The author's handy-dandy checklist to becoming a New York Times Bestseller

When it comes to writing a book, there’s an overwhelming amount of advice floating around out there in the cyber world. And it’s tough to recall every last tid-bit of it as you’re going the through daunting task of not only trying to translate your thoughts to paper, but also trying to be an exceptional story teller and fairly decent editor, for added measure. But worry not! I’ve gone through the arduous task of gathering the best and most commonly shared morsels of advice out there and compiled my own checklist. And I’m sharing it with you today!

P.S. If you wish to continue receiving updates as I post more blog posts similar to this one, be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss out! A lot more goodies to come!

General tips

Use the five senses in your writing: taste, hear, see, smell, touch
Don’t head hop (only one point of view per scene)
Use better nouns and verbs (see here)
Don’t go into too much detail to describe nouns
Cut the stuff you wouldn’t want to read or sentences that slow down the story
Use active voice; limit passive
Vary the lengths of your sentences
Eliminate excessive prepositions
Avoid nominalizations
Make sure voice is consistent throughout
Don’t use adjectives excessively in concentration
Vary the way you start your sentences
Vary the way you structure your sentences
Use different words—don’t use the same ones over and over again and especially not in the same or consecutive sentences (see thesaurus.com )
Make every word count; remove unnecessary ones and consolidate several with one when possible.
Get into a scene as late as possible and get out as quickly as possible
Make sure comparisons are appropriate for the story, setting and character. For a murder mystery, you might say his memory was as sharp as a knife instead of it was as sharp as the heel on a Jimmy Choo.
Make sure you’re writing in one tense throughout—unless otherwise warranted (1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd)
Remove and replace stuffy words
If it sounds like writing, rewrite it
Pace your story appropriately (fighting scenes should be fast, emotional scenes slow)
Action should precede dialogue. Ex: She slammed the door shut. “I can’t believe you did that,” she said.
Remain in POV by remember to limit what your character knows (only an omnipresent/omniscient narrator would know everything)
Remove filler (information that is unnecessary)
Keep backstory to a minimum
Keep chapters short
Eliminate clichés
Use metaphors, alliteration and similes to liven up your writing

Building characters

Don’t let things come easily for your characters—let them work hard toward their goal and fill your novel with plenty of hurdles.
Make characters 3-D
Give your character a goal
Give your characters strengths and flaws
Give your antagonist a reason for being the negative character
Give your antagonist positive traits

Creating dialogue

Show, don’t tell (see here)
Make sure it’s clear who is talking
Conversation should develop the story forward or achieve a purpose
Conversation should reveal information about the character
The characters speak in a unique fashion, using vocabulary appropriate to them
Use “said” as often as possible for dialogue tags
Don’t bog down the dialogue with unnecessary nose-to-nose responses
Remove a single word here or there to make dialogue seem more natural to the way we speak
Limit the use of subordinating clauses
Don’t write long monologues–it’s not the natural way people speak
Allow your characters to speak in tangents
Use action beats instead of dialogue tags when possible

Words to cut

That
Very
Had
To be verbs (see here for more precise nouns and verbs)
Stuffy words
Thing
In order to
Start to
“I feel,” “s/he felt” or any other variation of someone feeling something. Just state what they felt! (Ex: I felt my shoulders tense, say: My shoulders tensed)
Really
Currently
There is
There are
Limit words ending in -ing

Editing

Limit adverbs
Start a new sentence for every thought and a new paragraph for every time you switch to a topic or a character changes dialogue.
Read your writing out loud
Check for misplaced/dangling modifiers
Make sure pronouns agree with antecedents
Make sure subjects and verbs agree
Limit your exclamation points
Put periods inside quotations
Avoid too many commas

This is will remain a living, breathing checklist on my site, meaning it will continue to evolve as I learn more tips and create articles to help you better understand each point. Oh, and I’m sure there are some important points that I’ve missed out on here, so please do me a HUGE favor and leave a comment below if you feel I’ve forgotten something! Your input will benefit so many others.

P.S. If you wish to continue receiving updates as I post more blog posts similar to this one, be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss out! A lot more goodies to come!

General tips

Use the five senses in your writing: taste, hear, see, smell, touch

Don’t head hop (only one point of view per scene)

Use better nouns and verbs (see here)

Don’t go into too much detail to describe nouns

Cut the stuff you wouldn’t want to read or sentences that slow down the story

Use active voice; limit passive

Vary the lengths of your sentences

Eliminate excessive prepositions

Avoid nominalizations

Make sure voice is consistent throughout

Don’t use adjectives excessively in concentration

Vary the way you start your sentences

Vary the way you structure your sentences

Use different words—don’t use the same ones over and over again and especially not in the same or consecutive sentences (see thesaurus.com )

Make every word count; remove unnecessary ones and consolidate several with one when possible.

Get into a scene as late as possible and get out as quickly as possible

Make sure comparisons are appropriate for the story, setting and character. For a murder mystery, you might say his memory was as sharp as a knife instead of it was as sharp as the heel on a Jimmy Choo.

Make sure you’re writing in one tense throughout—unless otherwise warranted (1st, 2nd, 3rd)

Remove and replace stuffy words

If it sounds like writing, rewrite it

Pace your story appropriately (fighting scenes should be fast, emotional scenes slow)

Action should precede dialogue. Ex: She slammed the door shut. “I can’t believe you did that,” she said.

Remain in POV by remember to limit what your character knows (only an omnipresent/omniscient narrator would know everything)

Remove filler (information that is unnecessary)

Keep backstory to a minimum

Keep chapters short

Eliminate clichés

Use metaphors, alliteration and similes to liven up your writing

Building characters

Don’t let things come easily for your characters—let them work hard toward their goal and fill your novel with plenty of hurdles.

Make characters 3-D

Give your character a goal

Give your characters strengths and flaws

Give your antagonist a reason for being the negative character

Give your antagonist positive traits

Creating dialogue

Show, don’t tell (see here)

Make sure it’s clear who is talking

Conversation should develop the story forward or achieve a purpose

Conversation should reveal information about the character

The characters speak in a unique fashion, using vocabulary appropriate to them

Use “said” as often as possible for dialogue tags

Don’t bog down the dialogue with unnecessary nose-to-nose responses

Remove a single word here or there to make dialogue seem more natural to the way we speak

Limit the use of subordinating clauses

Don’t write long monologues–it’s not the natural way people speak

Allow your characters to speak in tangents

Use action beats instead of dialogue tags when possible

Words to cut

That

Very

Had

To be verbs (see here for more precise nouns and verbs)

Stuffy words

Thing

In order to

Start to

“I feel,” “s/he felt” or any other variation of someone feeling something. Just state what they felt! (Ex: I felt my shoulders tense, say: My shoulders tensed)

Really

Currently

There is

There are

Limit words ending in -ing

Editing

Limit adverbs

Start a new sentence for every thought and a new paragraph for every time you switch to a topic or a character changes dialogue.

Read your writing out loud

Check for misplaced/dangling modifiers

Make sure pronouns agree with antecedents

Make sure subjects and verbs agree

Limit your exclamation points

Put periods inside quotations

Avoid too many commas

Until next time, rock your writing!

Xoxo- Salina

Share This:

Recommended Articles

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Make sure you’re writing in one tense throughout—unless otherwise warranted (1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd)