NATALIE WHIPPLE INTERVIEW AND TRANSPARENT GIVEAWAY

Happy Monday! Hope you had a great weekend. It was gorgeous and I planted my flowers. I always love doing that.

I have a few winners to announce.

The winner of SHOW AND TELL IN A NUTSHELL or ADVERBS AND CLICHES IN A NUTSHELL is Kiera Paul!

The winner of RUMP: THE TRUE STORY OF RUMPELSTILTSKIN is Pepopsmama!

Congrats! E-mail me so I can have your books sent to you. You must e-mail me by the end of Wednesday or I'll have to pick another winner.

Today I’m excited to have Natalie Whipple here to share about her debut novel, TRANSPARENT, which releases tomorrow. I loved that this revolves around Fiona, who is invisible not only to others but to herself as well. And everyone else’s powers were unique too. Natalie’s created a fascinating futurist world and a fast paced plot with characters I really cared for. I’m sorry it’s not part of a series. (Hint hint, Natalie.)

Here’s a blurb from Goodreads:

Plenty of teenagers feel invisible. Fiona McClean actually is.

An invisible girl is a priceless weapon. Fiona’s own father has been forcing her to do his dirty work for years—everything from spying on people to stealing cars to breaking into bank vaults.

After sixteen years, Fiona’s had enough. She and her mother flee to a small town, and for the first time in her life, Fiona feels like a normal life is within reach. But Fiona’s father isn’t giving up that easily.

Of course, he should know better than anyone: never underestimate an invisible girl.

Hi Natalie. Thanks so much for joining us. And Happy Release Day!

1. Tell us about yourself and how you became a writer.

Well, I guess you could say I’m your average nerd. Grew up loving anime and video games and books. I pretty much have the same interests now, except I’ve added Korean drama, cooking, and gardening to the list.

I’m one of those boring writers who wanted to be an author since they were a kid. It was a dream for a long time, one I thought would be nice but I didn’t pursue seriously until I was about 21 or 22. When I graduated college with a little baby in arm, I decided I should at least try to write a whole book and try to publish said book. Ten books later, here I am finally!

2. I wish I’d been one of those kids who knew I wanted to write. How did you come up with Fiona’s power of invisibility, everyone else’s unique powers, and the drug radiasure?

I’ve always been interested in the Cold War era, and particularly in how if affected the way normal citizens lived their lives. I think it’s hard for us to picture now just how real the prospect of being bombed was for Americans back then, and how that fear seeped into the way people acted.

So I played the “What If” Game—what if there was a drug people could take to prevent radiation effects in the case of a nuclear attack? Well, I figured lots of people would take that drug without a second thought, but a drug like that would have been rushed in development and therefore not entirely safe. Mutations resulted.

Fiona’s invisibility stemmed from my own feeling of invisibility as a teen, combined with what I thought would be an interesting writing challenge in a main character. I wanted to build a “superpower” world in which the abilities had drawbacks and genuinely impacted people’s lives. I also wanted to create abilities that could be explained biologically, though of course they are exaggerated. That’s what I based everyone’s abilities on.

3. That’s so interesting how the idea for your story came from the Cold War. It makes sense with the radiation issues. I read that you did a fair amount of scientific research for this story. Tell us about it and any tips you have for the rest of us needing to research for our stories.

I did do more research than I expected to do on this project. In particular, I spent a lot of time reading and watching things about mutations and “superpowers.” Because even today there are people out there who you could say have special powers because of mutations—a great show to watch that documents some of these people is Stan Lee’s Superhumans. They actually have doctors study these people to figure out if their ability is legit and why it exists. It’s fascinating.

Along with that research, I learned a lot about genetics and epigenetics (or epigenomics), so that there

are explanations of how the Radiasure drug works, even though not all of that gets onto the page.

As far as tips on research, I say ask a librarian. Especially when it comes to medical research, not all of the most current information is in the text books yet (and you want to find the cutting edge stuff when writing sci-fi). My friend is a medical librarian, and she was incredibly helpful in finding more detailed information. I also love trying to find documentaries to watch, because I’m a really visual learner and absorb more that way.

4. I didn’t realize that people today have weird abilities. Interesting. And that’s a great tip to ask a librarian for help, especially if you need to do scientific research. 

I really liked your characters. Fiona as an invisible girl who still cares what she looks like in her own way, her new friends Bea, Brady, and Seth, and her brother Miles are all characters who are memorable and who I couldn’t help becoming invested in. How do you create your characters and did you have any challenges with any of them?

