I hear people on the Internet, especially on YouTube, say that their English teachers had told them that “Said is dead”, meaning, don’t use the word “said” when writing a novel or short story. I don’t remember my teachers saying that specifically, but they did insist that we use more “interesting” words to describe speech. …
Tag: how to
No warmups – just write!
There is a lot of advice out there about preparing to sit down and write your book. Some people tell you to free write or journal beforehand. They say to just write about anything that comes to mind. I’ve sort of tried this and it’s okay. But I guess I didn’t love it, or I’d …
Don’t fall for the free ISBNs!
You may be aware that for a lot of online book distributors, you don’t need an ISBN to publish your ebook. If you want to publish a print copy or an ebook with Apple’s iBooks, you need an ISBN. I think you should get an ISBN anyway, even if you don’t have to get one. …
How to write your book faster
There is lots of advice out there on how to write faster and be more productive. They tell us to be more organised before we sit down to write. Plan ahead. If you only have an hour a day, or even less, make sure that you know ahead of time what you need to write, …
Naming your chapters – my opinion
I’d like to give my opinion of giving your chapters names. I don’t think it’s wrong and that you should never do it, but I won’t do it in a full-length novel. And I’ll tell you a few reasons why. Firstly, it is difficult to do well and takes a lot of time and effort. …
When books in a series aren’t clearly numbered
It happens with movies too, but more often, it is a problem with novels. It’s one of my pet hates. I never want to read a book series out of order. Or watch a movie series out of its order. One reason is because it’s hard to follow what’s going on. Another reason is because …
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Software for writing – Why I don’t recommend Word to write your whole book
Most people that own a computer know how to use some kind of word processor, whether it is Microsoft Word, Microsoft Works, Apache Open Office, Polaris Office, or Libre Office Writer. I think probably the most used and most well-known would be Microsoft Word. That’s what I use. It is a good program and because …
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