Depending on where you are on your writing journey, you may be finding out that writing your book is just the beginning of your journey as a writer. Finishing a book is a huge accomplishment, requiring significant time, energy, focus, and love. Job number one in a writer’s life is getting that darned book finished, polished, and then out into the world. But the reality in today’s market, whether you publish traditionally, use a hybrid publisher, or publish independently (Self Publish), you as the writer will have to get involved in spreading the word so that readers can find your book.

Yes, I’m talking about marketing and promotion. Even if you’re with a big publishing house, it’s rare these days to get a ton of budget or support for your book’s promotion, especially if you’re new on the scene. This comes as a shock for many new writers, who’ve watched umpteen Hollywood movies depicting huge book tours and lines down the block assembled to meet an author. The reality is more like calling around to see if bookstores will let you do a signing, and then wiling away hours, hoping that shoppers will stop to talk. 

Many writers find the idea of marketing their books terrifying, thinking that dancing on social media, or spending a fortune on ads and hoping for the best are the only options to get potential readers’ attention.

“But Suzy…” I hear from writers when I ask what their plan is for marketing. “I hate public speaking, and I see you doing it but it’s just not for me.”

The good news? You don’t have to do any of the things I do. There are dozens of other options.  With my background in building businesses, I’ve always been fascinated with how writers promote themselves and their books, and jump at every chance I get to find out what’s working for writers I meet, and what isn’t. As a result, over the years I’ve personally tried dozens of strategies to reach readers – some that worked, and some that didn’t. I’ve also worked with hundreds of writers who are successfully marketing their books, each with their own special flair.

What Do All These Successful Authors Have in Common?

1. They play to their own interests and strengths. What I love to do may not be your cup of tea—so don’t do it! If speaking and teaching in front of crowds, or talking with strangers is your kryptonite, find another way. You can use your written words to reach audiences by blogging, writing articles, or simply sharing your writing in creative places.  
2. They don’t spread themselves too thin. Pick one or two areas to focus on, and go deep, learning everything you can and giving it your all. If you choose to learn the art of promoting yourself and books using online ads and you focus your energy there, you’ll eventually get great at it. If you start a social media account or a blog on a topic related to your book and post regular content, you’ll attract a community of readers who might be interested in your book. If you try to do all the things, you’ll exhaust yourself, and you will see fewer results, making you wonder if all the hype about “marketing” is worth it.
3. They show up consistently. Once you’ve found a strategy you enjoy and can sustain over time without burning out, do it consistently. These days, I focus on just two things: my Inspired Writing Newsletter for writers, and my Show, Don’t Tell Writing podcast. These are both free weekly content and have grown my community to over 12,000 amazing writers. When you’re first starting out, choose one thing you can do regularly, whether it’s monthly, biweekly, or weekly, and show up consistently. Resist making excuses, or giving up too soon. Over time, your audience will build.
4. They show up as “themselves” when they interact with readers. Don’t be afraid to let your freak flag fly, whether that’s your obsession with Hot Wheels collectibles, poetry, or your relentless pursuit of perfect grammar. The biggest mistake I see writers make is trying to make all their communications with potential audiences so formal that their Voice and Point of View are missing. Readers are interested in knowing what their favorite writers are really like. And the bonus? Being yourself is much easier to sustain over time than trying to be who you think others expect you to be.
5. They promote year-round, not just when they have a new book coming out. Even if you haven’t published your first book yet, the time to start building your author platform to promote your books is now. Get your feet wet as soon as you can, and try things out. It might take you a minute to learn which strategies give you the most joy and result in meaningful interactions with potential readers. But start somewhere. If you have 12 people in your audience waiting for your book when it comes out, that’s better than zero. 

As you explore your options to promote your books and find readers, you’re building a creative life for yourself. The best part is that you get to be creative about what that looks like. By all means, gather inspiration by watching and learning from writers you admire. But don’t try to emulate what they’re doing exactly, or marketing will feel like a chore, and you’ll quit. Instead, notice what those writers are doing that looks doable for you, and what feels exciting for you to try—and then try it.

Not Sure Where to Start?

I’ve compiled this list of 30 Ways to Promote Your Book, along with some thoughts on how I’ve seen each of them successfully implemented. I guarantee there’s at least one on this list that will fit your writing goals, your personality, and your available time for building up your public presence as a writer.

Enjoy!

SUZY VADORI - Resident Writing Coach

Suzy Vadori is the award-winning author of The Fountain Series. She is a certified Book Coach with Author Accelerator and the Founder of Wicked Good Fiction Bootcamp. Suzy breaks down important writing concepts into practical steps to make it easy for writers coming from outside the industry to get up to speed in a snap, so that they can realize their big, wild writing dreams!

In addition to her weekly newsletter encouraging writers, and online courses, Suzy offers both developmental editing and 1:1 Book Coaching. Find out more about our RWC team here and discover how to connect with Suzy and all the resources she has to offer here.

The post Thirty Ways to Promote Your Book appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Why is it that some books get gobbled up by readers, and others don’t? It’s easy to get stuck in a revision cycle when you aren’t sure if a scene is working, so you rewrite it, and rewrite it again, and again, going by gut feel, and not knowing if you’re making your book better, or worse. If this has happened to you, you’re not alone.

Often, writers focus on “fixing” their writing by correcting spelling and grammar, or by trying to optimize sentence structure. And while all those things are important (you don’t want your reader tripping over errors), if you focus in on this too soon, you’ll run the risk of missing the bigger picture—Is your writing interesting?

Now, before you comment below to say that interesting is in the eye of the beholder, let me be specific. I can guarantee that the idea for your book is interesting, and that there are readers in the world that will agree with you. After all, you’ve spent hundreds, possibly thousands of hours on your writing already. You’re reading this article. You’re doing the work because your idea is good enough to keep you interested.

But if those beautiful ideas in your mind are falling flat on your pages, your reader will get bored. Luckily, it’s entirely fixable.

If you have the following four issues in your writing, it will stop readers from seeing what you’re hoping to say with your writing. Fix them if you want your book to make the maximum impact that it can.

Problem #1: Using Writing Clichés

Clichés are phrases or situations that are so overused that they become an eye roll for readers. I’m not talking about these phrases (although you should avoid them too, in favor of fresher ideas!). But Writing Clichés are situations that are so overused they will be a snore for your readers, and believe it or not, can mark your writing as amateur for editors, agents, or publishers who’ve worked in the industry for a while. Some examples include:

• Starting a scene with a character waking up
  • Ending a scene with a character falling asleep, or everything fading to black
  • A character looking in a mirror to describe themselves

Now, before you freak out, because you’re like, But Suzy, I have all of these clichés in my pages. Why didn’t I know this? Let me explain.

There is absolutely nothing technically wrong with these situations, and there’s no way that you could know they’ve overused. Why? Because these tired bits of writing usually get edited out of books before they’re published, so you won’t see them in many books on the shelf of your local bookstore.

