If you’re writing a novel, you’ve heard lots of good advice. Standard stuff like, get a good dictionary and thesaurus, find a critique partner and use a style guide, revise, revise, revise. Excellent advice.
Want some more, not-so-standard tips?
Trust your dialogue. What a character says gives more to me as the reader than you might think. I know what that character feels by their tone, can even imagine their expression. And depending on whether you’ve made me like the character or not, I’m rooting for them or want to slap them. From the content, I know exactly who’s speaking to whom. By trusting your dialogue—drum roll, please—you can eliminate a lot of dialogue tags, which keeps me deep inside your story. Cool, huh?
Don’t be afraid to let the story unfold. Readers buy books to experience the journey of the story. I do, anyway, and I read a lot. Sure, I want to heave a big satisifed sigh when the H and H reach happily ever after or the monster is slain, but don’t rush that journey to the end. String me along. Let me learn about the heroine or hero’s past a bit at a time and use my imagination to fit that into the context of the story. Show me that background by the character’s actions, in dialogue with other characters, or even through another character’s point of view. I want to guess what happens next, or have no clue and be surprised when something does. Even if it’s just that a character is going to speak. So don’t warn me please, with words like ‘suddenly’, ‘finally’ or ‘at last’, phrases like, ‘Joe spoke up’.
Ya know that nursery rhyme, "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary"? Well, I get that a lot. Not that I mind. I am a Mary, and a gardener. So...I can be contrary too, right? At least when reading. As much as I love the unexpected in a story, I also want to know everything. Yup. I’m nosey. How can I hear those pines sighing as they sway in the wind, smell that briny ocean tang, see the drops of sea water pearling on the hero's tanned muscular chest if you don’t show me? Use strong action verbs, choose the perfect adjectives and nouns to make me experience what your characters do.
And how does my garden grow? Well, seeing’s how I live in Northern Maine, not very well at the moment, but I have hope. It’s mud season, which means in three or four weeks, Spring. Woohoo!
Mary