During my years of editing, I’ve found that dialogue often gives beginning fiction writers trouble. In an effort to make clear who is speaking, the writer often ends up slowing the story’s pace and making for a clunky read.

For example, when an exchange is going on between two characters, there’s no need to state who’s speaking (also known as “attribution”) before giving their quotation. So instead of writing:

Tony said, “Where was it – we’ll cancel.” Amanda said, “It was at Southside Clinic, but they’ll charge me if I cancel.” Tony said, “I’ll call them and explain. You are seriously injured; you need to get to a hospital.”

Instead write:

“Where was it – we’ll cancel,” Tony said.

“It was at Southside Clinic, but they’ll charge me if I cancel,” Amanda said.

“I’ll call them and explain. You’re seriously injured; you need to get to a hospital.”

The exception is when a new character is introduced. In the above example, if Tony is a new speaker, entering upon dialogue between Amanda and Sarah, then we need to write that Tony is the speaker before his quotation is given. But as he’s addressing Amanda (the last one who spoke before Tony entered the conversation), we also need to state that Amanda is speaking (Hopefully, though, the lines given make clear that she is speaking not Sarah).

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional book editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 400 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of 80 books including the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my writing guidebooks:

“Ink, a Drug.” – Vladimir Nabokov

“I’m only really alive when I’m writing.” – Tennessee Williams

“It seemed to me that if I didn’t write, I would disappear.” – Frederick Seidel

“I read the way a person might swim, to save his or her life. I wrote that way too.” – Mary Oliver

“You need the devotion to your work that a priest of God has for his.” – Ernest Hemingway

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 400 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my writing guidebooks:

A common problem that can sneak into your manuscript when self-publishing is a mix of quotation mark and apostrophe styles. That’s because some software programs use smart quotes, or those that are curved, while others use dumb quotes, or those that are straight.

Typographically in paperbacks, smart quotes (also referred to as curly quotes) are preferred over dumb quotes (also known as keyboard quotes). When self-publishing an ebook, you can use either style, but you want to be consistent and exclusively use one.

If you have a mix of styles, simply do a global search and find, and replace all of the quotation marks and apostrophes with one style. In Microsoft Word, to replace dumb quotes with smart quotes, first highlight and copy a smart quote in the text (You may have to type one.). Then highlight a dumb quote and in the command ribbon under the Home tab, hit “Replace”. A screen should pop up with the dumb quote in the “Find what” box. Paste the smart quote in the “Replace with” box and hit “Replace all”. This will replace both the opening and the ending quotation mark throughout the document. Finally, repeat this process for apostrophes.

Be careful to not include extra spaces before or after the quotation mark/apostrophe in the “Find what” or the “Replace with” boxes. In the case of the former, an extra space may mean not finding all of the quotation marks that need to be replaced; in the case of the latter, an extra space will introduce a new error into your manuscript – an unneeded space between the quotation mark/apostrophe and the letter that comes after or before it.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 400 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my self-publishing guidebooks:

One of the downsides of a language is it evolves, so we go through periods in which words become extinct and other ones arise to meet the new cultural climate. Such is the case with the word “bated,” which used to be a fairly common English word meaning “hold back or abate.”

Almost no one uses “bated” anymore. But we do use “baited,” which means to “annoy or taunt.”

So, do we wait with “bated breath,” meaning you’re holding your breath with anticipation, or do we wait with “baited breath,” meaning you’re annoying or taunting your breath with anticipation?

And now, what you’ve been waiting with bated breath (or is it “baited breath”?) for – drum roll please – it’s bated breath.

Since “bated” is going the way of the dodo bird, expect to see “baited breath” more frequently, even though that spelling is a bit nonsensical.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 400 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my writing guidebooks:

Setting is the story’s time and the place in which the plot unfolds. Sometimes it’s referred to as the “scene.”

For example, in “Star Trek: The Original Series”, the setting typically is the 23rd century and various parts of the starship Enterprise, such as the bridge, sickbay, engineering and transporter room. The various locations that the landing party visits on the planet also is part of the setting.

Setting helps shape your story’s color and mood. The conflicts the characters face hinge on the setting and the situations it creates for the characters. On occasion, the setting itself must be transformed as the main character resolves his central problem.

When describing the setting, follow these rules:
• Give concrete details of the place – Appeal to as many senses as possible. All of us live in a world in which we constantly see, hear, smell, taste and touch. So also should your characters. We’ll discuss this more in the next step.
• Ask how your main character would perceive this place – Write your description of the setting from that viewpoint.
• Divide descriptions of the setting into three sections – For example, start with the foreground, then in the next couple of sentences go the middle and at paragraph’s end to the background. Or try left-center-right or sky-eye level-ground.

______________________

My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 400 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my writing guidebooks:

“Not every story has explosions and car chases. That’s why they have nudity and espionage.” – Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum

“I don’t praise plots as accurate representations of life, but as ways of keeping readers reading.” – Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

“The image that fiction presents is purged of the distractions, confusions and accidents of ordinary life.” – Robert Penn Warren

“Plotting is like sex. Plotting is about desire and satisfaction, anticipation and release. You have to arouse your reader’s desire to know what happens, to unravel the mystery, to see good triumph. You have to sustain it, keep it warm, feed it, just a little bit, not too much at a time, as your story goes on. That’s called suspense. It can bring desire to a frenzy, in which case you are in a good position to bring off a wonderful climax.” – Colin Greenland

“Plotting isn’t like sex, because you can go back and adjust it afterwards. Whether you plan your story beforehand or not, if the climax turns out to be the revelation that the mad professor’s anti-gravity device actually works, you must go back and silently delete all those flying cars buzzing around the city on page one. If you want to reveal something, you need to hide it properly first.” – Colin Greenland

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 400 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my guidebooks for plotting your story:

When promoting your self-published book, the social media tool Tumblr ought to play an important role in the marketing strategy. Knowing when to post, however, can maximize your efforts.

According to a number of studies, the best time to pin is 7-10 p.m. Sundays through Tuesdays and Friday evenings. Social media users tend to look at Tumblr during non-work hours.

Indeed, peak use occurs at Friday evenings and each day of the week, most clicks over 24 hours occur on posts made at or about 7 p.m.

Of course, these times are relative. If your business is national, you need to pin over a longer spread of time than 7-10 p.m. in your time zone, or you’ll miss the peak times in other parts of the country. For example, if your business is based in Chicago (Central Time), you would aim messages for the East Coast (i.e. New York City, Philadelphia, Raleigh) at 6-9 p.m. Central Time and messages for the West Coast (i.e. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle) at 9 p.m. to midnight Central Time.

If you have limited hours to spend promoting your book, consider cutting Facebook but keeping Tumblr. Users spend far longer on Tumblr page than on Facebook (14 minutes vs. 1.5 minutes). Note, though, that Facebook has more users than Tumblr, so in terms of raw numbers, those percentages may be irrelevant.

The absolute worst time to pot on Tumblr is before 4 p.m. Though people are on Tumblr during this time, the number of users drops considerably compared to the earlier mentioned peak hours.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 400 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my book marketing guidebooks:

Often when editing manuscripts, I find writers have mixed up “close up” and “close-up.” Let’s quick take a magnifying glass to these two words and examine when each should be used.

If you want to say that the space or distance between two objects or places has decreased, you’re looking for “close up.” In this case, the word is a verb, as in “Our faster rockets will close up the time needed to travel from the Earth to Mars.”

If you want to say that something is at close range, you’re looking for “close-up.” Such a word is a noun, adjective or an adverb in your sentence. To wit, “The movie director called for a close-up of the star’s face” (noun) or “Let’s get a close-up view of those ants with that magnifying glass” (adjective).

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 400 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my writing guidebooks: