Writing Tips

Use the Personal Narrative Account

Stuck for a way to open your non-fiction manuscript? Try using your personal account on why you decided to write this book. When you start describing your interest, the story becomes easier to write and a lot easier for the reader to enjoy. It also creates a sense of honesty and purpose that might otherwise have gone unnoticed.

In books on travel, tell the reader how you developed your interest, not merely what places you visited.  The same holds true for your book on cooking and all the hundreds of hobbies and interests we all have. Describe how you became interested in the recipes offered (through friends, kin, accident, etc.) not merely what you suggest the reader prepare for the table.

We live in a world of where authors need credentials to establish authority over a subject.  If nothing else you are certainly the expert in how you developed your interest. The reader will find this fascinating and you will find it easier to write and of real interest to the reader.

 

Avoid the use of "He Said/She said"

Add excitement to dialogue by avoiding the use of “he said/she said”. Let your characters use names your dialogue so the reader can follow easily. Or use action in the dialogue between characters to transmit information. Using the “he said/she said” tends to slow the action, slow the reader's interest and if used continuously, just weakens the overall storyline.

A few examples:

“Did you find out what she was doing with that luggage, Jimmy?”

“Not yet. She just returned from Paris. But I will be driving back to that house tonight. She won't get away with it.”

“Ha! You said that last time. What makes you think she doesn't know already?”

“She would have told someone. Look Stephen, you can laugh until that silly white beard you have comes down to your waist but I am dead serious. I swear I will get that damn package before she starts getting suspicious.”

“Shhh. I think the other two are coming home. All right, better leave Jimmy. Just remember to call me on the cell phone when you have it.”