WRITING TIPS - Writing Dialect and Accents in Dialogue

What do your characters sound like? 

Do they have their own characteristics? Or do they end up like the teacher in Peanuts? 

I started looking at dialect in a previous post, but wanted to go into more detail.

So, you may have deduced I'm British. What gave it away? ;-) 

I therefore write in 'British' English. I spell words like colour and aluminium. 

There is a whole debate on this, but I'm British and so are most of my characters, so the (bearskin) hat fits 💂

However, this doesn't tackle what my characters sound like. 

To the rest of the world, the English accent is akin to the old BBC one, I think. Haw haw haw, what what, jolly good show - pah!

We have many different accents in our beautiful country. And I will admit, even I don't understand them all (*blushes*). 

The good folks of Glasgow have a very strong Scottish accent. Have you watched Trainspotting? Hmm...Ewan McGregor...

(*coughs*) Sorry, where was I? Oh, Trainspotting. Right. So you've maybe watched the film. 

But have you read the book? 

OMG what?? It's actually written in "Scottish". 

Now, this hasn't harmed that, has it? 

Good old Thomas Hardy, author of novels such as Tess of the d'Urbervilles, wrote obviously in his ye olde English style but also used some local dialects from the countryside. Again, very popular. If a little hard to follow sometimes. 

Mark Twain is an example of an author who used the Southern American vernacular. 

We're a diverse world, so don't be afraid to show it. 

Now, a word of caution. This can very rapidly become overdone. Although the examples above are very popular books, a lot of readers are put off by them. So, we want to use it sparingly. After all, we don't want to end up sounding like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins, do we? Cor blimey! 

e.g. Cerys in my own Darkness & Light Duology is Welsh. 

This is a hugely sweeping generalisation. Of course, there's many parts of Wales and many dialects and accents. But I didn't want to write in Welsh, and wanted to keep it broad so people didn't locate the elinefae 😉

Some of her dialogue has a note, such as...

“Hmm…you are new.”

Shakira noted the sing-song lilt of the woman’s Welsh accent. But instead of the usual cheeriness that went along with that association, there was a gruffness too. 

In other places, I added some key Welsh words e.g. cwtch

He lifted his arm and wrapped her up in a proper cwtch; the most comforting type of hug you can find anywhere.

I even snuck in a 'popty ping' - which is a bit of a standing joke. Supposedly an alternative word for microwave. It's not really used with any seriousness in real life.

I digress. It's not like I'm saying I'm wonderful, follow me. I'm merely giving you an example. There's many ways to approach it. I happen to think less is more. The aim is to add flavour, without labouring the point.

Adding accents/dialects is a fun way of differentiating 'character voice'.

Have a play! Writing should be fun.

btw, a distinction between terms:

Dialect - is when vocabulary/grammar changes e.g. Hampshire, England uses "nipper" as a term for child. "Alright, nipper?" is "Are you OK little one/kiddo?" 

Accent - is the pronunciation of words e.g. the different way Americans pronounces vase as opposed to English personages

So there we have it, another wonderful blog post which will enlighten you.

Or just some TL brain vomit 😁

As always, feel free to comment below with your opinions and/or suggestions for future blog posts. 

Always in love and light,

TL

REVIEW - Grampas Glasses - they're magickal!

Date read: 30th May 2018 (in 10mins)

My rating: 5*

Genre I reckon: Magickal Tales

Buy link: Amazon



I don't always read grown-up books!

I am very frustrated with myself right now. This book has been on my Kindle for ages, but as I forgot to put it on my GR TBR it fell off my radar. 😕

I am so pleased I've read it now.
A very short book aimed at the very young, but which holds magic for all who believe in unicorns.
Explains their realm in a very lovely way for children to understand.

A beautiful very quick read. Like 10mins.

Unicorns!!

What Does it Mean to be British?

What springs to your mind when I tell you I'm British?
Do you automatically think of London, with its red buses, black cabs, and Queen Elizabeth Tower (which houses the bell Big Ben)?

Watching the royal wedding at the weekend, I felt something I've not done for a while; pride in my country.
We're going through tough times.
Don't worry, I'm going to try to keep this non-political. I may be quite mouthy about my views in my personal sphere of friends, but author me tries very hard not to be. Mainly because I want us all to get along, and politics can be divisive. And it has nothing to do with my work.

So, back to the topic...
Great Britain is a landmass, containing the countries of England, Scotland and Wales (the mainland/island).

The sovereign state is actually named the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
This is a bit of a mouthful, so it's usually called the UK.

Clockwise from top left: flags of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales

The countries England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales form the UK (at the time of writing, at least).

It was the Romans who named us Britannia, by the way.

We then add something called the British Isles, which include all of Ireland, Great Britain, The Isle of Man, The Isles of Scilly, The Channel Islands (which are made up of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney and Sark), and 6,000 smaller islands.
Phew! Still with me?

No wonder we're all a bit confused, eh?

By the way, the flag of the UK is the union flag. It only becomes the Union Jack when it's on board a Royal Navy ship (flown from the jackstaff).

Our nation has been invaded many times, by all sorts of folk.
We're a wonderful hotchpotch of influences and cultures. This has crept into our language and our cuisine. Hoorah!

Each of these countries has a diverse landscape and their own language.
Travel around, and you will hear a plethora of dialects and accents, and see a great variety of towns, villages, cities and countryside.
(I have a blog post which includes writing dialect btw)

Some parts of the nation are very flat, some have rolling hills. There's lakes and coasts, caves and castles, valleys and cliffs.

My own photos of my trips around Britain

Very few of us now wear bowler hats, or carry umbrellas.
Most of our houses are really quite small. The great estates and mansions are slowly crumbling into disrepair (although organisations such as the National Trust and private families do a wonderful job of preservation).

But this is a writer's blog, I hear you cry.
Well, yes. Yes it is.
So...all this wonderful stuff that is Britain soaks into the pages of my books.
I am British and write about British people, so yes, I use British spelling.
My British, wry, dry, witty sense of humour leaks out through my characters.
The settings are often in the UK (but not always). You get a variety.
Even our beloved NHS is evidenced in my WIP, Self Love. As is curry, our national dish.

What makes me British?
Well, I am by birth and ancestry. My father would call me English, but I'm not so nitpicky.
But what does it mean?
I think it means I'm a bit of a crazy mongrel 😉

Where are you from? And what epitomises your country?

Always in love and light,

TL

Don't forget to sign up to my newsletter (link on right of this page if this one doesn't work) -  to keep up-to-date with any exciting news (which happens rarely). 

And/or follow me on social media:

Facebook 

Instagram 

Twitter

If you have any requests for future blog post topics please comment below or message me.

WRITING TIPS - Kindle Unlimited vs Wide

Do I go KDP Select (Kindle Unlimited) or go wide?
This is a question you see debated lots.

So, you can tick the little box on KDP which says 'Select'.
This will make your book available to Kindle Unlimited subscribers for free. They pay a monthly subscription and get as many books as they like in KU for no extra cost. Yay!
And you get paid by Amazon, something like $0.002 per page read.

But, this means you're tied into Amazon exclusively.
Your ebook mustn't be available anywhere else.
And there's the rub.

You're losing out on all the Kobo, Nook, iBooks etc. sales.

And, BookBub (huge promotional site), seems to prefer a wide distribution (meaning your book should be available across all platforms).

So, is it worth it?
Well, you potentially get a lot more readers, as y'know, free book...
And we know my thoughts on those! (see my post on freebies)

And there are many authors out there who declare thousands of page reads per day, and swear by their KDP Select success.

If it's a first book in a series, and your next ones are full price, sure, maybe it's worth it.

But the mighty Amazon seem to be clamping down harder and harder on authors.
They routinely remove reviews, a lot of which were actually genuine, but not according to their algorithm 😩

Many authors have had books removed from sale and/or been threatened as Amazon have decreed reading bots have been used. These authors often have no knowledge of this btw.

Pirated books flag up on Amazon as you publishing your book elsewhere, so they then take yours down from their site. Grr!

Some books have been removed as there was a sudden spike in sales. Well yeah, the author ran a promotion and got sales; it worked. But Amazon don't seem to like this either.

And then you add in the erotic genre who recently had all their rankings stripped out.

Oh, and don't forget Cockygate! I'm not going into details. If you don't know what that was, Google it.

Every day I see authors having problems with the market leader who were originally book sellers.

So, is it time to 'go wide'?
Maybe.

Why put all your eggs in one basket?
Especially when that basket is a little bit shabby and there's a hole forming?

Sites such as Draft2Digital will push your books out to all other platforms at once which is super helpful. However, they don't run promotions on those platforms (at time of writing).
To get your book noticed on the other platforms you'll need to advertise it e.g. on Facebook advertising. I have a blog post on advertising.

It's a deep question.

But there is a relatively simple answer...

