Writing Tips with Darlene Jones

Today I have Darlene Jones visiting with some great writing tips many writers should find helpful. 

You can find Darlene here: Website / Blog / Facebook / Twitter / Goodreads

Take it away, Darlene.


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One of the best writing tips goes back to my novice days. An author I admire suggested that we read our work aloud when we got to the rewrite stage. I decided to try it.

“What’s that?” my husband asked.

“Nothing.”

“You said something.”

“Just reading to myself.”

“Well keep it down. I’m trying to watch TV.” Luckily for him, I knew he was joking.

Reading aloud showed me where my words weren’t natural or where sentences were too long and convoluted. Sometimes I’d cut out words as I read and realize that I didn’t need them. Other times I’d add a word or two when I read and realized I needed that word on paper to make for smoother, more natural expression.

I do much less reading aloud now that I’m more experienced, but it was a great tip for me as a beginner.

The second thing I think is crucial for writing success is to join a critiquing group. This must be comprised of fellow writers. They know what you are trying to accomplish and what to watch for in your writing.

I’ve used two approaches. With one group, we emailed our work to each other before the meeting. We printed and commented on paper and then discussed the piece at the meeting. We gave the copies with our notations to the writer at the end of the discussion.

The second approach was to come to the meeting, pass out copies to the members and then read the piece aloud. Members jotted notes and explained what they felt was missing or needed.

The critical key in both groups was the one rule that the writer not comment at all during the discussion as the goal wasn’t to defend his or her work, but to take the information and use what worked for them. This worked well as the members of both groups held the mindset of helping their fellow authors so the critiquing was never mean spirited.

There are two added benefits to the critiquing groups. One is that the discussion sparks ideas for all and the critiquing of one piece can help you with your own work as you learn what things to watch out for.

Here’s a simple example.

“I don’t think so,” he said. He shook his head.

One member commented that the natural reaction would be for the action to come before the spoken words.

Bill shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

I realized that was a mistake I made often and I liked the result when I went back and made those changes.

Good luck with your writing.

Amazon / Smashwords

What would be one of your top tips for writing?

Guest Post: Madeleine Sara

Please welcome guest poster, Madeleine Sara:

I‘ve always enjoyed writing as a means of expressing myself. I made books and stories from the moment I could write, but then I stopped for many years, As writing is in my blood I couldn’t stay away from it forever.

With 16 non-fiction articles published in National/ International magazines; my own magazine Cloth Figure Quarterly and a How-to Book ‘Fiddly Little Fingers and Tricky Little Toes’ under my belt, I started a nine month Creative Writing Course. That was an almighty shock to realise that, in fiction writing terms, this was only just the beginning! So I read more books & writing magazines and learned that these days having a blog is important for an aspiring writer.

In August 2010, I started my writing blog, Scribble and Edit blog and loved it.
I love the creative design elements in presenting the blog posts and the look / content of the blog. I love the writing challenges that inspire and test my writing skill and I love the supportive, blogging community who have helped make my writing mature exponentially. Two other great supports have been 1: Write1Sub1 monthly, which has shown me that the more you write and send out the more experience and success you achieve. So thank you Milo, Simon and Stephen you have been a fantastic boost to my oftentimes wavering morale. 2: Romantic Friday Writers my thanks to Denise, Donna and Francine for the great challenges, feedback and awards that have allowed me to flex my writing muscles.

I have been delighted to have other short pieces of flash fiction, stories and haiku accepted by magazines, eZines and charity compilations, which has bolstered by confidence.

I happened upon the idea for Ultimate Sacrifice in a magazine I was reading at the hairdressers. Usually the stories in those magazines seem quite depressing and tawdry, so you can imagine this one left quite an impression. From one relatively incidental element in the account I had a light bulb moment that got me thinking in that What If? way that writing craft books encourage. Without providing spoilers, I can only say that I realised that I could create my own characters, who suffer a similar tragedy for a novella/ short story and explore this element as the twist in my tale. It’s therefore not quite romance, more realistic fiction with romantic elements. This story was a great vehicle for exploring what happens when the going gets tough. The subject is also very topical and full of that all-important conflict, which modern stories demand.

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Ebooks and Piracy

Because I love my kindle so much, I have an interest in the growth of ebooks. It's been estimated that Australians are expected to spend $150-$700 million on ebooks by 2014, which is huge for us Aussies because last year we spent $35 million. In terms of percentages, that's 1.5% of the total value of book sales in 2010 and anywhere between 6-24% in 2014. Yikes, that's a huge increase in a short amount of time.

This of course, raises the real concern of piracy. Many authors and publishers have shied away from distributing work via the ebook format for fear of getting their timbers shivered, as ye olde pirates say. This, in my view, is a tragedy because there are many books I simply won't read because they aren't available in ebook format.

Yes, piracy is a real issue, but there are ways of minimising the losses. Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology has been created to protect artistic and literary work. It prevents access, copying or conversion of work to other formats. One such company that offers ebook capability with full DRM is Palmer Higgs. They've even launched the first ebookstore with DRM in Australia. I find this encouraging.

Of course, there is the other view on privacy--that it's a good thing. Neil Gaiman has witnessed how piracy has actually helped his sales. People, who would not normally have read his books, read pirated copies. As a result, these people went out and bought his other books. I believe it's also why many authors offer free copies of their books in the hope of readers 'discovering' them.

Personally I think the problem with piracy is the loss of control. If I want people to have a free copy of my books, then I'd want to be the one to offer it to them.

What are your thoughts on piracy as a reader or a writer?