Novelicious.com | The Women's Fiction Blog for Readers and Writers

Write Your Novel – Make Your Dialogue Sing

I love everything about dialogue. I love reading it, I love writing it, and I flat-out adore hearing beautifully-scripted dialogue in films and television. When I’m writing first draft material, I fill pages and pages with nothing but dialogue (which reads like some floating heads jabbering away because I’ve forgotten to put in any physical details or action).

I know plenty of writers who don’t feel this way, though, and it doesn’t matter one whit. We all have our strengths and weaknesses: It’s knowing your own weaknesses and being willing to work on them that will lift your work to the next level.

Truly, the best advice for writing dialogue is the same as for writing anything else; you just do it. Make yourself write lots and lots of the stuff, even if the results are awkward and unusable; practice, practice, practice.

The other thing to remember is that you’re not trying to mirror the way people talk in real life. If you write dialogue the way people really talk, you’ll end up with unreadable nonsense full of filler words (such as ‘um’ and ‘er’), repetition and boring chitchat. You should aim, instead, for the illusion of reality.

Here are some tips for writing great dialogue:

Top 5 Writing Tips from Kitty Charles

1. Take every opportunity to go to writerly meet-ups! We tend to be such solitary creatures but it's good to get out there and mingle, because no one understands you like other writers. Romantic Novelists’ Association parties are great for this - just lay in a stock of painkillers for the inevitable hangover...  

2. Give yourself permission to write total rubbish at first - a swift Cosmopolitan helps you to chill out and enjoy the process of doing a first draft without too many hang-ups and with maximum freedom to have crazy ideas. Then once you’ve got it all down on paper, you can cut and polish and blow-dry (oops, off to hairdresser later, got muddled) till your story is a shiny thing of beauty.

3. You know you’ve got a good, juicy storyline when you find you keep on waking up in the middle of the night wondering if you’re going to be sued.

4. When you think you've finished your novel or short story read it aloud. By 'hearing' it instead of reading it you'll discover typos, clunky sentences and awkward dialogue you didn't know existed and you can drink wine and put on silly voices for your characters to keep yourself amused while you do it! (Just make sure your flatmates aren't in...)

5. Hire good-looking men to take care of all boring household tasks (cleaning, cooking, mixing cocktails, looking decorative, etc) so that you have more time to write. And when all else fails...turn to the drink.

Why not read our full interview with author Kitty here?

My Writing Room - Donna Douglas

Welcome to another writing room! Today's is courtesy of Donna Douglas who is the author if The Nightingale series. You can find out more about Donna's books on her website.

Over to Donna...

I know what you’re thinking. You’ve seen more cluttered padded cells, haven’t you? But that’s sort of the point. My office is bare, not because I’m incredibly tidy by nature (you haven’t seen the rest of the house), but because I’m a terrible procrastinator. Which is a polite way of saying I waste a lot of time.

I used to have my office in our spare room, overlooking the back garden. It was lined with books, filled with all my little treasures, and was generally a cosy nest in which to spend many happy hours.

And that was the problem. I spent many happy hours there, but not many of them were actually spent writing. I don’t know if you realise how much time you can spend watching your neighbour’s cat sunning itself on the wall, but let me tell you it’s a lot. Especially when the alternative is staring at a blank computer screen.

I would rearrange my bookshelves, first into alphabetical order, then into genre order, then even in order of height. The day I found myself organising my pencils in order of colours of the rainbow, I realised something had to give.

Ask the Editor - What do you read for pleasure?

Caroline Hogg has worked in publishing for almost ten years, at Little, Brown Book Group and more recently at Avon, HarperCollins. She's currently at Pan Macmillan as Senior Commissioning Editor for Commercial Women's Fiction. She knows her stuff!

Today's question comes from a Novelicious reader who asks:

What do you read for pleasure? Do you try to get away from the genre you edit as you work with it in your day job and who are your favourite authors?

Caroline says: I don’t read for pleasure as often as I’d like! I spend some of my spare time reading for work, so if I get weekends or holidays with a nice big chunk of free time, I want to spend it reading something I know will be really entertaining. So, I do sometimes read ‘the book everyone’s talking about’ as you can’t get a better recommendation than word of mouth. This is how I ended up addicted to the Hunger Games trilogy, and recently read Dearest Rose by Rowan Coleman and now I’m part-way through Gone Girl. But in the main, I still read women’s fiction simply because it’s my favourite thing to read. It’s why I do this job. Some of my favourite women’s fiction authors include Sally Beauman, Jojo Moyes, Marian Keyes and Harriet Evans (I’m leaving out authors I’ve worked with so you can’t accuse me of being totally biased! But it goes without saying I absolutely love reading the authors I publish; that’s how I’ve ended up publishing them). One of my all-time favourites is Lazy Ways to make a Living by Abigail Bosanko. Oh, and Bridget Jones’ Diary, of course.

Why don't you Ask the Editor? just email a question to kirsty@novelicious.com, ask on our Facebook or Twitter or just leave a comment below!