But they are very common in first drafts. Why? They are simply the easiest way for a writer to start or end a scene, or to show readers what a Point of View (POV) character looks like. Because of this, thousands of writers come to write scenes in a similar way, writing the first thing that comes to mind. If you have these problems in your book’s draft, you’re in good company. But the easiest way to write something is not often the most effective way to engage readers.

Luckily, these problems are easy to fix, and you don’t even have to rewrite your whole scene to do it.

• If your character wakes up at the beginning of a scene? Simply eliminate the sentences where they wake up, starting the scene a few moments later, when your character is already awake.
• If your character falls asleep, passes out, or is knocked unconscious at the end of your scene? End it just before.
• If your POV character looks themselves up and down in a mirror to describe what they look like? Instead, get creative with how you share a few details about their appearance when we first meet them. We don’t need it all at once. Instead, aim for 2-3 details you can share, the more specific, the more effective they will be.  Is there something they like or dislike about their appearance? Share that. Do they share a hair color or nose shape with a family member who’s also in the book? Share that. And share these details sooner rather than later. Giving a description of what your character looks like in Chapter 5 is frustrating to the reader, because it will undoubtedly be different than they’d imagined. Slip it into the opening pages.   

Problem #2: “Draining the Well Dry”

One of the toughest things for writers to learn is how to smoothly manage the passage of time in their story. Like in Problem #1 above, where writers have naturally gravitated to the path of least resistance, they end up describing everything that happens to a character during each day, zooming in on conversations, watching them eat, drink, or go about their day. The problem with this is that it’s unfocused, and can feel rambling. You as the writer may need all this information to get your timeline straight, but don’t make the mistake of including it all in your scenes, because it’ll take forever for your reader to wade through. 

Unless this minutia directly relates to the message you’re trying to convey with your book, skip it. We probably don’t need to watch your character brush their teeth, for example. If your book is contemporary, readers will assume that they did. If you’ve got scenes like these, take a step back and consider which moments readers really need to witness to get a feel for what your character is going through. Being able to make these decisions is where your writing skill comes in. Cut the rest by ending the scene or chapter earlier, with a scene break, then taking us to the next important moment in the next chapter or scene.

Problem #3: Writing Exhaustive Dialogue

In my opinion, some of the worst advice out there for writers (although it’s very commonly passed along) is this: To learn to write dialogue well, sit in a coffee shop and eavesdrop. Write down phrases as you hear them, then use them in your writing to make your dialogue more realistic.

Uh… no. Why? Because if you’re not careful, you’ll end up with pages of this drivel, and you’ll put your reader to sleep.

Consider this exchange, which might happen in an everyday coffee shop:

“Hi, I’m Rob.”

“Sorry, did you say Bob?”

“No, Rob.”

“Oh, sorry. Nice to meet you, Rob. I’m Larry.”

“Nice to meet you too, Larry. I’ve never been to this coffee shop, have you?”

“No, I haven’t.”

Are you sleeping after reading that? I almost fell asleep writing it. Dialogue in books doesn’t have to accurately reflect how we speak in real life, unless you’re ironically trying to show how pedantic it can be, as in a comedy series like The Office, where they slow down everyday office occurrences to poke fun. In most books, aim for dialogue that sparkles a little brighter than the mundane conversations people have.

Ask yourself, Which moments will help the reader see my characters in action?  What they are thinking or feeling as the conversation is happening, that will move your story forward?

There are many problems with the example dialogue above, but here are some guidelines to start with:

• Skip introductions or summarize instead of making us wade through them whenever possible. A simple, The man introduced himself as Rob, would be just fine here.
• Eliminate prompting dialogue. This is where one character asks a question (“did you say Bob?”), or prompts another character to repeat themselves. Watch for this in your dialogue, and collapse it down to eliminate the feeling of redundancy.

Problem #4: Not Enough Exciting Showing Details in Your Scenes

Implementing each of the tips above will inevitably reduce the word count in your scenes, and that doesn’t always feel great, when you’ve fought hard to get the words down and watched your book grow. But be ruthless, eliminating boring elements that will stop your reader from getting hooked on your story, because this reduced word count will give you breathing room to add in details that will really make your writing pop.

Every scene in your book should have a balance of showing, and telling. Drawing out important moments by sharing a specific showing detail or two will always draw readers in, making your story come to life for them.

Not sure what I mean by showing, or telling? You can get more information on that here.

Click here for a wealth of show-don’t-tell resources!

Making Your Writing Exciting for Readers

Eliminating the boring writing habits listed above will increase your book’s impact on your reader, making them stay up late into the night to finish your pages, fall in love with your story, and share it with their friends.

Not sure if you’ve developed some boring writing habits along the way? Get a writing assessment! Until Black Friday, I’m offering an introductory Writing Assessment, where I’ll evaluate a sample of your writing and coach you where to focus to make your writing as impactful to your reader as it can be. Get details at www.suzyvadori.com/10pagereview

SUZY VADORI - Resident Writing Coach

Suzy Vadori is the award-winning author of The Fountain Series. She is a certified Book Coach with Author Accelerator and the Founder of Wicked Good Fiction Bootcamp. Suzy breaks down important writing concepts into practical steps to make it easy for writers coming from outside the industry to get up to speed in a snap, so that they can realize their big, wild writing dreams!

In addition to her weekly newsletter encouraging writers, and online courses, Suzy offers both developmental editing and 1:1 Book Coaching. Find out more about our RWC team here and discover how to connect with Suzy and all the resources she has to offer here.

The post Four Things That Make Your Writing Boring (and how to fix them!) appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Writing an entire book is an immensely complex undertaking. Even if you’ve outlined meticulously, you’ll need more ideas than you can possibly imagine to fill the pages of an entire book (50,000 to 100,000 words or beyond, depending on your genre). And what you’ve mapped out in detail in an outline will only fill a portion of this.

Whether you’re writing fiction or pulling from real events for a nonfiction book, as you write, your brain will make decisions about what to include. What comes easily might depend on your mood or what you got up to that day.

When I read about characters making spaghetti while I’m editing draft pages of a writer’s fantasy novel, or a character cleaning their house in detail in a romance, I know instantly that the writer is bringing snippets of their own lives into their pages. Sometimes, these scenes are brilliant writing. Occasionally, the scenes are on point and tie into the rest of the book. But many times, scenes like these have nothing to do with the character’s journey, and they slow the pace of the book to the point a reader might stop reading.

As you’re coming up with ideas and exploring how they fit into your book, it’s easy to lose sight of what you wanted to say to readers in the first place. Instead, while you’re scrambling to fill your pages, you might veer off course, creating a book full of cool things that isn’t what you meant to write at all and will leave readers confused.

I have conversations with writers weekly who want to discuss whether they should add a new idea they just came up with to their book. What they really want is a compass that will tell them if the scene they’re adding is improving or taking away from their reader’s experience. To figure this out, they need to choose a Takeaway.

What Is a Takeaway?

