Bell Bridge Books

A Regular Colum by Bell Bridge Books Senior Editor Pat Van Wie

 Techniques Of  The Selling Writer by Dwight Swain

One of the things I do in my creative writing classes is bring in and recommend great books on writing. The first of these is TECHNIQUES OF THE SELLING WRITER by Dwight Swain.

As most writing teachers will tell you, this is the bible for writing commercial fiction. It’s a valuable resource you’ll use throughout your writing career.

However, a word of warning. It’s very dense, and you might not get it all the first time through. Don’t worry about it. You’ll get the parts you’re ready for as a writer. Then I promise you’ll pull it out again and again during your writing career – maybe just to read sections — and then you’ll say, “Oh, I get it.”

After over twenty years of writing, I still use it today and am still finding new information that I didn’t ‘see’ before.

A regular column by Bell Bridge Books Senior Editor Pat Van Wie.

Exclamation Points. Lose them!

New writers seem to love exclamation points. Whenever I open a manuscript and spot a bevy of these little demons, I moan. It’s a sure sign that the author is inexperienced.

Now, will a plethora of exclamation points keep me from buying a book? Probably not by themselves. However, the overuse of exclamation points is often a substitute for strong writing. Plus, exclamation points are distracting, smack of insecure writing, and yes, will almost all come out in the edits.

So what should you use instead?

Show emphasis with your character’s words and the action he takes while saying them. Take a look at this snippet of dialogue.

John grabbed my hand. “Stop that.”

“Let go.” I met and held his angry gaze. “Now.”

Obviously, there’s emphasis in both characters’ dialogue. However, no exclamation points are needed. In fact, exclamation points would distract from the tension between the characters.

So, does that mean there is never a place for exclamation points? Of course not.

John jumped to his feet and pointed to the balcony. “Fire!”

However, 99% of the time, exclamation points are overkill. One of the other Bell Editors jokes that she allows no more than four exclamation points per manuscript. That might, actually, be too many.

Okay, while an occasional exclamation point is appropriate, there are two other misuses of exclamation points that I see. Let me say. . .

Never, ever, ever use multiple exclamation points!!!!!!

Yes, we all use them in our emails, blogs, tweets and facebook page. But there is no place for multiple exclamation points in professional fiction.

The second no-no is simple incorrect punctuation.

Can you guess?!

That’s it, the question mark exclamation point combination is never correct.

So, pull out your manuscripts and see if you have a love affair with the exclamation point. If you do, start pulling them out, replacing them with stronger dialogue and better dialogue tags. Because using fewer exclamation points, is one less way to drive an editor crazy.

Hi, I’m Pat Van Wie, the newest addition to BBB’s editorial staff. My main focus for Bell Bridge is mystery and suspense (and yes, I’d love to find the next Dennis LeHane or Lisa Gardner), but I read all the genres BBB publishes.  In particular, I enjoy all forms of fantasy, from urban to sword and sorcery, and the great YA books surfacing in the market.

Although I’m new to editorial, I’ve been immersed in writing and publishing for over twenty years as both an author and writing teacher. I sold my first book in the mid-90’s and subsequently published eleven novels for three different publishers, including Ballantine, Bantam and Harlequin. About the same time I published my first book, I started teaching Creative Writing. I’ve given workshops and taught classes at writer functions all over the country and online. Then, about three years ago, I started teaching at the local community college. Plus, over the years, I’ve also judged numerous – as in hundreds of – writer’s contests.

What all that background means is that writing, and publishing, has been a huge part of my life for a long time. Oh, and I admit to certain left brain tendencies – that you don’t find in a lot of authors – which make editing particularly appealing to me. IOW, I love the details of constructing a really good sentence.

So, where am I’m headed with this blog?

Well, I got the idea from one of my classes. (Thank you, Thorwald, Belinda, Mario, Suzanne, Steve, Shannon and Tibold.) When I started working for Bell Bridge, I added a fifteen minute segment to the beginning of my class, where I talked about things that editors see – the good, the bad and the ugly.

The class loved it. In fact, they wanted me to develop and teach a new course on how to avoid driving editors crazy. Well, instead of the class, I decided to write brief blog entries about how to improve your writing. Thus — “How To Drive An Editor Crazy. Or not.” — was born.

Enjoy!