The Secret Dreamworld of an Aspiring Author by Anna Bell - Should You Write What You Know?

A lot of my friends give me knowing winks and comments about my book, telling me that they recognis bits of me or stories that have happened to people I know in real life. But the truth is: I’ve realised that it’s easier not to write about what I know. 

In my latest novel, I wanted to base my characters’ work team-building trip on an army bootcamp weekend I went on a few years ago. The fear of being in dark, damp tunnels and carrying double my body weight in the boiling heat have never quite left me. I thought there would be endless humour for my character in these situations, and I’d certainly know how to portray the emotional roller-coaster she’d have gone on. Only the more I tried to write it, the more boring the story got and the more the writing stalled. In the end I ended up changing the team building trip to a totally different situation.

Write Your Novel - Using Collage

I first heard about using collage as part of the novel-writing process from one of my favourite writers, Jennifer Crusie. The idea, very like the one behind making a soundtrack for your book, is to access your subconscious (where the stories live) in a different way to writing.

As soon as you start to think about a new project, look out for images, patterns and even objects that belong in the world you're creating. To start with, you can just collect things so that when you're ready to begin your collage, you've got some material.

Looking at images and choosing ones that feel like your book, or things that directly represent elements and characters, can be a surprising exercise. I'm amazed when images I've chosen without knowing why, end up as vital later in the book, and when the story begins to coalesce through the act of cutting out images and sticking them down.

Michele Gorman’s Top 5 Writing Tips

Michele Gorman is the author of Bella Summer Takes a Chance. Keep an eye out for our review coming this Friday!

1. Write even when you don’t feel like it. It’s important to get words on a page. You can always edit or delete them later.

2. Make sure you know your characters. That’s the only way they’ll behave in a consistent/credible way when you put them in situations. I find that a character analysis for each one is helpful. Some writers even interview their characters and use those notes when they get stuck.

3. Raise the stakes. Your book doesn’t have to be about an earth-shattering situation of global importance but the dilemma/decision your main character faces has to be earth-shattering for them. They have to a) want something, and b) be prevented from getting it.

4. Try reading dialog aloud (not necessarily in a public place!) to see if it sounds natural.

5. Never end a writing day with the end of a chapter. It’s best to have something to take a running start at when you start your next writing session.

Ask The Editor - How do you decide on a book cover?

Caroline Hogg has worked in publishing for almost ten years, at Little, Brown Book Group and more recently at Avon, HarperCollins. In February she'll be joining Pan Macmillan as Senior Commissioning Editor for Commercial Women's Fiction. She knows her stuff!

Our next question comes from a Novelicious reader who asks:

How do you decide on a book cover?

Caroline says: A lot of people spend a lot of time working on and discussing a cover before it’s finalised. It very very rarely comes down to one person’s decision. The first step is the editor putting together a brief for the designer – not just ideas about the cover itself, but an outline of what sort of reader would enjoy it. What they watch on television, where they shop, their age, what else they read. I aim to give a clear picture but not be too prescriptive; as an editor you’re good with words, but you have to let the designer do their expert thing with the visuals.

When the designer is ready to show their first round of concepts, these get shared at a cover meeting, attended by other editors, designers and colleagues from the sales and marketing teams. Everybody gets to pitch in with their reactions and everyone’s opinion is important. New versions of covers will come back into the meeting until the majority likes one in particular. When we have a cover we think is really strong – but not quite perfect – the editor will excitedly show it to the author and agent, for their thoughts.

There are lots of things to consider in putting together a cover, including but not limited to: will it stand out on the shelves? Will it work as an ebook thumbnail? Does it fit with other books in that genre or should we make it stand out as something different? What do the retailers think of the cover? Should it be photographic, illustrative, or focus mainly on the title? The one thing you can guarantee is that it’s about trial and error: you can’t answer all of these questions before you’ve started the design process. Different styles and looks need to be tried out, considered, reworked or left behind if they’re not working out. The cover does so much in attracting a reader to a book, we have to be sure it’s as brilliant as it can be.

To Ask the Editor, just email a question to kirsty@novelicious.com or ask on our Facebook or Twitter!

Janey Fraser's Top 5 Writing Tips

Janey Fraser's new book, Happy Families, is published this week, and as part of her blog tour we're bringing you her Top 5 Writing Tips.

1. Write every day. It’s like reading a book. If you leave a story for a while, it loses its freshness.

2. Write about something you’re passionate about. It will create energy in your writing.

3. Work hard at creating characters who are real. Use magazine pictures to help you imagine what they look like and pin them on a cork board by your desk. Give each one a problem. When they talk to each other, make the dialogue push the plot along and ensure that the characters do something while talking so it doesn’t sound like a script (e.g. run hands through their hair).

4. Make sure something important happens in each chapter and that it ends on a note that makes the reader want to go on.

5. Revise at least three times, looking at plot continuity; characterisation; and all the other things I’ve mentioned. Don’t show it to friends or family. Find an agent through networking at events like the Winchester Writers Conference where you can meet publishers and agents. Also look for first time novelist competitions in magazines like Writing Magazine and Writers’ Forum.

