27 Fiction Writing Blunders - And How Not To Make Them!

By: James Scott Bell

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Sell more books and build your career by kicking these blunders to the curb!

Ever wonder why some books shoot to the top of the bestseller lists? And others that you think should, don't? It's usually a matter of mistakes that could have been avoided!

#1 bestselling writing coach James Scott Bell has analyzed thousands of manuscripts over the years, by both new and experienced writers, and noticed certain errors that keep showing up to take readers out of the fictive dream. Now he's tackled the biggest offenders and shows you how to fix them.

In 27 Fiction Writing Blunders you'll learn:

* The biggest reason readers get stuck in your opening pages...and how to unstick them
* How to avoid marshmallow dialogue
* The simple solution for low stakes
* The art of getting into and out of flashbacks
* Getting rid of the kind of characters that readers never want to see in your novel
* The biggest point-of-view gaffe and how to spot it
* How to perform liposuction on flabby scenes
* The best way to show what characters think and feel

And much more! Plus, Bell attacks some of the blunders writers can pull on their own careers, including fear, false competition, market ignorance, and the neglected brain.

Don't let little mistakes keep you from big success. Eliminate these 27 blunders forever...and sell more books!

James Scott Bell is the bestselling author of many thrillers and popular books on the writing craft. Visit his website at jamesscottbell.com"

"James Scott Bell is my go-to writing teacher!" - Terri Blackstock, New York Times Bestselling Author of Intervention and Vicious Cycle

Ai can’t replace any voice actor

This book is generic. Maybe okay for very very early writers. You’ll find the same advice in EVERY other writing book. There’s nothing unique about this author’s “tips.”

Fair, but harmed by AI narration

Early in this book, the author makes an illustration about the effect of writing blunders on the reader which ends up being an excellent illustration of the problems with virtual narration at its current level of proficiency.

Imagine a situation where you're riding down the road, enjoying the scenery, then the car hits a pothole or a speed bump the driver didn't notice. It jars you out of your enjoyment of the ride. The car gets moving again, and soon enough you're back into the moment, and then you hit another bump. This keeps happening until, eventually, you're not enjoying the ride at all... You're just dreading the next bump.

Without getting into the ethics of AI narration, one would honestly have to say that the current state of the technology is such that perhaps 95% or more of the words are delivered flawlessly. It's that other small percentage, where a common word is mispronounced, or a compound word or word pair is stressed differently than a human narrator would stress it that provides the nasty little bump that drags you out of listening.

For example, if you were talking to somebody about voice acting, you would say the words voice and acting almost as if they were one word, and, naturally following an unwritten but universal rule of compound words in English, you would stress the first word... VOICE-acting.

When the AI says it as two separate words, maybe separated by a comma, and giving the word following the comma the slight extra stress that's customary, such as "When engaged in voice, ACTing you should try to..." etc, your brain hits a bump, stops listening, and thinks "What the...?"

Try saying a few compound words that way and notice how bizarre it sounds. For even more fun, do that in conversation, and watch the other person's face.

There's and almost unlimited supply of human narrators on Audible who will happily narrate a good book for a small percentage of the future sales, or even a less good book for a small up-front fee. If the author doesn't believe in their book enough to hire one, you shouldn't believe in it enough to listen.

Nice Read

One will find several beneficial writing tips and strategies to take his or her writing to the next level.

Great information that I will read next time.

This was my first, and decidedly last, audiobook narrated with AI. I am no fan. I will find and buy this book, I thought it was that helpful.

Digital reader made mistakes plus misogyny

Digital reader did not handle anything requiring inflection well.

Author while exhorting writers to not use stereotypes fell back on them and told us that while writing is tough, if we can’t handle it we can fall back on (assumed) easier hobbies that are mostly pursued by women and therefore considered lesser but, dude, he who has knit a sweater should cast the first stone. It’s lazy and insulting to women to tell us the work we chose to do is easy when it’s actually not, but men think it’s easy because there is an assumption that women generally can’t do (or would not chose to do) hard things.