howtowritefiction

Sol Stein is the author of 13 books and was Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Stein and Day Publishers for 27 years.

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Keep in Mind While Writing - Use sound, smell, and touch as well as sight.

[howtowritefiction @NewWritePro]

Keep in Mind While Writing - Avoid summarizing unless absolutely necessary. Keep summaries very short.

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Keep in Mind While Writing - Are you sticking to a consistent point of view?

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Keep in Mind While Writing - Is their dialogue more revealing under stress?

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Keep in Mind While Writing - Have you put your character under stress?

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Keep in Mind While Writing - Are the obstacles facing the protagonist getting tougher as the story progresses?

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Keep in Mind While Writing - Are you working on the emotions of the reader?

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Keep in Mind While Writing - Don’t kill suspense by resolving problems too quickly.

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Don’t tell us how your characters feel. Let the reader draw his conclusions from what each character says or does.

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Keep in Mind While Writing - Have something visual on every page.

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Keep in Mind While Writing - Characterize through speech. Give different characters different speech patterns.

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Keep in Mind While Writing - Make exchanges of dialogue provocative, argumentative, combative.

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Keep in Mind While Writing - Break up long speeches.

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Keep in Mind While Writing - In dialogue, change perfectly formed sentences.

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Keep in Mind While Writing - Use surprise (such as an unexpected obstacle) to create suspense.

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Keep in Mind While Writing - Substitute concrete detail for abstractions.

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Keep in Mind While Writing - Is your hero or heroine active?

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Keep in Mind While Writing - Don’t mark time; move the story relentlessly.

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Keep in Mind While Writing - Keep the action visible on stage as much as possible.

[howtowritefiction @NewWritePro]

Keep in Mind While Writing - The “engine” of your story needs to be turned on as close to the beginning as possible.