Scott's Xeets & Lamentations

Husband, father, writer, traveler, software engineer, reluctant household IT technician. #amquerying #scifi #WritingCommunity

[Scott's Xeets & Lamentations @scottbigger]

Wednesday. People still counted out seven days to the week. Thirty days hath September… Time made one older, even if dates had become meaningless.

#1stLinePit #Q #CON #A #SF

[Jenny Lane @AuthorJennyLane]

✨✨BOOK DEAL ANNOUNCEMENT✨✨
I am thrilled to share my sapphic fake-dating romance will be published with @HarlequinBooks next year in a TWO BOOK DEAL!
Huge thanks to my agent, @kissedbyink, for believing in me and my words.
I can't wait for the world to meet Mia and Eliza <3

[Scott's Xeets & Lamentations @scottbigger]

@broadwaybabyto

[Heather Dixon @hdixonwriter]

And now, it's official! I'm thrilled to share that I've signed with literary agent, Carolyn Forde at @TransLitAgency. This is such a huge dream come true for me. I've admired Carolyn's work and her authors for so long. Can't wait to see what happens next!

[Joel Brigham @joelbrigham]

I posted something about dialogue yesterday, and it got a lot of engagement from the writing community, who either wanted to high-five me or tell me what an idiot I am. (That's pretty much social media in a nutshell, btw 😁)

Anyway, the biggest rebuttal to my feedback was that dialogue in fiction isn't *supposed* to be realistic. If we wrote like we spoke, the novels we read would be littered with "likes" and "ums," as well as unintelligible sentence fragments and run-ons.

I get all of that. Clearly, there's a happy medium between "Mimicking realistic speech" and "Constructing functional dialogue that readers can actually understand and appreciate."

To find that happy medium, here's what I'm looking for as an editor: Can I get lost in the flow of the text? If something in the dialogue is pulling me out of the flow of things--If I can no longer suspend disbelief--then something isn't right with the dialogue.

So regarding yesterday's post about not using people's names so much in dialogue: If I see it a time or two, I'm not even thinking about it. But if it starts happening so often that I literally can't believe this conversation would or could occur, then the spell is broken. The magic is gone.

There's no hard-and-fast rule for any of this, but your beta readers will tell you if something feels off. I'm not doling out edicts here, but I do want writers to be mindful of what keeps readers' eyeballs glued to the page. Consistently unrealistic dialogue is one of those things that can really break trust with your readers.

[Scott's Xeets & Lamentations @scottbigger]

@EdgeOErin1 Van Halen, Running With the Devil

[Jenna Satterthwaite @JennaSchmenna]

uhhhh I thought this was dropping tomorrow ... but here it is today! My UK pen name book BEACH BODIES will pub in the US next summer with Sourcebooks as A KILLER GETAWAY!

... also, author milestone, this is my first book to sell at auction 😱😱😱

🏖️🌴🏖️🌴🏖️🌴🏖️🌴🏖️🌴

[Kalie Reid @KalieReid]

After 2 days on sub & a year of vagueness, I am SO excited to announce that my romantasy debut about the exiled saint and the devout iconographer sent to paint him - THE SACRED SPACE BETWEEN - will be published next November with @HarperVoyagerUK !! 😭✨

https://t.co/LzeJbZ0AB4

[Scott's Xeets & Lamentations @scottbigger]

@carolinenewson 🌹

[Caz Kerbyson @RadiantRepeat]

Guardians of the Galaxy x the Lies of Locke Lamora

Her hands screamed in pain as she clutched the jagged rock face. Screwing up her eyes against the icy rain, Raiden exhaled slowly through her teeth.

"Fuck my life."

#1stLinePit #C #Q #A #SF #SFF #RF #CMe

[f a d i l a @stracciatelah]

War looms and Alasse's world is turned upside down. Forced to unite with a dangerous ally to save their kingdoms, she faces unimaginable trials. Grappling with love, betrayal, honour and the burdens of leadership as she fights for survival.
#questpit #F #W

[Elena Marie Ball @ElenaMarieBall]

"I expected you sooner," she said to the silhouette standing in the doorway reflected in the mirror. She bent in the chair to set a half-empty bottle of gin on the vanity without taking her muddy boots off the edge.
#1stLinePit #WIP #A #NA #F (urban) #RF

[Abigail is Agented @abigailwad]

Chance Lucy could handle inner demons. He’d been warding them off ever since abandoning his dying father’s bedside. But real demons? That was where he drew the line.

SUPERNATURAL X SIX OF CROWS

#1stLinePit #Q #YA #F #P

[Ann Glimmer @glimmer_ann]

The danger of our fragile truce was how the smallest spark could reignite the feud—like accidentally trespassing on enemy territory.
"Lycki, stop!" I shouted, but my little brother's green tunic and blond hair slipped through the branches ahead.
#1stLinePit #NA #RF #Q #QMe

[M. Laursyn 🖤 @M_Laursyn]

Bleeding out was a strange sensation, nothing like I'd imagined. I didn't realize what was happening until I saw the blood. I expected the cold embrace of darkness; the basics of death. What I didn't anticipate was the delicious freedom that overcame me.
#1stLinePit
#Q #A #R #CMe

[Louie Dobson is drafting horror (FREE 🇵🇸) @Louie_Dobson_]

#CMe #Q #F #NA #1stLinePit
'The sickly, golden nectar from the flowers, fully bloomed at last after months of nurturing, flooded the cracks in the cobbled roads so thickly that you could taste it in the warm air. The luscious emerald pastures rolled until they met the horizon.'

[Laurie Perez Novelist @joybroker]

Flying at speeds no cerebellum can calibrate, Memo tastes bitter cold X-rays as ultraviolet cracks thin crystal thought forms in the glaring dark. Hitting the surface, a terrifying bliss: she’s raw to every cut, yet terminally safe in her body. #1stLinePit #YA #SF

[Elena Marie Ball @ElenaMarieBall]

Ayla remembered the day her tattoo appeared, an intricate flock of delicate, lifelike birds twining up her left arm.
And she remembered Desta's #shriek as her twin sister's tattoo appeared at the exact same moment.
#1stLinePit #C #A #NA #F #RF

[James Hampson @james_hampson7]

I opened my eyes but I could not see anything.

#1stLinePit #thriller

[R.Gregory @RoxGregory01]

It was summer and there were only a few wispy clouds scudding over the brilliant blue Bay of Napoli as we gathered in the training grounds of the ludus, the school for training gladiators. There were thirteen of us from the four corners of the earth... #1stLinePit #OS #A #HF

[Scott's Xeets & Lamentations @scottbigger]

@zramnad I'd read that.