etter.

Keep the dialogue sentences short. When two people are speaking to one another, one person rarely speaks for four or five sentences at a stretch. Ensure your dialogue is realistic by reading it out loud. Better still; get your partner to read one part, and you the other. This is always the best way to ensure your dialogue is realistic, because if it isn’t, it stands out like toothache. Cut out the umm’s, ah’s and er’s that we all use in real speech. You want your dialogue to be realistic, but not stilted.

More people than ever are spending time writing books, but despite the fact that more books are being published than ever before, the chances of your life’s work hitting the bookshelves are minimal. But there are some basic things you can do to improve your chances.

To start with, avoid these common mistakes.

Avoid a dull theme. People buy books to find excitement and stimulation. If your theme is dull, pick it up, and slap it into a more interesting era or location.

Avoid a slow start. If you tell someone your book doesn’t really get going until chapter three, perhaps you should consider starting it at chapter three. The first chapter, indeed the first two pages, are critical. Get them right, and you will hook the reader. Get them wrong and you’ll end up in the bin, with zillions of others.

Avoid trivia. The reader doesn’t want to know that your character made a cup of tea by taking a teabag and boiling the kettle, or spent five minutes cleaning and flossing his teeth. We all know how tea is made, what’s your point? We all clean our teeth, leastways most of us do. Avoid trivia, and speed up the pace of the story.

Conflict sells. Conflict between characters, conflict between organisations, conflict between the armies or forces for good and evil, conflict between families, or family members, conflict with nature. Plenty of conflict provides greater interest. If everyone gets on famously with everyone else, guess what? The reader starts yawning, and begins wondering if their time could be better spent doing something else, or reading someone else.

Write realistic dialogue. Realistic dialogue is essential, but you don’t need to fill it with cursing. If you have to use swear words, use them sparingly, that way they retain their sense of shock and power. A single F or C word in your work packs a hundred times more punch than a thousand could ever do. It shocks the reader. Did he or she really write that? If you use one in every paragraph it just becomes boring, and even comes across as if the writer couldn’t think of anything better.

Keep the dialogue sentences short. When two people are speaking to one another, one person rarely speaks for four or five sentences at a stretch. Ensure your dialogue is realistic by reading it out loud. Better still; get your partner to read one part, and you the other. This is always the best way to ensure your dialogue is realistic, because if it isn’t, it stands out like toothache. Cut out the umm’s, ah’s and er’s that we all use in real speech. You want your dialogue to be realistic, but not stilted.<

omeone your book doesn’t really get going until chapter three, perhaps you should consider starting it at chapter three. The first chapter, indeed the first two pages, are critical. Get them right, and you will hook the reader. Get them wrong and you’ll end up in the bin, with zillions of others.

Avoid trivia. The reader doesn’t want to know that your character made a cup of tea by taking a teabag and boiling the kettle, or spent five minutes cleaning and flossing his teeth. We all know how tea is made, what’s your point? We all clean our teeth, leastways most of us do. Avoid trivia, and speed up the pace of the story.

Conflict sells. Conflict between characters, conflict between organisations, conflict between the armies or forces for good and evil, conflict between families, or family members, conflict with nature. Plenty of conflict provides greater interest. If everyone gets on famously with everyone else, guess what? The reader starts yawning, and begins wondering if their time could be better spent doing something else, or reading someone else.

Write realistic dialogue. Realistic dialogue is essential, but you don’t need to fill it with cursing. If you have to use swear words, use them sparingly, that way they retain their sense of shock and power. A single F or C word in your work packs a hundred times more punch than a thousand could ever do. It shocks the reader. Did he or she really write that? If you use one in every paragraph it just becomes boring, and even comes across as if the writer couldn’t think of anything better.

Keep the dialogue sentences short. When two people are speaking to one another, one person rarely speaks for four or five sentences at a stretch. Ensure your dialogue is realistic by reading it out loud. Better still; get your partner to read one part, and you the other. This is always the best way to ensure your dialogue is realistic, because if it isn’t, it stands out like toothache. Cut out the umm’s, ah’s and er’s that we all use in real speech. You want your dialogue to be realistic, but not stilted.

our point? We all clean our teeth, leastways most of us do. Avoid trivia, and speed up the pace of the story.

Conflict sells. Conflict between characters, conflict between organisations, conflict between the armies or forces for good and evil, conflict between families, or family members, conflict with nature. Plenty of conflict provides greater interest. If everyone gets on famously with everyone else, guess what? The reader starts yawning, and begins wondering if their time could be better spent doing something else, or reading someone else.

Write realistic dialogue. Realistic dialogue is essential, but you don’t need to fill it with cursing. If you have to use swear words, use them sparingly, that way they retain their sense of shock and power. A single F or C word in your work packs a hundred times more punch than a thousand could ever do. It shocks the reader. Did he or she really write that? If you use one in every paragraph it just becomes boring, and even comes across as if the writer couldn’t think of anything better.

Keep the dialogue sentences short. When two people are speaking to one another, one person rarely speaks for four or five sentences at a stretch. Ensure your dialogue is realistic by reading it out loud. Better still; get your partner to read one part, and you the other. This is always the best way to ensure your dialogue is realistic, because if it isn’t, it stands out like toothache. Cut out the umm’s, ah’s and er’s that we all use in real speech. You want your dialogue to be realistic, but not stilted.

else, or reading someone else.

Write realistic dialogue. Realistic dialogue is essential, but you don’t need to fill it with cursing. If you have to use swear words, use them sparingly, that way they retain their sense of shock and power. A single F or C word in your work packs a hundred times more punch than a thousand could ever do. It shocks the reader. Did he or she really write that? If you use one in every paragraph it just becomes boring, and even comes across as if the writer couldn’t think of anything better.

Keep the dialogue sentences short. When two people are speaking to one another, one person rarely speaks for four or five sentences at a stretch. Ensure your dialogue is realistic by reading it out loud. Better still; get your partner to read one part, and you the other. This is always the best way to ensure your dialogue is realistic, because if it isn’t, it stands out like toothache. Cut out the umm’s, ah’s and er’s that we all use in real speech. You want your dialogue to be realistic, but not stilted.

etter.

Keep the dialogue sentences short. When two people are speaking to one another, one person rarely speaks for four or five sentences at a stretch. Ensure your dialogue is realistic by reading it out loud. Better still; get your partner to read one part, and you the other. This is always the best way to ensure your dialogue is realistic, because if it isn’t, it stands out like toothache. Cut out the umm’s, ah’s and er’s that we all use in real speech. You want your dialogue to be realistic, but not stilted.

Avoid cheat endings. The ending of any book is the most important part, other than your first page. If you cheat the ending by saying that all along it was only a dream, or the main character had a twin who did all the nasty things, the reader will feel let down and disappointed. The time to see the best ending in your mind; is at the very beginning. If you can do that, you can fit in an intriguing twist or two along the way. John Irving, he of Garp and Owen Meaney fame, often says that he sees the ending first; then writes the book. It’s good advice. Good endings sell; poor endings will consign your hard work to the shredder, and leave your reader making a note not to bother with you again. Spend a lot of thinking time on a cracking ending, and you will be successful.

For more ideas and suggestions on improving your chances of becoming published, keep an eye out for my follow up article: “Attract Publishers With Your Talent.”