Whether one is baking a cake or changing the oil in their vehicle, there is prep work before getting started. As with anything one does with the goal to be successful, preparation matters.
While each genre and writer has a distinct style and voice, a quick review of grammar rules and punctuation rules is a good place to begin. Writing dialogue moves a story along, and most people need to review the comma rules for direct address.
Sitting through a training with a monotone presenter is painful. That’s why pacing is important in storytelling. More later on this, but briefly, dialogue done right tells the story and moves it along. Narrative fills in the spaces where dialogue will need to be painfully protracted to tell the setting or get past necessary information that is like props on a stage, but not the actual play. To pick up the pace, make sentences and paragraphs short. Add details that are necessary to foreshadow something important that comes later.
And finally, know your tools. If writing with paper and pen, like my friend Ray Derby, then you’re set to start writing. However, if you have an informal relationship with using word documents, whether Microsoft Word or Google Docs, check out the various functions. For example, center the chapter name, whether it is Chapter One or something fancy, by using the center function, do NOT space over and eyeball what the center of the line is. More on this later, too.
After the prep work, go forth and write the next Great American Novel.
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