Check the top 100 of your category/categories on the Amazon website. If most of them are in KU, you probably should be too.

Up to you. This is just my humble opinion. You can make up your own mind.
I'd love to hear your thoughts. Comment below.

Always in love and light,

TL

WRITING TIPS - Social Media and Marketing for Introverts (as a lot of indie authors are)

It's Thursday, so it's TL blog day.
I've got a list of topics yet to be covered. Feel free to offer up suggestions btw.

But today I feel like just having fun. It's all got a bit serious on here lately, and I'm starting to sound like a writing manual.

But this post could get really random and ecclectic if I don't try to focus a little.
That's just my way.

Over the years, those lovely 'Investor in People' employers I've worked for send their staff on courses so they get to keep their shiny award. And the staff are forced to stay awake with free coffee and biscuits. Thanks to many redundancies, I've sat a fair few of those, and I'm fairly sure I'm the 'green' personality. The one that is easily distracted and introverted. The "ooh butterfly" one.

Have you ever done one of these?

I'm also a trained counsellor, and have sat many 'navel gazing' exercises (looking deep within yourself). 

Plus, my holistic training has helped me look at people differently too. 

It may be surprising to some, to hear I'm an introvert. In social situations I tend to overcompensate. I get overly chatty, and loud if alcohol's involved. It's difficult to shut me up. I'm sure there's some people who think I'm full of myself. Nothing could be further from the truth, in fact. You just need to see past my facade. 

I have a point! I'm getting there. Honest. 

Anyway, so whilst mingling with many authors online (love ya), I've noticed some commonalities. Now, I'm not saying EVERYONE. Don't start moaning. But generally, authors seem to be:

• introverts
• pet owners (usually cats)

No harm in that. And as we spend prolonged periods hiding in our writing dens, creating wonderful tomes, perhaps our work intrinsically attracts introverts. 

We love introverts; quiet, studious types. 

Gotta feel the love for extroverts too btw. They help drag us out into the 'outside' and befriend us.

Social situations tend to drain introverts. Doesn't mean we can't go out and have fun. But we need time to recover after. 

Add to this, the fact that I'm an empath. I feel the emotions of others around me deeply. 

Hmm...why did working in an office of 85 intensely intellectual mostly men make me really ill?? 

Back to the point...nothing wrong with introverts. We don't need to be 'fixed'. We are what we are. 

But...it is a bit of a nuisance when it comes to promotion, huh? 

As an author (whether indie or trad, as previously discussed) we need to publicise our work, so lovely readers get to know about it. 

Huh! 

Mercifully, the majority of this can be done online these days.
Your computer becomes your shield.
There's so many things.
Social media is huge. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.
But eek, these mean you have to write stuff. Put information out there! 😨
It's OK. You don't have to divulge your best kept secrets.
But readers do like to know a bit about authors. What are you interests? What do you do?
This is perhaps why we have cats; shove them in front of the camera, and not ourselves 😉

There's some great groups around, who are friendly and supportive, offering quiet corners.
This very blog has a 'hug depository' for when times get tough.
And my own Indie Coffee Lounge fb group is super lovely.
And more is out there.

But there's other ways too.
Blogging is really quite personal a lot of the time, but it doesn't have to be. I'm used to including gumph about me now. I've got used to it over the years. I even enjoy my online interactions.
And to an extent, you should share. But you can focus on your writing/tips as opposed to you.

Giveaways are faceless. Amazon and Goodreads are possibly the biggest ones for this. But don't expect many reviews in return.
(*UPDATE* these are expensive and not generally considered worth it now)

There's also services such as, but not restricted to, BookFunnel and InstaFreebie - great for building your newsletter following and for distributing ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies).

Have we all discovered how to set up an Author Page on Amazon btw?
Under your book title, your author name appears, and it takes readers to your profile.
This, really annoyingly isn't done in KDP (*smacks head*)
You will need to set it up separately for each site.
So, the US has authorcentral.amazon.com
And the UK has authorcentral.amazon.co.uk
This will also show you handy charts on 'Author Rank' and 'Sales Rank', as well as eventually showing you reviews (takes days for it to catch up with latest ones).

There's promotion sites such as Bookbub, ENT (Ereader News Today), Red Feather Romance, Bargain Booksy who will send out messages including details on your book sale, in exchange for a fee.
BookBub is considered the holy grail of book advertising, and even trad publishers use it. However, it has taken me x30 applications to finally get an ad accepted - persistence is key there. And your book (cover, blurb, reviews have to be spot on).