The Takeaway you decide on for your book is closely related to what some might call your theme, or the point of your story. As with everything I teach about writing, I like to flip the script, thinking about the reader at every turn, because they’re the ones that you hope will find, read, love, and share your book with others. They’re the ones you’re starting a conversation with when you publish your book, and choosing a Takeaway can help you decide which scenes belong and which ones you should kick to the curb.

To choose a Takeaway for your book, take a step back and ask yourself a simple question: What message do you want readers to take away from your book?

Choosing Your Book’s Takeaway

You don’t have to get too fancy with this. A simple sentence, cliché, tried-and-true saying, or a mantra will do, as long as it resonates with you and it’s what you hope your readers will think about when they’re done. Your Takeaway won’t be shared with the world, it’s just a reference point for you. So don’t sweat making every word in it perfect.

Some examples of Takeaways in books:

• Blood is thicker than water
• You can’t accept love until you love yourself
• You get out of life what you put into it

You can choose your Takeaway when you’re planning your book or during your revision stage, whenever you need guidance. To get started, spend 20 minutes brainstorming a list of 5-7 possible Takeaways for the book you’re writing now, then narrow it down to one you’re excited about.

PRO TIPS:
* Choose only one Takeaway per book
* Books in a series may have the same Takeaway for each book, or they may be different

Simple, right? Now here’s the fun part. Once you’ve chosen your Takeaway, you have a way to test every idea or scene that you want to include in your book, to see if it fits.

Note: Choosing a Takeaway doesn’t mean everything in your book will feel the same, or that every character in your book will view the world the same way, which is pushback I often hear from writers who don’t want to be restricted. In fact, your Takeaway will open up multiple directions for your scenes to go while delivering an experience to your reader that feels cohesive and incredibly satisfying (even if they have no idea how you did it – that’s the magic and the behind-the-scenes of writing).

With your Takeaway handy, take a look at each scene, event, action, or character’s reaction you want to include in your book. Does it somehow compare, contrast, mirror, challenge, or support your Takeaway? If it does one of these things, it belongs in your book. If it doesn’t? It’s off-topic and will feel out of place to your reader. Cut it.

A Takeaway Example

Let’s imagine that Blood is Thicker than Water is your Takeaway. Scenes that support this Takeaway will obviously show family bonds that are stronger than anything else in a character’s life.

But… don’t forget to include ideas and scenes that will compare, contrast, mirror, or challenge this Takeaway, such as:

• A subplot showing a dysfunctional family with no loyalty among them, and the result
• A character who has no family trying to find their place in the world
• A storyline where supporting one’s blood relatives results in disaster
• A character who feels burdened by their family, even if the relationships benefit them

PRO TIP: The Theme & Symbolism Thesaurus at One Stop for Writers explores many popular story themes and thematic statements like the ones above that might work for your story.

You can include any number of ideas that revolve around your Takeaway. Remember, if you have a scene that doesn’t fit this bill, take it out, even if you love it (in writing we call this killing your darlings!). If you dig in your heels and leave it in, your readers will miss out on the incredibly satisfying experience of having everything in your book pointing in the same direction as your plot unfolds, leading readers to love and share your book with others.

Once your Takeaway is woven into every scene, you’ll start to see possibilities and connections you didn’t see before, and readers will be pulled deep into your story. With your Takeaway as a guide to what belongs in your book, your message will come through without you having to hit readers over the head with it, and it will linger long after they reach The End.

And those deleted scenes? You can always release them later as bonus material for your loyal readers, or you can include them in a future book that revolves around a different Takeaway. So they’re never really lost.

Defining your Takeaway and ensuring everything you’ve included in your book aligns or evokes it in some way is the secret sauce that will hold your reader’s attention and push their experience over the top. So keep your Takeaway top of mind while you plan and revise your book to make it as impactful as it can be.

Want more practical tips on writing that you can apply to your book today? Take a listen to my brand new podcast, Show, Don’t Tell Writing.

SUZY VADORI - Resident Writing Coach

Suzy Vadori is the award-winning author of The Fountain Series. She is a certified Book Coach with Author Accelerator and the Founder of Wicked Good Fiction Bootcamp. Suzy breaks down important writing concepts into practical steps to make it easy for writers coming from outside the industry to get up to speed in a snap, so that they can realize their big, wild writing dreams!

In addition to her weekly newsletter encouraging writers, and online courses, Suzy offers both developmental editing and 1:1 Book Coaching. Find out more about our RWC team here and discover how to connect with Suzy and all the resources she has to offer here.

The post Use Your Story’s Takeaway (Theme) to Trim Extraneous Content appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Have you ever watched a movie based on a book you read and realized the book is so much better? As a writer, this phenomenon excites me, because we can create an experience for readers with words that studios are desperate to replicate with their huge budgets. But how can that be? Will books become obsolete as more and more content streams into homes? I highly doubt it. Writers have a few tricks up their sleeves that movies can’t use. And if you combine these elements on your pages, you’ll create an immersive experience that all the money in the world can’t put on the screen.

Movies rely on 3 elements of writing in their scripts to tell their stories – Setting, Dialogue, and Actions.

They can also use music, lighting, and special effects to enhance the whole experience.

Writers have 2 extra elements at their disposal – Reactions, and Inner Thoughts.

(Strictly speaking, movies can try to replicate Inner Thoughts by using an actor’s voiceover, but that gets annoying quickly if overused – advantage, writers!)

That’s right, only in books can a reader climb into a character’s skin and experience their world through their eyes. This is why books aren’t going anywhere, and why many times, the book is better than the movie!

The 5 Elements of Writing Include

Element 1: Setting – Your world is alive in your head as you write. Make sure that you’re giving your reader some hints along the way to help them construct your beautiful world in their minds. Try sprinkling 2-3 details of your world by letting your characters interact with your setting at the top of each scene, or immediately after the characters arrive at a new destination within a scene to make your setting pop.

Element 2: Dialogue – Just like a movie director, you as the writer can decide when to zoom way out and let time pass quickly for your characters, sharing only summary details like a movie montage, or zoom right in close and hear everything that they have to say. Dialogue is a great tool to include when you’re zooming in, letting us hear the actual words that characters say to one another. Dialogue in books is trickier to punctuate than you think, and many writers get this wrong, consistently. Check out my dialogue punctuation cheat sheet that should clear up any questions you have and get you punctuating dialogue like a pro, once and for all.

Element 3: Actions – This element includes describing all the stuff that characters get up to in your book. These actions can be small, such as scratching a nose during a conversation, or huge, such as jumping in front of a moving train to save their nemesis and furthering your plot.

Element 4: Reactions – When done right, sharing how a character reacts or feels in their Point of View will have your reader laughing, crying, or sitting on the edge of their seat right along with your characters! The Emotion Thesaurus is an amazing resource to get your creative juices flowing and practice how to get these emotions and reactions on your page.

