Good morning from Gail Gaymer Martin at www.gailgaymermartin.com In Part 1 Understanding Tone In Fiction from January 10, the meaning of tone was defined and how it is important to your fiction. The post made it clear that authors want to work on this quality in their writing which helps to grab readers into the story and make them want to read more of the author’s books. This is a goal that you and I want as we write our novels. This post will cover dissecting tone step by step, and examining problematic areas in tone.
Category: Writing craft
This is our archive pageProofreading Pointers #31
Hi! I’m Kathy Ide. In addition to being a published author, I’m a full-time professional freelance editor. For CAN, I’m blogging about “PUGS”–Punctuation, Usage, Grammar, and Spelling … tips for writers based on the most common mistakes I see in the manuscripts I edit. These are excerpts from my new book, Proofreading Secrets of Best-Selling Authors, which reveal how multi-published authors proofread their manuscripts to avoid typos, inconsistencies, inaccuracies, and PUGS errors. (The book is available from Amazon.) If you’re interested in working with a freelance editor (or know someone who is), e-mail me through the contact page of my website. Or go to the Christian…
Do You Have to Like All of Your Characters?
Hi! Maureen Pratt here with my monthly blog. A friend of mine and I recently got into an interesting discussion about how much of the programming on television and many of today’s movies contain fundamentally unlikeable characters who do some pretty awful things. And yet, they draw an audience, sometimes rave reviews, and, sometimes, too, awards and accolades. As a reporter, I’ve had to write stories about subjects that I don’t necessarily "resonate" with. I’ve also had to interview people with whom I personally disagree or who are not exactly the kind of people I’d want to share a meal…
Romance With Hooks
Happy Valentine's Day from Gail Gaymer Martin at www.gailgaymermartin.com. What could be more appropriate than to talke about romance on this special romantic day. Though I told you'd I'd send more on using tone in fiction, today you'll learn more about writing romance and how to hook your reader. Every novel needs a variety of hooks to keep the reader turning pages. Romance is no exception. Hanging on to the reader’s interest can result from story hooks based on a theme or a twisted premise. Opening hooks keep the reader captivated by using accepted techniques that grab the reader’s…
Proofreading Pointers #30
Hi! I’m Kathy Ide. In addition to being a published author, I’m a full-time professional freelance editor. For CAN, I’m blogging about “PUGS”–Punctuation, Usage, Grammar, and Spelling … tips for writers based on the most common mistakes I see in the manuscripts I edit. These are excerpts from my new book, Proofreading Secrets of Best-Selling Authors, which reveal how multi-published authors proofread their manuscripts to avoid typos, inconsistencies, inaccuracies, and PUGS errors. (The book is available from Amazon.) If you’re interested in working with a freelance editor (or know someone who is), e-mail me through the contact page of my website. Or go…
Can Bunnies Pray?
Children’s authors often use animals as the main characters in their stories. Anthropomorphism, also known as personification, is attributing human characteristics to anything other than a human being.
Sometimes It’s How You Frame It
Greetings and Happy New Year! Maureen Pratt here with my monthly CAN blog on the craft of writing. Today, I'm going to offer one technique to help you find the right angle and tone for your story. Sometimes, fine-tuning these so that your intent is clear and your storytelling is compelling isn't a matter of vocabulary or sentence structure, or even pacing or flow. Sometimes, it's how you frame your story that gives it its best final form. Recently, I took two lovely watercolors to a frame shop. I'd purchased them awhile ago, and never liked the plain frames they'd…
Understanding Tone
Welcome to CAN Blog for Friday from Gail Gaymer Martin at www.gailgaymermartin.com I look forward to sharing another post on writing fiction with you today. Tone is not mood, writer’s voice or style, although the novel’s tone influences those elements in fiction. Tone is the author’s attitude toward the story and the reader. It conveys emotion and temperament through word choice as it brings the story to life. Tone is not exclusive to fiction. Non-fiction and journalistic writing is also influenced by the language of the story. Notice when you read magazine articles how the atmosphere and mood is…
PUGS Pointers #29
Hi! I’m Kathy Ide. In addition to being a published author, I’m a full-time professional freelance editor. For CAN, I’m blogging about “PUGS”–Punctuation, Usage, Grammar, and Spelling…tips for writers based on the most common mistakes I see in the manuscripts I edit. Each blog post will have one tip for each of the four categories. For more PUGS tips, check out my website, or get a copy of my book Proofreading Secrets of Best-Selling Authors (due for release this month). If you’re interested in working with a freelance editor (or know someone who is), e-mail me through the contact page of my website. Or…
“Brilliance in a bottle”
Hello! And a very Merry Christmas to you! Maureen Pratt here for my monthly blog which, this year, just happens to fall a couple of days after one of my favorite holidays – you guessed it – Christmas! What I especially love about Christmas is that we get to bring out many of our dearly-held traditions. Whether it’s in baking, decorating, music, or Scripture study “what was old is new again” as we celebrate the Season. How does this relate to writing? Well, it reminds me that sometimes I miss “old” traditions of the authorial kind. Writing long-hand, for example,…