Be sure to check out the next stop on Janey's blog tour at Mama J Hearts tomorrow.

Ask The Editor - Do I really need to have an agent? Do you ever take on unagented books?

Caroline Hogg has worked in publishing for almost ten years. She is Senior Commissioning Editor for Commercial Women's Fiction at Pan Macmillan.

This week a Novelicious reader asks:

Do I really need to have an agent? Do you ever take on unagented books?

Caroline says: 

I would always advise writers to get an agent, absolutely. If you’re really serious about getting your writing noticed above all the others, an agent is the best person to help you do this. They have great market knowledge, great contacts and are very often great editors too, helping you to shape your book before it goes out on submission. As a commissioning editor, you tend to take agented submissions more seriously because they have been carefully vetted and prepared by an agent beforehand. I understand it’s not easy or quick to get an agent, but it is very worthwhile.

To Ask the Editor, just email a question to kirsty@novelicious.com or ask on our Facebook or Twitter!

Jonathan Tropper's Top 5 Writing Tips

Jonathan Tropper is an American writer and a professor of English at Manhattanville College in New York state.  Our review of his new book, One Last Thing Before I Go, can be found here.

1. Turn off your wifi.

2. Turn off your phone.

3. When you’re not sure how exactly to write something, write it in the plainest language possible – abbreviate it – overwrite it – do anything to keep moving.  Stopping is where you get into trouble.  You can always go back later.

4. Read your dialogue out loud to yourself.  If it sounds awkward spoken, it’s not going to read well either.

5. Don’t be afraid of revising. The revisions process is where you polish your prose, where you adjust the language and the rhythms.  You can’t see it all when you’re in the act of creating.  Multiple, in-depth passes are where you excavate the heart of your writing.

One Last Thing Before I Go is out now.

Writing Comps and Opportunities Roundup 19/03/2013

By Cesca Major

Every other Tuesday we will be compiling a list of competitions, courses and opportunities on offer for wannabe writers and those of you who might want to work in publishing. If you have a competition, course or opportunity you would like us to shout about send info to: cesca@novelicious.com. If you can't see your comp here we might be saving it for a later date.

 And please Novelicious readers let us know how you get on! We'd love to hear your success stories...

 

Competitions

 There are some great writing competitions, many closing at the end of this month. Here are just a few...

 

**NOVEL COMPETITION KLAXON! The Lucy Cavendish Prize (Judge: Allison Pearson) is closing on 27th March. This one is for unpublished novels written by women.

 "To enter the competition, participants will need to submit the first 30 pages of an unpublished novel and a synopsis of the remainder of the novel (max. 10 pages long), plus the £10 entry fee. A shortlist of five will receive an invitation to the prize-giving dinner (attended by publishers, agents and authors), where the winner will be announced and receive a cheque for £1000."

Click here for more information

 

**The Exeter Short Story Prize has some fabulous prizes and closes at the end of the month.

 Click here for more information

 

**West Sussex Writers have launched a national short story competition. You can write on any theme and the prizes are goodies.

Maximum word count: 3,000

Theme: Open

Closing Date: 31st March 2013

Prizes:  1st prize £200; 2nd prize £75; 3rd prize £50

Final judge: Simon Brett

Click here for more information

My Writing Room – Laura Ziepe

Today we bring you the writing room of lovely Laura Ziepe, the author of Essex Girls, which is currently on offer for just 99p!

My Writing Room by Laura Ziepe

My original plan was to write in my office, and when I first moved in my house, that’s what I did.  I decorated it in a shabby chic style and it’s really pretty to look at, but unfortunately it’s far too cold as it used to be a garage.  It doesn’t matter how many layers I put on or if the heating is turned up full blast, I freeze in there, so after a few weeks, I resigned to the fact that I needed a new place.   I find that I do most of my writing in my kitchen, sitting at the table as it’s the brightest room in the house.  I’m less distracted than if I sit in the lounge (though I must admit, I do love to laze with my laptop in my reclining armchair).

Ask The Editor: What are your pet peeves in women's fiction?

Caroline Hogg has worked in publishing for almost ten years. She is Senior Commissioning Editor for Commercial Women's Fiction at Pan Macmillan.

This week a Novelicious reader asks:

What are your pet peeves in women's fiction?

Caroline says: For me, it’s cartoon characters. Not of the Disney kind, but of the predictable, 2D kind you sometimes find in commercial fiction. I want to read about a character who feels real, who I could imagine going to the pub with (this applies to romantic heroes too, of course!) or who reminds me of someone I know. I don’t want a character who feels like a string of clichés or well-worn traits; I don’t necessarily want gritty realism in every book I read but I certainly don’t want a patronisingly cartoonish character in my pursuit of a great, fun read. Entertaining does not equal shallow.

To Ask the Editor, just email a question to kirsty@novelicious.com or ask on our Facebook or Twitter!