Element 5: Inner Thoughts – This one is the slam dunk element that will tip your readers over the edge, falling into your pages. Whether you have a narrator, or it’s written from a character’s Point of View (POV), they are your reader’s guide on the journey, and will let the reader know how to feel and react to the story as they go. Let this inner voice of your POV character(s) shine, giving meaning to the events that unfold in your book’s plot. This element is what gives your story personality, helping it stand out from the rest, so have fun with it. 

What if the 5 Elements of Writing aren’t Balanced on Your Pages? 

Have you ever read (or written!) a scene that feels a little flat, and you just can’t seem to put your finger on why? Chances are, the writer has leaned too heavily on 1-2 of these elements of writing for a page or more, without taking full advantage of the full range at their disposal. Reading passages like this feels more like a chore, and readers will disengage.

Some examples of the elements being out of balance are:

• Including long paragraphs of setting description clumped together without anything happening in the scene. Readers can only digest so much information at once, and if you include too much (commonly referred to as an info dump), readers will start to skim to get back to the action on the page, missing all your beautiful descriptions.
• A page or more of quick back and forth dialogue, with minimal actions inserted between what each character is saying. This is a problem commonly called talking heads, where it feels like your characters are just heads blabbing back and forth, not providing any context. You can have quick exchanges, but keep these short and to the point for maximum impact.
• Long tirades in a character’s head (Inner Thoughts), while not moving the story forward. This one feels a lot like an info dump to read.
• Scenes that go from action to action, meticulously detailing the things your characters do, without giving them time to React, or reflect on what it means to them in that moment using Inner Thoughts.

The good news is, this imbalance is easy to spot when reading your own drafts, and easy to fix. In addition to simply counting the number of elements you’ve used on each page using the list in this article, you can spot areas in your draft that need attention quickly, paying attention to the white space on the page.

• A long section relying heavily on quick dialogue is easy to spot when there is lots of white space on your page.
• Too much setting description or inner thoughts is easy to spot when the text is dense on your pages, with long paragraphs and few breaks

Having awareness of the 5 Elements of Writing in your writers’ toolbelt will help you craft pages that hold your reader’s attention, making it feel three dimensional. Using 3 or more of these Elements on each page will keep your reader’s brain engaged and make your scenes feel richer and fuller, even better than the movie will be when it comes out.

SUZY VADORI - Resident Writing Coach

Suzy Vadori is the award-winning author of The Fountain Series. She is a certified Book Coach with Author Accelerator and the Founder of Wicked Good Fiction Bootcamp. Suzy breaks down important writing concepts into practical steps to make it easy for writers coming from outside the industry to get up to speed in a snap, so that they can realize their big, wild writing dreams!

In addition to her weekly newsletter encouraging writers, and online courses, Suzy offers both developmental editing and 1:1 Book Coaching. Find out more about our RWC team here and discover how to connect with Suzy and all the resources she has to offer here.

The post Using the 5 Elements of Writing to Immerse Readers appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Have you ever been running late, and found yourself scrambling around your house, looking for your car keys? Where did you leave them – on the kitchen counter? By the front door? Oh wait, you went up to your bedroom to get something. You race up the stairs, step into your room, and then stop short. You blink. You made your bed already. The blinds are drawn.

What were you looking for, again? For the life of you, you can’t remember.

This is a real phenomenon, so if you’ve experienced this, it doesn’t mean that you’re losing your marbles. It’s called The Doorway Effect, and it happens because as soon as you step over the threshold to a new room in your house, your brain has new information to process, and it clears its slate to ground itself in your new environment.

I’m in my bedroom now. My bed is made. I closed the blinds.

It might be a minute or two before you remember you were looking for your keys. You might need to retrace your steps. (But don’t worry, you’ll eventually remember that they’re on your nightstand, and you’ll leave your house only a few minutes late).

You’re probably wondering what this Doorway Effect has to do with writing? Here’s the cool thing about brains – your reader experiences a similar phenomenon when you cut to a new chapter or scene in your book. As the writer, you have the power to take them anywhere when you start a new chapter or scene. You can jump backward in time, dropping into a flashback, skip forward in time by days, months, years, even decades. You can change whose Point of View (POV) you’re telling the story from, you can even start a new scene on the moon if that’s where your story goes.

And your reader is along for the ride. They trust you, the writer, to lead the way. So, as they cross the threshold into your brand new chapter or scene, that they’ve never read before, they clear their slates, and look for clues to ground them in the scene that’s about to unfold. As they ease into the new scene, they’ll be looking to orient themselves, and need the answers to these questions, fast: 

1. Whose head are they in now? (POV)
2. Where are they in time, relative to the scene they just left?
3. What’s around your characters (setting)?
4. Who is in the in the scene when it opens?

This is true even if you start the next chapter only moments later, BTW, so you need to clue them in even if your grounding information is the same as the chapter before! 

If they don’t get that information, they’ll feel lost, like they’re floating, without their feet firmly planted on the ground. Without this information, especially any details about the setting, the reader will picture your characters in a white room, or against a white wall, going about the activities you pen for them. This is sometimes called White Room Syndrome, or White Wall Syndrome (again, aren’t brains cool?).

Many readers will start skimming to figure this out rather than stay in this no man’s land. So, if you don’t give this information until the top of the second page of your scene? They’ll miss all the amazing things that happen on page one.

The easiest way to fix this is to make sure you’re providing the 4 elements of grounding readers in your scenes within the first two paragraphs after every chapter or scene break. It’s like a big road sign when they step over the threshold to help them find their place in your world, so that they can relax and let themselves be dragged into whatever your characters get up to next.

Tips for Including Grounding in Your Scenes

Get creative, and give readers this information as quickly as possible, so you can get on with the story.

Whose head are they in now? (POV)

This is especially important when you are writing your book from more than one character’s point of view.

• Opening with an inner thought laced with your POV character’s voice, or an action or dialogue from them is the quickest way to establish this.
• If you start with another character’s actions or dialogue, readers may incorrectly assume that they will be following this new character’s POV in your scene.

Where are they in time, relative to the scene they just left?

Immerse your readers in your scene as quickly as possible by letting them in on where you’ve taken them.

• Get creative on establishing the time period for your readers. Phrases like moments later, or three months ago, can get boring, and make your grounding feel clunky. Try some of these ideas instead:
  • Show time passing with the character’s growth (longer hair, wrinkles forming, a child growing taller etc.)
  • Demonstrate a change in an object (a jar of peanut butter that empties over time, or a set of swings that shows wear).
  • Reverse these suggestions if you’re jumping backward in time.

What’s around your characters (setting)?

Rather than describing the setting, have your POV character interact with it to keep the story moving right from the top of the scene. And keep this short – adding this information is not an excuse to drop several paragraphs of worldbuilding (info dumping), which can pull readers out of your story.

• Give 2-3 specific showing details about the room or landscape you’re dropping readers into.
  • Have your POV character use something in your scene, or move an object around them that fits with their agency
  • Examples: Have them check the industrial clock on the wall to show urgency, pick up a rock and throw it to show frustration, etc.
  • Setting details are also needed when your characters change locations within a scene or chapter, in addition to the top of your scenes, so use these tips there as well to make sure your readers don’t get lost on your journey!