Ha, I had challenges with pretty much all of them. TRANSPARENT was 100% rewritten, so the majority of the characters went through a ton of changes and refining (the villain isn’t even the same person as the original draft!). But I create characters pretty organically, usually they come with a problem or quirk and I fill them in from there. I make some mistakes as I get to know them, and I have to fix that in editing pretty often so that they are consistent and realistic.

5. I have a lot of challenges with my characters too. You picked a remote town in the desert as your setting. And I really got a sense that Fiona and maybe you love the desert. Why’d you pick that setting and what of your own experiences did you draw on in creating the new town Fiona lives in?

I actually hate the desert and heat, but Fiona really does love it! I think a lot of that stems from her invisibility, since she has to be nude to use her skill. It’d be pretty cold anywhere else. But Fiona also loves the starkness of the desert and the sense of isolation and the rough beauty. I prefer to look at pictures of the desert, though where I live is technically desert it definitely doesn’t get as hot as Arizona. I’d die there. That’s the funny thing about characters—they have some aspects of the author, but other things come completely out of left field.

So the choice of setting was practical because Fiona would need to use her ability at times while not freezing. But it also felt “logical” in the sense that many “secret” facilities or testing sites in America’s past have been located in the remote desert, which plays into the book.

As far as the town I created, Madison, I wanted it to have a bit of a “nostalgic” Route 66 kind of feel to it. While the book technically takes place in the near future, it also has deep roots in the Cold War era and people tend to hold on to the things from that time. So yeah, Madison is dusty and small and quiet, with old neon-lit stores but also more current things like “SuperMart” and Taco Bell, the one fast food place.

6. Love how you stuck to your Cold War theme in creating your town. As so funny that you hate the desert. You’d never guess from reading your book. I’d like to move onto the business aspect of writing. Your agent is now Ginger Clark, but your first agent was Nathan Bransford before he made a career change. Share a bit how Nathan became your agent and how it was to switch agents.

That is a long and interesting story, but I will try to be concise. I’d queried Nathan three times before I ended up winning his 1st Paragraph contest at the end of 2008. With that win, I was awarded a partial critique of my novel (a paranormal ninja YA because I’m weird like that), and he ended up requesting the full! Well, the book was really rough so it ended up as a Revise & Resend…which turned into an “exclusive” revision process with the prospect of an offer of representation.

All in all, I revised for Nathan for 9 months before the offer came, revised twice more after that, and finally went on sub in late 2009. A year later, the book still hadn’t sold, and Nathan told me he was leaving. I was devastated, but left in the very capable hands of Anna Webman. We kept that ninja book on sub for a little longer, but ultimately pulled it and subbed TRANSPARENT in early 2011. In mid-2012, Anna informed me she, too, was leaving, but that Ginger wanted me—I was very excited about this. Ginger (and all of Curtis Brown, really) has been amazing.

So I’ve had three agents…all before my 1st book debuts. It’s been very educational, because I’ve come to find that the idea of the “dream agent” isn’t real. There are many agents that are great and do their jobs well—and you can build a good working relationship with more than one person. Each time I’ve had a new agent, there was definitely a period where I had to figure out how they worked differently from my last agent. But as long as you are open and ask questions, the transition doesn’t have to be difficult.

7. That’s true there are lots of good agents. Thanks for reminding us not to get so stuck on our “dream” agent. I follow your blog and know that your road to selling your first books was not without its rocky moments. What was your road to a publishing contract like and what advice do you have for the rest of us?

Oh man, advice? I think I made every mistake in the book, so it still blows my mind that people would want to take advice from me. My “publishing road” in fast forward:

• 1st novel took almost two years to write. Queried five agents. Got five rejections. Promptly realized the book was awful. If only I’d realized that with the next, oh, six novels. (2005-2007)
• Two years spent writing furiously, querying furiously, and not understand just how much was involved in a true revision. Once Nathan finally taught me that, I got an offer of representation. (2007-2009)
• Two years on submission to editors. This was the phase that broke me. In fall of 2010 I finally admitted I had problems and that daily panic attacks were not, in fact, normal. I went on anxiety medication for the first time in my life, seriously considered quitting publishing because of what it was doing to me, and decided to give it one more shot before walking away. (2009-2011)
• Spring of 2011, I went out on sub with TRANSPARENT. I was a mess, but six weeks later we had an offer. One offer. No bells and whistles. But it was enough to make me a future published author…I just had to wait two more years for it to happen! So I spent those years editing, writing, and I even had a baby. That baby will be a year old just before TRANSPARENT debuts. (2011-2013).
• And now I’m here, about to become an author. I don’t have solid plans after my next novel, HOUSE OF IVY & SORROW, comes out late Winter 2014. I sure hope to sell something in the near future, but we’ll see.