Amazon Advertising (you'll see this referred to as AMS ads on social media), is one of the most effective regular avenues for me.
It is a bit complicated. I recommend taking a FREE COURSE such as the one by The Kindlepreneur or Bryan Cohen runs AMS Ad School courses periodically.

At the end of the day, you need to find what you're comfortable with. Just try stuff out.

I'm not writing to be famous. I write because I love it.
Yes, I really want many readers to buy my books and love them.
But them, not me. I am not my books.

btw there's a reason you never have to go too long on my Instagram before finding Pusskin 😉

Pusskin overseeing my work

For examples of my own social media, feel free to visit:

Goodreads

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Amazon

OK, that's your lot for today. Sorry, it ended up a bit serious after all. Hey ho.

Feel free to offer gentle opinions/thoughts below.

Always in love and light,

TL

REVIEW - First Dai and Julia Omnibus - Ancients are Modern

Date read: 9th May 2018

My rating: 5*

Genre I reckon: Crime solving in an ancient modern setting

Buy link: Aamzon





I'm so pleased I got the opportunity to read this book. It's fantastic.

I have always been fascinated by Ancient Rome, but the authors bring it into modern day Britannia. 
Welcome to a Britain which Romans never left.

Dai is a true Brit, and has been confined by the harsh two tier system imposed by the Roman rulers. He's an investigator, fighting crime whilst standing up for his fellow countrymen. Tall, Welsh and noble.

Whilst Julia is a Patrician of Rome. Fighting crime for the little people of Roman descent who have also suffered. Clever and feisty. 

Mix in some Druids, underworld scallywags and opium smugglers, and you have some exciting stories.

There's so many wonderful details. A lot of research has clearly gone into this book, which has been interwoven with intriguing tales, which all link together wonderfully.

I love all the short stories contained here. The characters come to life. I particularly like Edbert, a mountain of a man.

No qualms recommending this to a friend.
It's a crime solcing extravaganza, with a modern yet ancient setting, containing great characters.

Always in love and light,

TL

WRITING TIPS - How to Avoid Passive Voice in Your Writing

So, you got your tenses sorted. Your past is now kept in your past. 

You've got a proof reader, and there's barely any spelling errors. 

Congratulations; your writing is improving. 

However, some bright spark tells you your novel is boring. This could well be because of THE PASSIVE VOICE (*insert dramatic music*)

Some reviewers will actually use that term. Readers are increasingly savvy. 

But wtf is passive voice? 

Well, it's kinda what it says. 

I've looked up the technical definition for you

"A form or set of forms of a verb in which the subject undergoes the action of the verb (e.g. they were killed as opposed to the active form he killed them )."

It has its place in writing (e.g. if you don't want to reveal which character is performing the action). But as a rule of thumb, you want to be dynamic, and use 'active voice'. 

You want your characters to do something, and not just have stuff done to them.

Think of avoiding any form of 'to be' or 'have'. Be careful; this isn't always the case. Just keep it in mind.

Here's a humorous example of passive voice:

Why was the road crossed by the chicken?

Trying to think of all this may feel overwhelming. Your school lessons creak and groan their way back up to the top of your memory. 

Here's what I find handy:

He/she/it/feeling - often lead to passive voice

I usually write in the 3rd person. So, for me, a repeating occurrence of 'she' is a good indicator of passive voice. Aim to keep the usage down, maybe one per paragraph? 

She ran through the forest, not knowing where she was going, but she needed to get away from whatever was chasing her. 

becomes

Her feet pounded against the ground as she sprinted away from her predator, without any real thought of direction. 

Does the second example sound more dramatic? A sense of urgency has been added. The character is moving. 

Your character shouldn't "feel sad", but should "her shoulders slumped and her head bent as tears escaped her eyes". 

But this really falls under "show don't tell" which I'll explore fully another time. 

It just wanted to pop up here, so I let it.

Along similar lines, avoid too many adverbs (the words ending 'ly').
If you say "he said softly", it is stopping some description.
Try "he whispered in her ear" instead. Or "his hushed tones made her quiver".

I'm a fan of adverbs. They were invented; they have a special name, and everything, so I think they're fine. Just, use them with caution. Is there a more elegant/dynamic way of saying what you're writing?

OK, that's all I'm going to say. 

I want to keep this article short and simple, so it's a bit easier to digest. 

As usual, feel free to add your opinion in the comments. Just keep it polite. 

Always in love and light,

TL