by Michael Mohr

David Corbett—New York Times Notable author of many novels including Blood of Paradise (2007), Do They Know I’m running (2010), and The Mercy of the Night (2015)—published a sparkling, extremely-helpful nonfiction writers’ guide in 2013 entitled, “The Art of Character.”

So dear readers, as promised I’m going to talk to you about the dreaded book cover!

I know that most of my followers are writers, and often self-published as well, or considering that route. When you’re in that situation, the more information you can find, the better. So to that aim, here’s a short tutorial, chalk full of links and helpful hints. I’ll keep this short (it’s around 1200 words) because I know how little you want to wade through a word heavy slog of a tutorial : D

We can start with the question: Pay for it, or make it? There’s nothing wrong with paying someone else to make your book cover, if you can afford it. There’s also nothing wrong with accruing a hardcore useful-as-all-fuck skill. Pre-made book covers are expensive (if you don’t have extra money). Unless you’re some triple-bestseller writer, you don’t have money coming out…

Dig Deep.

Use ambiguouswords.

Did you know the word “break” has 75 different meanings!

Would you like a quick link to help you discover ambiguous words? 

Well, you’re in for a treat. Because I’ve discovered a terrific website that has done most of the work for us. I know, I know we all use dictionary websites but this is totally different. Below is a link for hypernym, hyponym, and synonym of a word. And having all that info at your fingertips might just improve your story. 

Go check it out and let me know what you think.

Could knowing the 51 different ways to use the word “make” help your writing?

Had you ever thought about it before?

Do tell.

Ambiguous Words ListBy http://muse.dillfrog.com/lists/ambiguous

Want to know more?

Click:     Improve your novel with these tips

Don’t forget to look ME up ON SOCIAL MEDIA BY CLICKING ON THE LINKS…

Happy Monday to all the Story Empire readers. It’s so good to be back with all of you once again to share a few helpful (hopefully) thoughts. Today I wanted to share a few tweaks so that you can use Dragon Naturally Speaking with Scrivener. Let’s jump right in and get to it.

Dictation with Dragon & Scrivener

Nuance created Dragon NaturallySpeaking

For those who may have missed my last few posts, I will include a few links back to those so that you can get more detailed information about Dragon. I’ve been using Dragon now for a couple of months which has allowed me to make significant progress in two novel projects. In fact, I am working on both projects at the same time as I write this post. That’s the power of Dragon; I can dictate while I’m in the car and edit the other book at nigh…

In the writing world, the word style means the way in which an idea is expressed. Style has to do with form, not content. Readers pick up a book because of content, but put it down because of style.

As a writer, you have to develop your own writing style. The way you arrange words is the nature of you. Your style should be specifically yours and no one else’s.

When developing your individual style, here are some things to consider:

1. Listen to what you write. Writing is like music. The words you write make sounds, and when those sounds are  in harmony, the writing works.
2. Mimic spoken language. Writing convey to the reader the sense of conversation. It should provide the intimacy and warmth of personal conversation.
3. Vary sentence length. Consider the following:
4. Vary sentence construction. You should always strive for clarity when you write…

Hello writers and good morning to you!

I hope you’ve all had a great week. Last week I spoke about finishing the third draft of my novel, and with the third draft done I took to printing my work in progress out. Having this physical copy was important to me for the next stage of editing, and I’d like to share 5 reasons why I believe you should print out your work in progress.

Let me know if you agree or disagree by sharing your thoughts in the comments below, or contacting me at any time.

1. It feels amazing
Writing a novel is a long process that often brings many challenges. You may love writing, but we all have days when we find it tiresome, frustrating and down right difficult. Holding your novel in your hands is an amazing feeling and it makes it all worth it. It may…

… asking Jeff Bezos to help himself and his contributing authors.

Dear Jeff,

We all know that the only thing you fear is the loss of income. I wonder if you are aware how much you are losing from non sales of ebooks in your literary section? Currently you have several million books of ours consigned to the literary equivalent of purgatory. Why? Because of your company’s ridiculous rating system, designed to consign a book to oblivion in a couple of days after it goes live on Amazon if it isn’t instantly bought in its thousands by the general public worldwide.

Someone close to you who you trust needs to make you aware of how much lost profit is currently sitting on your electronic shelves! It’s bad enough that you allowed your minions to come up with ways of saving money by changing the rules regarding the pittance paid out…