So as far as advice, I guess keep trying? I was horribly impatient, and that made it more difficult than it needed to be. I wanted everything to happen NOW, and it was hard to watch my friends pass me by or get things that seemed so far in the future for me. I think if I would have focused more on craft and less on the business, I would have become a better writer sooner. And therefore a published writer sooner.

8. I’m moving very slowly toward even querying so I know what you mean about watching everyone else get agents and contracts. It’s hard not getting impatient with myself. I know you’re friends with Kiersten White, Shannon Messenger, and other published authors. Has watching them debut shaped at all your own plans for the release of your book? How so?

Yes and no. Kiersten and I started in the same place when we became friends: agentless, green, lots of drive and hope. She now has a full series out plus one before my first book comes out. Why? Oh, because publishing is weird like that. There’s so much of it that is out of your control and unexplainable.

I may have watched a few of my friends go through debut, etc. before my own, but that is kind of like watching someone else be pregnant. You can see that they are, but you don’t feel the reality like they feel it. While I could support them and encourage them, I couldn’t fully understand and also wanted so badly to be where they were. It kind of helped me prepare, but on the other hand every publishing path is so different that there were things I faced that they didn’t. Now I get what they were going through and how it’s both wonderful AND hard. Also a bit like having a baby, heh.

9. Has there been anything in becoming a debut author that surprised you?

Hmm…probably the most surprising thing was that, well, there wasn’t anything very surprising or life-changing about it. That sounds sad, but it isn’t. I think before I sold a book I believed that publishing would make me happier. Oh, I wouldn’t say that out loud because I knew you weren’t supposed to think that, but deep down in my subconscious that’s how I felt.

Very little changed, and my problems didn’t magically go away, and I still have good days and bad days and most are somewhere in between. I still live in the same place, I still stay at home to take care of my crazy kids, and the act of writing a novel is still terrifying and yet wonderful. I’ve already had a novel or two rejected post-deal, so not even that has changed much. Publishing is still hard.

I don’t want that to discourage people, but it’s a reality of this career. If you are struggling, if things aren’t going how you hoped, well, you’re not alone. It also doesn’t mean it will never happen. It’s just hard. And that’s okay. I’m beginning to accept that. Hard things are worth it, right?

10. Thanks for sharing that. Because I agree with you that getting published doesn’t really change life that much and doesn’t guarantee how long it will take to sell your next book. What are you working on now?

The project I’m working on at this very moment is a huge secret, alas. But besides that, I am looking forward to getting back into a contemporary YA novel I wrote fall of last year. I have some edits to do for my agent, and then I hope to see it sell because I love that book so much it’s not even funny. We’ll see. I know enough about sub to be cautious with my emotions, heh.

Once I get that on sub, I plan to write another contemporary YA that’s been on the back burner thanks to my current secret project.

Thanks for sharing all your advice, Natalie. You can find Natalie at:

Website: nataliewhipple.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nataliewhipple
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Natalie-Whipple/165166756949250
Deviant Art: http://nataliewhipple.deviantart.com/
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/nataliewhipple/

I’m offering an e-book of TRANSPARENT for a giveaway. To enter, all you need to do is be a follower (just click the follow button if you’re not a follower) and leave a comment by midnight on May 31st. I’ll announce the winner on June 3rd.

If you mention this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or your blog, mention this in the comments and I'll give you an extra entry. You must be 13 or older to enter. International entries are welcome.

Here’s what’s coming up:

On Wednesday, I’m interviewing debut author Dorine White about her book, THE EMERALD RING. I really enjoyed learning about the powers of the emerald ring with Sara, a smart middle grader, and her friends. And I found the mythology based on Cleopatra to be unique.

I’ll be off on Monday, Memorial Day. Yay! We all need a rest.

Next Wednesday, I’m participating in HB Bolten’s blog tour for her new book, THE SERPENT’S RING, a middle grade fantasy that will fans of Percy Jackson should like. There will be a giveaway too.

The following Monday, I have an interview with Merrie Haskell and a giveaway of HANDBOOK FOR DRAGON SLAYERS, a story about a runaway princess who learns about dragons, danger, and duty. I loved Merrie's first book, THE PRINCESS CURSE, and can't wait to read this new book of hers.