Check out this article by Angela Ackerman for more ideas on how to ground your characters in your reader’s world.  

Who is in the scene when it opens?

There is nothing more jarring than thinking a character is alone in a scene and having a second character speak up or yell on page two, while standing right beside them, as if they appeared out of thin air.

• Don’t simply list everyone who’s around if there’s a crowd. Mention the crowd but then zoom in on one or two specific people to make this pop.
• Just like the setting details, let your POV character interact with the people in the scene, through dialogue or actions to make it as engaging as possible.

It’s easy to check if you’ve grounded your readers at the top of your chapters or scenes, and to add these details if you haven’t got them in the first two paragraphs after a chapter or scene break to create an immersive experience for your readers, and to lead them seamlessly through the story you’ve spent months or even years crafting. Adding this information does not mean that you have to rewrite a scene you’re happy with. When done with creativity and style, your readers will enjoy your story even more, even if they don’t know why.

Grounding your readers in each scene is one of 30+ practical writing strategies Suzy shares in her Wicked Good Fiction Bootcamp. Want more? Sign up for her Free Masterclass, 3 Secrets to Increase Your Chances of Your Book Getting Published to learn more about her Bootcamp.

SUZY VADORI - Resident Writing Coach

Suzy Vadori is the award-winning author of The Fountain Series. She is a certified Book Coach with Author Accelerator and the Founder of Wicked Good Fiction Bootcamp. Suzy breaks down important writing concepts into practical steps to make it easy for writers coming from outside the industry to get up to speed in a snap, so that they can realize their big, wild writing dreams!

In addition to her weekly newsletter encouraging writers, and online courses, Suzy offers both developmental editing and 1:1 Book Coaching. Find out more about our RWC team here and discover how to connect with Suzy and all the resources she has to offer here.

The post Four Must-Haves in the First Two Paragraphs of Every Chapter or Scene appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Writing is a unique profession because people find their way to it from so many different careers. Sure, there are those who complete an English degree in school before penning their first book, but there are many more who cut their teeth in other careers before answering the call to write – some as a hobby, and many others who hope to make writing books their full-time gig. Writing on the surface seems like such an approachable art form. Heck, if you can read, you can write, right? 

But there is much more to writing a book than good grammar and spelling. Even if you bring strong writing skills with you from another career, tackling writing a full book can be daunting. Fears creep in. Writers I work with always have the same question. 

“Is my writing good enough?”  

Over the years, and working with thousands of writers, I’ve realized the real question writers want to know is: 

“Will readers get my story?”

Note: Even if you, the writer, tell the world you’re writing this book for yourself, and you convince yourself that you don’t care if anyone ever reads it, or appreciates it – most writers I meet have these secret wishes

1. That their work will be found, read, loved, and shared. 
2. That their book will take on a life of its own and catch on like wildfire. 

Many writers are tempted to skip the steps needed to get their books to the level of readiness needed to reach these goals, because when you read your own writing, it reads like your awesome idea playing out in your own mind. To understand how that clouds a writer’s judgment, let’s compare becoming a competent writer to mastering other art forms.       

What if you decided to become a painter?

If you decided to share your message with a painting, instead of in a book, could you sit down and replicate the Mona Lisa without ever having picked up a paintbrush? I know I couldn’t. The Mona Lisa attempt I could make on my first try would look more like a stick figure or a semi-smiling emoji with a bad haircut. I’ve never trained as an artist, so I wouldn’t expect my first try to be expert level. 

What if you were asked to dance?

Or, let’s say you get invited to dance as the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker on stage tonight. Could you do that dance justice, even if you’ve trained as a dancer but were only shown the choreography this afternoon? I took ballet for years as a kid (though never got to the Sugar Plum Fairy level) and you wouldn’t catch me up on that stage, because I’d trip, I’d fall, and probably forget the steps more than once. If you’d paid to watch my performance, you’d probably throw tomatoes at the stage.

It’s obvious that you can’t become a proficient painter or dancer overnight, without any training or practice. The same is true of writing, but with one difference that makes it easy to think you can. Reading back your own writing relies on imagination. And because you love your book’s idea, and know what you hope your reader will feel, your brain fills in all this extra information as you read, even when it’s not actually on the page. So you experience the Mona Lisa you set out to write, even though what’s on your page may only be stick figures.

If your book gets published at this stage, readers may give your rendition of the dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy a lousy one star review, instead of rating it the 5 star performance you experience in your mind when you read your own work.

Don’t be discouraged, though.  I can guarantee your idea is good enough to get a 5 star review from your ideal reader. It’s kept you going, you finished your draft. And readers will love it too, if you take the time to learn the skills needed to let them see the Mona Lisa you dreamed up.

How can you get some distance from your own writing, so that you can find the stick figures and turn them into masterpieces?

 Get External Feedback

Skip friends and family for this step. They love you and have heard all about your writing dreams. They are proud of all the work you’ve put in and will read your work with rose colored glasses, giving you rave reviews. They might even see the Mona Lisa. Instead:

• Work with a Critique Partner. These wonderful writers will give you the feedback you need on your book, usually in exchange for feedback on their writing.
• Hire an Editor or Book Coach that specializes in the kind of book you’re writing. Investing in a professional’s time to help you level up your writing is an important step to make sure your book doesn’t fall flat.
• Get feedback from Beta Readers. Ask readers who love books like yours for their reactions. Their feedback might just be the key you need to take your book to 5 star status.

Set aside time and energy to learn the writing skills that will make your book sing .

Don’t buy into the myth that writers are born with talent, or not. If your first draft isn’t ready to publish? That’s normal. Expected, even. Know that in writing, just like other forms of art, or when learning a new profession, there are skills to learn, and you are capable of learning them.

If you’re reading this on the Writers Helping Writers’ blog, you’ve come to the right place to learn and practice the skills you need to make your book worthy of a standing ovation.

Not sure if your writing is at the stick figure or Mona Lisa stage?

I’ve developed this fun quiz, which will show you whether your writing is ready for readers, and give you some next steps to tackle if it’s not.

The world needs YOUR story. Making sure you’ve given yourself the skills to write it in a way that readers will read, love, and share it with others will be worth the effort, so dig in and learn from as many community members as you can while you’re here. 

Happy Writing!

SUZY VADORI - Resident Writing Coach

Suzy Vadori is the award-winning author of The Fountain Series. She is a certified Book Coach with Author Accelerator and the Founder of Wicked Good Fiction Bootcamp. Suzy breaks down important writing concepts into practical steps to make it easy for writers coming from outside the industry to get up to speed in a snap, so that they can realize their big, wild writing dreams!

In addition to her weekly newsletter encouraging writers, and online courses, Suzy offers both developmental editing and 1:1 Book Coaching. Find out more about our RWC team here and discover how to connect with Suzy and all the resources she has to offer here.

