Category: Staff Articles

Writing advice and insights from the staff of Indies Unlimited.

On Weasel Words and Other Writing Tips for Authors

weasel words short-tailed-weasel-86619_960_720When I was a brand new writer, a number of well-established authors helped me. They gave me advice about my blurbs, how I structured my stories, my phrasing — essentially everything an early-stage writer needs to get a handle on things. Now, five years later, I won’t claim to be well established myself, but I do have my first million words written, and I do my best to return the favor by helping others who are at the beginning of their writing journey. As I do, I see many of the same mistakes repeated over and over.

The good news is, writing rules can be broken, and effectively so. I am in the camp that says you have to truly understand a rule before you can break it effectively, though. In this post, I’m not talking about rules so much as generally accepted best practices. If you disagree with what I say here, I won’t argue with you. I will only say that these things are what work for me. Continue reading “On Weasel Words and Other Writing Tips for Authors”

Flash Fiction – A Literary Addiction

flash fiction flash-2568381_960_720Despite it being much shorter than most other types of writing, flash fiction can be a valuable launch-pad for writers, offering them an opportunity to practice their art and do it quickly. Whereas a novel can sometimes take years to write, a piece of flash fiction can often be written in a few minutes, although the general principles of writing it are the same. You still need to use good grammar – although there are exceptions to this and every other rule you may encounter – and you still need to write clearly and with a good idea of what you’re hoping to achieve. But, unlike most other types of fiction, flash fiction can be read quickly and can appeal to almost anyone. And because of this, it’s much easier to get someone to read your work if you write short pieces, and this makes it easier to get the valuable feedback you need, especially if you’re a developing writer needing advice on your writing style and abilities. Continue reading “Flash Fiction – A Literary Addiction”

Book Description Basics

book descriptionThe number one problem we run into during the vetting process here at Indies Unlimited is a book’s description, also sometimes known as the book sales pitch or the book blurb. Too long, too short, too detailed, too vague, too too too, blah blah blah. What it comes down to is: many authors cannot write a book description on their own.

There’s nothing wrong with this. In most instances, it takes an outsider to point out what’s missing from (or not needed in) a book description. After all, an author has been married to the book for years. An author is most likely going to overlook points that a potential reader needs to know. It’s like explaining how to use a computer program that you know like the back of your hand. You’ll always skip over the basics or the foundation and get right to the good stuff. Meanwhile, your pupil is sitting there with a stupid look on his/her face, completely confused.

The basics for writing a good book description don’t change. Who, what, when, where, why, and how, and why do I want to read/buy this book? We’ve had plenty of articles about this already. We have an article that specifically explains how to write a book description. We’ve had a post on the most common book description issues. The Evil Mastermind even felt the need to break down book description epic failures into categories.

I’ve put together a list of the questions I most commonly ask after reading a book description that has confused me to the point of needing Dramamine. Reading these questions won’t replace the lessons in the articles linked to above. But hopefully, they will help prevent you from achieving the Epic Fail categories. Continue reading “Book Description Basics”

Is Your Writing Productivity in a Slump? Try a Sprint

author deadline-stopwatch-2636259_960_720 (002)One of the problems that often plagues authors is their writing productivity. It often seems like there’s not enough time in the day to get everything done. If an author is writing on the side, as opposed to a full-time job, then finding time to sit down and belt out the words can be difficult.

However, some writers are pounding out the words through a technique called sprinting. Much like the running equivalent, sprinting in the writing sense is defined as writing as many words as you can as fast as you can, for a short period of time. Usually, people who sprint set the clock at 20 to 40 minutes. Continue reading “Is Your Writing Productivity in a Slump? Try a Sprint”