And don't forget our Tuesday Tips and Casey's Thursday agent spotlights.

Hope to see you on Wednesday!

HOW TO PROMOTE AUTHORS AND BOOKS AND REQUIEM/DELIRIUM STORIES GIVEAWAY

I received a request to share how I set it up to promote authors and their books. I’m going to focus on how I set up my schedule and decide on the books and authors to promote today. I did a guest post for Stina Lindenblatt at Seeing Creative (a fantastic blog I really recommend you follow) on how I do my interviews that you can read HERE.

First of all, how I do things is a work in progress that has changed as I learn from my experiences. When I began blogging, I knew I wanted to mostly promote debut upper middle grade and YA authors because I love books. And that has always remained my main focus. I’ve picked authors who write in my favorite genres, which are fantasy, dypsopian, paranormal, sci-fi, and some thrillers/mysteries. I’ve occasionally branched out to promote authors who write contemporary and historical fiction and have been glad when I’ve done this. It’s always a great idea to expand your horizons and read something in a completely different genre.

FINDING AUTHORS

My first year, I only knew I’d be Casey’s blog partner a month or two before I started, so I didn’t have much time to plan. I’d already been reading some book review blogs and found many of my authors through the debut author list compiled by The Story Siren for her debut author challenge. This is a great blog you can find HERE.  Hobbitsies is now running this challenge because Kristi is having a baby and you can find this great site HERE.

Once I had a list of authors, I found their e-mail addresses through their blog and e-mailed them requesting an interview. As I got more established, I started including my stats on comments to my interviews and links to popular ones where I got a lot of comments. I really recommend this as the popularity of your author interviews grows because it will help you to get ARCs for giveaways.

I also asked authors whose blogs I follow who had books being released to be interviewed. Elana Johnson, Beth Revis, P.J. Hoover, Terry Johnson, and Janice Hardy were all generous in saying yes. I also got some author requests that I accepted. I mostly only posted on Mondays that year.

About half-way through the year, I realized my stats were growing from 30-35 comments to 50-80 comments and that I could probably get more ARCs for my interviews if I scheduled my interviews six months or farther in advance. So, I used a group debut blog to find most of my authors. That year it was The Apocalypsies. For this year, I’ve used The Lucky 13’s, which you can find HERE.  I also scheduled interviews based on books I heard of that I’m excited about, author requests, and bloggers I know who have books coming out. I got busier, so I started blogging on Wednesdays and some Fridays since the beginning of 2012.

For next year, I have a few things scheduled from books I’ve heard about through Publisher’s Weekly Children’s Bookshelf and bloggers I know who have books coming out. But I’m looking for an active debut blog group to start setting my schedule. If anyone knows of one, please leave me the link in your comments. I’ll start setting my interviews in July for next January-June and by next February or March, I’ll have the rest of the year planned out for Mondays. I leave Wednesdays open for things that come up and requests for interviews.

It’s important to get a sense of what you and your readers like and pick books accordingly. For whatever reason, self-published books do not do as well on our blog, especially by unknown authors. So I steer any self-published authors who aren’t followers to the Tuesday tips, which is a better fit for the blog and our readers. Now that I’m busier, I am more particular about what I’m willing to promote.

There’s a lot of work just keeping things logistically moving. I have to follow up frequently to be sure the author hasn’t forgotten to get me an ARC or their interview answers.

ARCS

Last year I decided I also wanted to try to get ARCs of books by popular authors that I knew wouldn’t have time for an interview. I’ve gotten some publicist contacts through friends and always take down the contact info if a publicist includes it with the ARC or if it’s on the actual ARC. I keep a master list of publicist contacts for future reference. And I’ve also requested ARCs through Shelf Awareness for Pros, a industry newsletter. You can subscribe to it HERE.

But once I started getting ARCs, the publicists started sending me a lot of unsolicited ARCs, like boxes of them. They’re all good books and I really wish I could read and promote them all. But I can’t with working full-time, having a family, and trying to write. I really don’t want to blog more than twice a week plus the two Tuesday tips I’m now usually posting each month.

I’ve used some of these ARCs for our 3000 follower giveaway and donated the rest to our adoption support group Chinese New Year party and one of my daughter’s middle grade language arts teachers for her class library. But because I didn’t promote all these extra books, I am getting less physical ARCs of the really popular books that I request. I’m okay with this because my reading list is HUGE and I can get most of the really popular ones as e-ARCs through NetGalley or Edelweiss or the books through the library.