The post Is Your Writing Ready for Readers? appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

It took me two and a half years to write and revise my first book to get it to the point it was ready for readers. And then another 2 years to find my publisher and get it out into the world. My next book I wrote in 6 months. I now coach other writers, and I see this pattern of book 2 getting written much faster over and over again. Seems obvious, right?

Well, yes, but not for the reasons you may think. Sure, by your second book, you’ve honed your technique and have developed some (hopefully!) good writing habits. But that’s not it.

Writers’ blogs and forums are riddled with advice for you to write faster, everything from getting your word count in daily, to using templates or formulas to fill in your structure. And following this advice may indeed make writing your first draft faster. But your first draft isn’t the finished product, as much as you may want it to be.

The time between completing a draft and knowing that a manuscript is everything you’d hoped it would be is this murky space few writers talk about, where especially newer writers get lost, losing weeks, months, or years sitting in a doubtful limbo.

Writing a first draft is a huge accomplishment, don’t get me wrong. But you’ll know in your heart it isn’t ready for prime time. The idea of revisions can be daunting. Overwhelming, even.

When I found myself in this unexpected murky place when I was writing my first book more than a decade ago, I had questions like:

• I’m being told my book “isn’t ready” yet by agents, editors, and publishers. But how do I know what to work on? Should this be obvious to me?
• Some of my favorite writers write books in 3 months or faster. Why can’t I seem to do this?
• My gut is telling me I need to rip the whole book apart and then put it back together again to make it what I want. Do I REALLY have to do that?
• If my draft isn’t perfect, does this mean I don’t have what it takes to be a writer??
• Am I really good enough?

Ugh.

And so, I spun my wheels, and looked for answers. Everything I’d dreamed writing a book would be like was kinda shiny. In my ideal world, words would flow, and accolades would follow. None of the writers I followed glorified the thousands of hours it might take, the deep focus I’d have to learn, or the number of times I might have to tweak my scenes until I got all my ideas on the page the way I wanted them.

I chipped away at what I knew in my heart needed to get done, piece by piece, because I was determined that my book wouldn’t see the light of day until it was ready. The only way to get my messy first draft in shape was to push through, and do the work, as much as I wanted to find a shortcut. I honed my craft. I took courses and workshops. I sought out the best editors I could find, and learned. I was, and still am, immensely proud of that book, which went on to sell thousands of copies and win awards. Most importantly, I heard from my tween and teen readers that the book affected them. That they shared it with their friends. That’s all I ever wanted.

When I sat down to write Book 2 in that series, I assumed it would be much faster. After all, I’d already created the world and its characters. It was going to be a breeze.

But I was wrong.

Because I’d already created the world and its characters, I found I needed much more content for Book 2 than I expected. Huh. So, how did I still write that book muuuuuch faster? This is the secret sauce I wish every first time author could know… and I’ve since dedicated my book coaching practice to help writers get through that murky middle time.

By the time I got to writing book 2, I understood in my bones just how much work I was going to have to put into this book to make it exactly what I wanted. I didn’t look for shortcuts, or worry that I wasn’t a good writer because I couldn’t do it “faster”. I didn’t wonder if I was doing it wrong. I just put down one word at a time, and then tackled one revision task at a time, until it was done. I was able to cut out the murky, wallowing phase that eats up so much time.

I now work with writers on first books all the time. And if there’s one thing I always want to share with them, it’s that all the work has to get done. No beta reader, editor, or publisher is going to do it for you. So, plan for it, and chip away at it until your book is exactly what you want it to be.

So, if you’re writing your first book, keep going and you’ll get there. If you’ve completed a draft, and are stuck in the resistance phase in the murk, here’s some next steps you can take to keep your book moving forward. Once you know what needs to get done, knock off one step at a time until you’ve got a book you’re proud of.

But don’t stop moving, or you’ll land in the time-sucking murk.

Do what you can to skip over the part where you doubt if you’re doing it right, and dive in with full gusto.

Once you’ve written your first book, and gone through this path of resistance, coming out with a book ready to publish on the other side, I’d put money on the fact that you’ll get to the end of your second book… and that you’ll write it faster than you did your first.

SUZY VADORI - Resident Writing Coach

Suzy Vadori is the award-winning author of The Fountain Series. She is a certified Book Coach with Author Accelerator and the Founder of Wicked Good Fiction Bootcamp. Suzy breaks down important writing concepts into practical steps to make it easy for writers coming from outside the industry to get up to speed in a snap, so that they can realize their big, wild writing dreams!

In addition to her weekly newsletter encouraging writers, and online courses, Suzy offers both developmental editing and 1:1 Book Coaching. Find out more about our RWC team here and discover how to connect with Suzy and all the resources she has to offer here.

The post The Secret to Writing Your First Book Faster appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

When I wrote book 2 in my The Fountain Series, The West Woods, I posted on social media to get Beta Readers, and had 61 people offer. *Facepalm*. I didn’t want to sift through 61 opinions on my book, but I did need a gut check from fans of the series.

• Would they like it as much as Book 1?
• Would they accept that Book 2 is a prequel?
• Would they forgive my main character, Courtney, for the things she did in Book 1?

These were the worries I had. So, from the 61, I invited a dozen, including teens and adults who read Young Adult. (Fun fact if you write for Young Adults – Adults are the ones who buy the books, and also the ones who review them, because kids don’t have Amazon accounts, so you need to make sure your book satisfies them too!)

Now, if you are lucky enough to find Beta Readers, treat them like gold. They are not your proofreaders. They are not editors. And unless they are also writers, they may not have the skills to suggest how you can improve your book. The skill you need from them is being readers, and letting them react to the story you’ve written.

Many of my Beta Readers have never given a writer feedback before, so I make it as clear as possible what I need them to do. That way, they don’t have to stress that they’re “not doing it right”, or that they’ll somehow let me down if they don’t love everything about the book. Bring on the feedback, because once it’s out in the world, you can’t take it back.

Writers often ask me when to involve Beta Readers. I like to get this feedback before I send it to my editor, so that I’ve got a good idea of how others will receive it. If I’m on a short timeline, I also sometimes send it to my editor and Beta Readers at the same time and then incorporate all the changes that come out of their reviews in the same revision pass. 

The first thing I do is give my Beta Readers a clear timeline. I like to ask them to read my book in 2 weeks. Here’s a quick tip: If you send your book to Beta Readers, and they don’t finish it? That might be feedback in itself. I hope that once readers start it, they rip through it cover to cover, just to find out what happens.

And to let them enjoy it and not stress, I make it clear that I don’t expect them to edit along the way. Instead, I give them a list of questions to answer when they’re done reading, including what characters they liked the most, and who they liked the least, which scene was their favorite, which was their least favorite, etc. Want the exact questions I asked Beta Readers for The West Woods? You can grab them here, I’m happy to share. 

