said.
~Kelly J.J.~
‘I was so happy!’ NO NO NO NO! Please do not write that! You should never write, ‘I am so happy’ or ‘I was so confused’ or ‘That made me mad.’ When ever you write fiction, you should NEVER EVER tell the reader anything. I suppose it wouldn’t kill you to use it every once in a while. However, if all you do is tell the reader how your character feels, your reader will not become connected to the character. It would just make the reader feel like he/she is an outsider looking in. You want to show the reader. Show that your character is angry. What do you do when you are angry, you ask? ‘I stomped out of the room and slammed the door on my way out.’ Now that’s showing anger!
~Kelly J.J.~
Your characters are the most important thing about your story. Remember, everyone reacts differently to the same situation. Your characters should not completely react the same to a situation. Make everyone different and unique. Also, KNOW how they will react! Feel what they feel. That is very important. If you don’t feel a connection to your characters, then no one else will.
~Kelly J.J~
1. Could of, Should of, Would of.
Please do not write this: “I could of done my homework.”
The correct way to write it is: “Could have, should have, would have.”
It’s HAVE not OF!
2. Do not write ‘anyways’. It’s not ‘anyways’, it’s ‘anyway’. Without the ‘s’.
3. When writing, don’t use run-on sentences. An independent clause and a dependent clause go well together. However, do not join two independent clauses together with a comma slice. It is bad writing.
4. Incorrect: Me and Allison went to the store.
Correct: Allison and I went to the store.
~Kelly J.J.~
Novel Writing- Do's and Don'ts! 