Kristina Stanley

Before You Submit: Questions in Dialogue

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 1 Comment

Do you have a draft of your novel or short story and are thinking of submitting to an agent, publisher or writing contest? My series called Before You Submit might help. This series contains hints and tips I’ve received from professionals in the publishing industry. Each week I’ll share a new tip.

This week’s topic is Questions Within Dialogue Tags.

The advice:

Don’t end a sentence containing a question within dialogue with said. Use asked. A kind editor pointed out this easy fix to me. For example:

“He’s blaming me?” Kendra said

Should be

“He’s blaming me?” Kendra asked.

I hope this helps improve your writing.

See Before You Submit:Likeable Characters for the first blog in this series and an introduction the benefits of submitting even if you get a rejection letter.

Thanks for reading . . .

Farley’s Friday: Happy Feet

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 12 Comments

Farley here,

My peeps love snowshoeing. They’ve been holding back because of my feet issues.

Check this out. I’ve got my own snow shoes. They may not stop me from sinking in the snow, but they do keep ice from building between my pads. I can go for hours now.

This is me doing the happy roll . . .

Farley rolling

This is me sitting regally, looking especially handsome in my new shoes.

Farley with boots sitting

I can even run in them. Check this out. You won’t believe how fast I can run.

Woof Woof.

Before You Submit: Time Qualifiers

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 4 Comments

Do you have a draft of your novel or short story and are thinking of submitting to an agent, publisher or writing contest? My series called Before You Submit might help. This series contains hints and tips I’ve received from professionals in the publishing industry. Each week I’ll share a new tip.

This week I’ll write about Time Qualifiers.

The question is: do you need a time qualifier or not? You might want to use a qualifier for style, but you might not need it for clarity. The choice is up to you. I’m only giving you something to think about.

The following sentence includes the time qualifier, At that moment.

At that moment, Kendra heard rustling in the bunk above her. A pair of bloodshot eyes appeared over the edge of the mattress and peered at her.

Of course, this is happening at the moment. When else would it be happening? The easy fix . . .

Kendra heard rustling in the bunk above her. A pair of bloodshot eyes appeared over the edge of the mattress and peered at her.

In the example, I think the writing is faster and more interesting without the qualifier, so I chose to remove the first three words. Of course, I can’t take credit for the change. The editor suggested tightening the sentence and I agreed.

I hope this helps improve your writing.

See Before You Submit:Likeable Characters for the first blog in this series and an introduction the benefits of submitting even if you get a rejection letter.

Thanks for reading . . .

 

Farley’s Friday: Cold Feet

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 10 Comments

Farley here,

AARG! Look what my humans have done to me.

Boots

So it’s below 20 degrees celsius in this country? So ice forms in my pads and hurts me? Is that any reason to make me wear Kristina’s socks tied on with a blue elastic? I think they’re the running socks she wore this morning. What if one of my pals saw me. I don’t exactly look PAWsome.

But I like to think I can outsmart the silly humans. Not long into the walk, I discover if I slip my tooth underneath the elastic I can pull off the sock. Matt puts it back on each time, but both get the point I don’t like the fashion statement I’m making.

Boots 2

We get back to the house, and I eavesdrop on their conversation. They’re taking me to Chopper’s Pet Supplies in town,  and I get to choose new booties.  Really, making me go in public wearing used sweat socks and a blue elastic. Grrr.

Woof Woof.

Before You Submit: Job Titles

~ Kristina Stanley ~ Leave a comment

Do you have a draft of your novel or short story and are thinking of submitting to an agent, publisher or writing contest? My series called Before You Submit might help. This series contains hints and tips I’ve received from professionals in the publishing industry. Each week I’ll share a new tip.

This week I’ll write about Capitalizing Job Titles.

Until a professional edited my work, I hadn’t thought about job titles and whether I should capitalize them or not.

An editor corrected a sentence by changing the first letter of a job title to lower case. Hmm? I used my handy Chicago Manual of Style to check the rule. It’s hard to know what to check if you don’t even know you should check something. This is where an editor comes in.

The rules for capitalizing job titles (and this is me summarizing so check a grammar manual for details):

If the job title is part of the name, then use a capital.

President Stanley likes grammar rules.

I decided I should be the president in this example 🙂

If ‘the’ is written before the job title or the job title follows the person’s name, then don’t use a capital.

Ms. Stanley, the president, likes grammar rules.

It’s not a hard rule. Job titles are sometimes capitalized for style or emphasis within an organization, and so we get used the look even though it’s incorrect. All I needed was an editor to point out my error, and I’ll never make it again. I can dream, can’t I?

I hope this helps improve your writing.

See Before You Submit:Likeable Characters for the first blog in this series and an introduction the benefits of submitting even if you get a rejection letter.

Thanks for reading . .

 

Farley’s Friday: Monster on the Deck

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 6 Comments

Farley Here,

A monster attacks Matt. I bark and whine and run in circles. I have to save him.

“What is this monster?” I bark.

Matt can’t hear me over the thunderous scraping and banging.

My sharp, strong teeth grab the edge of the monster and pull. Matt pulls back. I think he’s trying to save me. What a dummy. I’m trying to save him.

F and shovel

This goes on for an hour. I’m exhausted, but I’ve kept Matt alive.