I sent PDF copies of the book to the adult readers, and I printed, bound, and mailed out hard copies of the manuscript for the teen readers (I’ve found they’re more likely to be able to read it on the go, or evenings if they don’t have to use a device). And 2 weeks later, the feedback rolled in.

I sat down to go through the feedback and look for trends, taking a deep breath. After the third set of answers, I started to relax. The book was in good shape. I wouldn’t have to gut it. A few minor tweaks and it would be off to the publisher.

I went through the adult feedback first. They enjoyed the book. They connected with the main character and her story. And every one of them said that the climax scene – involving a dramatic break up – was their favorite. No surprise there, it had everything. I’d spent a long time perfecting that moment. Readers said it was heart wrenching and raw. Exactly what I was going for.

Next, I moved on to the teens’ feedback. I read the first set of answers, and then the second… and my shoulders crept up around my neck. The teens said the break up was their least favorite scene.

• “It made me so sad I had to put the book down for a few days”
• “I cried for her, and it just wasn’t as uplifting as Book 1”

I stared at their answers, stunned. I’d been so focused on ripping my readers’ hearts out, I hadn’t stopped to consider what readers loved about Book 1. Why teens were reading the series in the first place.

After a few days mulling over how to completely rework the climax of the book, I highlighted the 5 chapters that needed to change, and hit delete. (Okay, okay, of course, I didn’t really hit delete, but I moved them into another document and never looked at them again). Spoiler alert: There is no longer a break up scene in that book, and it went on to be shortlisted as a finalist for the Aurora Awards for Best Young Adult Fiction in Canada.

I am so grateful for the teens who were brave enough to tell me what the least favorite part of their book was. And I’m grateful I asked.

Are you looking for Beta Readers for your book? Check out this terrific article.

Have more questions on how to use Beta Readers effectively? Drop a comment below!

SUZY VADORI - Resident Writing Coach

Suzy Vadori is the award-winning author of The Fountain Series. She is a certified Book Coach with Author Accelerator and the Founder of Wicked Good Fiction Bootcamp. Suzy breaks down important writing concepts into practical steps to make it easy for writers coming from outside the industry to get up to speed in a snap, so that they can realize their big, wild writing dreams!

In addition to her weekly newsletter encouraging writers, and online courses, Suzy offers both developmental editing and 1:1 Book Coaching. Find out more about our RWC team here and discover how to connect with Suzy and all the resources she has to offer here.

The post How Beta Readers Might Save Your Book from Disaster appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Practical tips to tackle a manuscript that’s too long without killing the scenes you love.

So, you’ve written THE END on your draft, congratulations! The only problem is, your word count is way too high for your genre. I work with a lot of writers working on their first books, which I love. But I don’t love delivering hard news. Like, when a writer comes to me with a book that’s 175,000 words — and it’s middle grade. (If you’re new to word count norms in publishing, this is about 3x too long for a middle grade novel). 

Writers come to me, wanting me to developmentally edit their book, even if they know it’s waaay too long. They hope I’ll tell them their book is so good they can publish it that way. But I can’t say that. Because here’s the problem with bloated word count:

• You’re breaking reader expectations, which may result in their disappointment
• You’ll get instantly rejected by agents and publishers, thinking you haven’t done your homework (and they may not bother to tell you why)

Also, please don’t compare yourself to that one breakout book that is oodles too long in your genre. Unless you already have millions of readers lined up, you haven’t earned the right to be that exception yet, because extra word count means:

• Higher editing/layout costs
  • Higher printing costs
  • Higher costs to produce an audio-book
  • Publishers will have to charge an arm and a leg to make a profit on your book, so instead, they’ll pass on the opportunity to work with you
  • Even if you publish independently, you’ll struggle to make a profit, because these costs will be yours to bear

(Word count expectations depend on the genre, but can range from 50,000 for a non-fiction self help or a middle grade, to 110,000 for an adult fantasy novel. There’s a little bit of wiggle room in the ranges, but don’t be way outside. If you’re not sure what expectations are in your genre, look at similar books that have been recently published.)

If you insist on keeping every word you’ve written, you’re only making your journey to find readers harder on yourself. But I get it. You’ve spent months, probably years on your manuscript. You were so focused on producing words every time you sat down to write that you forgot to track the total word count, or maybe you didn’t even know word count was a thing.

You love your characters. You feel every scene and action you included is needed in your book. The thought of parting with any of it feels like a vice is squeezing you around the chest. But for the reasons listed above, trimming your word count will be your book’s best chance of getting discovered, read, loved, and shared, selling thousands of copies. If you want this for your book (I know you do!), you have to deal with this problem.

Sometimes, the answer is to split your manuscript into multiple books, if there’s a natural break. But usually, there’s a better, easier option. Have I got your attention? Good.

What if I told you there are places you can target in your book to get rid of word count, while making your writing even more engaging for your reader?

The techniques I share here don’t require a rewrite, and will make your writing more readable and focused. You’ve got nothing to lose by giving them a try.

Slash Filler Words

When we speak, we use “um” or “ah” to pause when we’re thinking. In writing, writers use filler words to fill that gap while they type (or pen) their words to let their brains catch up. Weird, right?

The thing about filler words is they’re not incorrect. Your sentences will read fine with them, so spell check won’t catch them. But about 80% of the time, these words distract the reader, and the sentence can be restructured without them. Note: Sometimes these words serve a purpose, so please don’t delete them all, you’ll have to do a FIND (ctrl F on most keyboards will get you to the find function) and look at them one at a time. I’ve had dozens of clients weed out 3,000 words or more from a manuscript just by using this trick (that’s 12 pages of filler!), so it’s totally worth your time.

Some of the most common words writers use as filler are

• That
• Just
• Like

But there are dozens more. You might be surprised which words you’re sticking into sentences as you go.

I’ve personally had a different problem word with each book I’ve written that I didn’t notice until the revision stage. Brains are amazing, right? Run your manuscript against the full list of filler words/phrases I’ve compiled. You can get a PDF list here.

Kill Filter Words/Phrases

Filter words, like Filler words are unnecessary in your writing. But these have the added consequence of making your readers care less about your characters and their journeys, because they are used to distance your Point of View (POV) character from the actions your characters are taking. When you use them, it’s like you’ve inserted a filter or narrator between your reader and what’s happening on the page. This doesn’t make them feel like they’re in your book, experiencing what your character is experiencing.

If you read a lot of classic books, you’ll see their pages are riddled with filter phrases. So, if you’re going for more of a literary or old-timey feel, a few filter phrases might be fine. But in recent years, deep point of view is becoming more popular, and removing these phrases will drag your readers in more. Not to mention, since you’re eliminating several words with each instance, removing them can reduce word count fast, and that’s what we’re targeting in this list.

Look for these verbs that indicate you might be using filter phrases and see if you can rework the sentence without them. Aim to reduce these by 90% if you can. Some examples to search for and remove include:

Eliminate Dialogue Tags

If you’re writing for adults, dialogue tags (example: she said) aren’t strictly necessary. Look for places in your draft where you have a dialogue tag and then an action beat, like this:

Instead of (10 words):

“Your word count is shrinking,” Suzy said (dialogue tag), clapping her hands (action beat).

Try (9 words):

Remove the dialogue tag, and leave only the action beat.

“Your word count is shrinking.” Suzy clapped her hands.

Note: If you’re writing middle grade or for a lower reading level, you’ll want to leave the dialogue tags in, because newer readers need them for comprehension. But if you’re writing for adults? Go to town. Just be sure to leave the action beats there so that readers can tell who’s talking.

Remove Character Names in Dialogue

This one’s easy.

If you phoned me right now, you could say, “Suzy, this advice is awesome!”

But it’s less words to say, “This advice is awesome!” and it means the same thing, since I know you’re talking to me. Plus, in real life, we don’t go around using people’s names all the time. It’s just awkward.

Combine Repeated Scenes, Recaps, or Characters

If your word count is still too high, don’t despair. The next place to look is for places in your book that feel similar.

1. Do your characters visit a location several times? See if you can combine the events into less visits to that location. You’ll keep all the “stuff” that happens, but combining scenes will give you lots of opportunity to tighten up word count.
2. Do you have a scene where a character is telling their brother about something that the reader already witnessed in an earlier scene? Don’t make us hear it all again *yawn*. Reduce it to a quick recap:
   Geronimo filled Luther in on the fist fight.
3. Have a few characters that ended up with similar goals and voices? Combine them into one person. This allows you to keep dialogue, keep events, even backstory, but will definitely save you word count, because you have less characters to introduce and include.

Even if you love your draft the way it is, try to keep an open mind. Fitting within a genre’s word count expectations will make your book more accessible to readers, and more saleable. And ultimately, these changes will make your writing as strong as it can be, so it’s a win-win situation.

Looking for more practical writing tips?

I share some of my best tips writing tips in my all-new free Masterclass. Watch it here.

SUZY VADORI - Resident Writing Coach

Suzy Vadori is the award-winning author of The Fountain Series. She is a certified Book Coach with Author Accelerator and the Founder of Wicked Good Fiction Bootcamp. Suzy breaks down important writing concepts into practical steps to make it easy for writers coming from outside the industry to get up to speed in a snap, so that they can realize their big, wild writing dreams!

In addition to her weekly newsletter encouraging writers, and online courses, Suzy offers both developmental editing and 1:1 Book Coaching. Find out more about our RWC team here and discover how to connect with Suzy and all the resources she has to offer here.

The post Slay Your Bloated Word Count appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

I’ve been obsessed with the concept of Show, don’t Tell for years. I could geek out about it all day long, and don’t get me started if I find a book that drags me into its pages with Showing details and makes me skip meals, sleep, and time with my family to find out what happens at the end…

              *SWOONS*

So, when I was writing the second book in my The Fountain Series in 2017, and I got notes back from my editor on the draft I submitted, with “Show, don’t Tell, please!” in the margin, my stomach sank. I stared at the computer screen, my face hot, scrolling to see those words repeated more times than I care to admit. How could this be? I’d revised that manuscript until my eyes watered.

I thought I was doing it.

It’s Almost Impossible to See Telling in Your Own Writing Just by Reading…

If this has happened to you, don’t beat yourself up like I did. My editor’s notes on that book were the kick in the butt I needed to crack this code, and I’ve since discovered that it’s almost impossible to see Telling in your own writing just by reading. The story you’re sharing is alive in your mind, playing like a movie, with every detail available to your brain, from the pink sky your characters stand under in your scene, to the low hum of traffic in the distance. But most of that detail won’t end up in your first draft because it’s too obvious to you and you don’t want pages of description to slow your pacing.

*YAWN*

To further complicate things, when you read what you’ve written back to yourself, you won’t notice what’s missing, because your smart writer brain will fill in all the glorious details your imagination holds about the sky and the sounds in the distance. To you, your story will read like a masterpiece. The problem is, those details your brain knows didn’t make it to the page, so your reader is going to get a much flatter version of the story you’re trying to tell.

So, how do you fix this age-old writing problem if you can’t find it in your own work? Talented editors and beta readers can flag this problem for you, but the earlier you find it, the better. I developed a checklist that will help you find places you need Showing details in your work without banging your head against the wall.

7 Ways to Find Telling in Your Own Writing

1. Named Emotions – Don’t tell readers your character feels murderous, Show us their narrowed eyes and shaking body. Search for emotions named in your draft (happy, sad, frustrated, surprised, etc.) then grab your copy of The Emotion Thesaurus and drag your reader into your character’s body by adding Showing details.
2. Using “-ly” Adverbs – Simply, actually, slowly… these words are almost always Telling. Hunt them down and get rid of them to make your writing stronger.
3. Info Dumping – This is too much information shared at once, without anything happening in story present to move the story forward. Scan your draft visually for text-heavy pages without much white space, and these areas will stick out like a sore thumb. Eliminate any information your reader doesn’t need, find a more creative way to deliver it, or break the information up between actions that happen in your scene.
4. Recapping Events that Happened Off-Screen – It’s never fun for a friend to say “you shoulda been there!” If your characters are sitting around in a scene Telling each other about blood they spilled in an epic battle, bring your reader to the battle instead, so they can hear the screams and feel the wind that blows through your character’s hair, first hand.
5. Showing Many vs. One – Rather than saying your character often went fishing, Show us a specific fishing trip, where the character’s boat sprang a leak and they had to swim to shore. Instead of writing that the crowd surged forward, show us the boy who darted in front of the surging crowd, getting trampled by their feet.
6. Being Vague vs. Specific – Watch for words like something, things, stuff, objects, etc. that are vague, and replace them with a specific detail that adds to your worldbuilding.
7. Saying What Isn’t in the Scene – If your character sees “nothing” in the dark, or there were “no books” on the shelf, you’ve missed an opportunity to Show your reader a detail or two about what is there – the soupy fog that swallowed up the character’s view of the forest, or the bare slats of the bookshelf covered with a thick layer of dust.

Once you find these pesky places in your writing, have fun adding Showing details, so your reader can experience your cascading purple waterfalls or dark musty caverns up close. Adding these details to your book during your revision process stretches your brain in the most creative way, and might just become your favorite part of your writing process.

              Love these practical tips? I break down writing concepts into steps you can take today to make your writing stronger in my Wicked Good Fiction Bootcamp.

SUZY VADORI - Resident Writing Coach

Suzy Vadori is the award-winning author of The Fountain Series. She is a certified Book Coach with Author Accelerator and the Founder of Wicked Good Fiction Bootcamp. Suzy breaks down important writing concepts into practical steps to make it easy for writers coming from outside the industry to get up to speed in a snap, so that they can realize their big, wild writing dreams!

In addition to her weekly newsletter encouraging writers, and online courses, Suzy offers both developmental editing and 1:1 Book Coaching. Find out more about our RWC team here and discover how to connect with Suzy and all the resources she has to offer here.

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