We live another day to fight the snow monster.

Woof Woof

Before You Submit: Sentence Length

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 5 Comments

Do you have a draft of your novel or short story and are thinking of submitting to an agent, publisher or writing contest? My series called Before You Submit might help. This series contains hints and tips I’ve received from professionals in the publishing industry. Each week I’ll share a new tip.

This week I’ll write about Sentence Length.

My editor wrote: Simple declarative sentences are powerful but tend to lose power if repeated too often.  If all your sentences are the same length, the writing can come across as dull, and I’m going to guess none of us want to create a dull novel.

There are software programs that provide a graph of your sentence lengths. Autocrit and ProWritingAid are two of them. I haven’t reviewed either product fully, so this is not a product plug. If you don’t want to use another software program, you can take a section of your text, hit return after each sentence and “see” the sentence lengths on the page. This will give you an idea if you vary your sentence lengths.

If the text is shaped like a rectangle, your sentence lengths are too similar.

If all your sentences are short, try joining two sentences with a conjunction making a longer sentence. You can leave in or take our the subject if the subject is the same in both original sentences. This is a subjective choice. Just make sure you get the comma right.

If all your sentences are long, try breaking a sentence into two or even three sentences.

I hope this helps improve your writing.

See Before You Submit:Likeable Characters for the first blog in this series and an introduction the benefits of submitting even if you get a rejection letter.

Thanks for reading . . .

Farley’s Friday: A Terrified Wheaten Terrier

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 2 Comments

Farley here,

I’m terrified. A vat of boiling water sits in my back yard. Right outside the backdoor. After a snowfall, this thing looks harmless, scenic even. But’s it’s a dangerous place.

Hot Tub

Once the snow stops, my humans do something really dumb. They shovel the snow off the lid. They have a ritual. Kristina puts towels near the back door.

I start to whine.

“Shh,” Kristina says.

I whine louder.

The crazy humans ignore my warning and walk across the snow in their bare feet. They don’t have fur like I do. This can’t be good for them. Now you won’t believe the next part. They actually get in the boiling water. Who get’s in boiling water, I ask you.

“Get out,” I bark.

“No,” Kristina says.

But does that mean no barking or no, I’m not getting out? Things get worse. Kristina and Matt both have a useless sense of smell. I’m not sure they smell anything. My house backs onto a forest. In the evening, wildlife are active. I can smell a bear, cougar, or a moose even if I can see the creatures.

I run to the back off the hot tub, lifting my front paws off the ground, and sniff wildly. “There is a bear on the ridge,” I bark.

“I wonder what he smells?” Matt asks.

“Should we get out?” Kristina asks.

“Yes. Yes. Yes,” I bark.

“No,” Matt says. “He’s just mad we’re in the hot tub and not playing with him.”

I give up. I run to the front of the house. lie down, put my paws over my eyes and hide. The bear scent is ebbing, so I know it’s walking away from us. We’re safe. This time. But how do I keep my peeps out of the hot tub?

Woof Woof.

Before You Submit: Dialogue Tags

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 2 Comments

Do you have a draft of your novel or short story and are thinking of submitting to an agent, publisher or writing contest? My series called Before You Submit might help. This series contains hints and tips I’ve received from professionals in the publishing industry. Each week I’ll share a new tip.

This week I’ll write about dialogue tags.

Are you using too many dialogue tags? Does he said/she said sound repetitive? Here’s a tip on how to reduce the number of tags you are using.

Try using a character’s action to indicate who’s speaking. The following sentence uses a dialogue tag: Kendra said.

“You dropped this,” Kendra said. She held a crumpled piece of paper in her outstretched hand.

The editor recommended I rewrite the sentence as follows:

Kendra held a crumpled piece of paper in her outstretched hand. “You dropped this.” 

By  moving the character action to the beginning of the sentence, it’s clear Kendra is speaking. There is no need for the dialogue tag. When you remove a dialogue tag, you must update the punctuation. Don’t forget to change the comma to a period inside the dialogue quotes.

I hope this helps improve your writing.

See Before You Submit:Likeable Characters for the first blog in this series and an introduction the benefits of submitting even if you get a rejection letter.

Thanks for reading . . .

Farley’s Friday: Puppy Love

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 5 Comments

Farley here,

The doorbell rings. I blast out my doggie bed, slide across the newly stained hardwood floor and hustle down the stairs.

I push my human, Matt, out of the way. It’s very Important I get to the door first. There could be danger on the other side. There could be a friend. You just never know. I choose friend and wag and wiggle as best I can.

I can’t open the door by myself. I bark at Matt, wiggle some more. Doesn’t he get the urgency. “Come on, buddy,” I bark.

I then I hear it. A voice I’ll never forget. It’s Joe. I’m sure it’s Joe. I haven’t seen him since I was one. That’s five years.

I jump up, trying to get Matt to hurry. He laughs and opens the door. I explode through.

We bound, we rough-house, we run around in circles. The humans stand back and watch.

My muscles are sore, I’m panting hard. I think It’s time for a break. I invite Joe in to share my bed. We used to snuggle together all the time, but something has changed.

This is us 5 years ago.

Joe and Farley then

This is us now.

Farley And Joe Age 6 an 8

I think the bed got smaller, but I still love Joe.

Woof Woof.