BOOK GIVEAWAY HOPS

I’m doing on average this year one book hop a month through I AM A READER NOT A WRITER, another great book review blog you can find HERE. http://www.iamareader.com This is a really good way to promote popular books I can’t get physical ARCs for and to add new followers. They’re my most popular posts and I’m hoping to continue doing 10-12 each year. The trick on getting a good response is to offer a big selection (I usually offer 12) of popular newer released books for your giveaways.

COST

I really only want to promote the authors and books I spotlight with giveaways because I know they will get such a better response. Even popular book review blogs get few comments unless there is a giveaway.

The first year I bought most of the books for my giveaways. But after that, I have gotten 80%-90% ARCS or books for the author interviews I do. However, I gave away 113 books last year and will give away about that many this year as I’ve already given away 63. Postage is very expensive because my giveaways are mostly international and postage costs (and book costs because of this) are going up. Plus I buy the books for the giveaway hops. Last year and this year I probably will have spent around $350-over $400. (Shhh, please don’t tell my husband.)

It’ doesn’t have to be that expensive. With my company closing next year and getting laid off sometime next year, I am definitely looking to cut costs. Not giving away unsolicited ARCs, having authors send out more books for giveaways, and having international giveaways include Canada because of higher postage costs are ways I’m thinking of cutting back. I’m sure you could think of other ways to keep the cost down too. And some book review bloggers have ads and other ways to cut down the costs that we don't do.

TIME

This is a pretty time consuming way to blog. I feel like it’s a part-time job sometimes. But I like helping authors and promoting books. For the summer, I’m planning to try to blog once a week and take some weeks off.

In the future, I’m also not going to commit to reading as many of the books I spotlight. Like right now I have 20 books I could read and give away. This doesn’t include the books I’m waiting to come in at the library. Because I feel like I’m too much on a reading schedule, I’ll cut down some of my reading for the blog.

Even with the cost and how time consuming this is, it’s very rewarding. I’m excited when I get over 50 comments on a book giveaway, which is common, even for the middle grade books I share. And it’s great seeing the enthusiasm for books in the comments. I have many followers now that are readers and book review bloggers as well as writers. So I wouldn’t change what I blog about. But I do want to scale back a bit so I have time for my writing and life in general.

I also have a book giveaway. I’m doing it today because I don’t really have any extra spots till July to spotlight these books. My review will be very short because this post is already long.

 First here's a blurb of REQUIEM from Goodreads:

They have tried to squeeze us out, to stamp us into the past.

But we are still here.

And there are more of us every day.

Now an active member of the resistance, Lena has been transformed. The nascent rebellion that was under way in Pandemonium has ignited into an all-out revolution in Requiem, and Lena is at the center of the fight.

After rescuing Julian from a death sentence, Lena and her friends fled to the Wilds. But the Wilds are no longer a safe haven—pockets of rebellion have opened throughout the country, and the government cannot deny the existence of Invalids. Regulators now infiltrate the borderlands to stamp out the rebels, and as Lena navigates the increasingly dangerous terrain, her best friend, Hana, lives a safe, loveless life in Portland as the fiancée of the young mayor.

I loved that this was told from both Lena’s and Hana’s point of view. We get to see what’s going on in the Wilds and in the city. And what it’s like to live as an invalid and as a cured. Both Lena and Hana have their struggles to survive and I loved that they both fought in their own ways to survive the world they were thrust into and the choices they made. And they both face problems in their romantic lives too, though it doesn’t overshadow the story. There’s no sitting around thinking and wallowing for either of them, something I really liked. There’s constant problems and increasing of stakes for both of them that get more serious as the story progresses.

I know some people weren’t satisfied with the ending. I won’t spoil it by saying what happens, but I will say that I was okay with it. This is a fantastic end to this series. I wish it could go on and am anxious to see what new series Lauren Oliver comes up with.

I also received a copy of DELIRIUM STORIES: HANA, ANABEL, AND RAVEN and here’s a blurb from Goodreads:

For the first time, Lauren Oliver's short stories about characters in the Delirium world appear in print.

Originally published as digital novellas, Hana, Annabel, and Raven each center around a fascinating and complex character who adds important information to the series and gives it greater depth. This collection also includes an excerpt from Requiem, the final novel in Oliver's New York Times bestselling series.

Hana is told through the perspective of Lena's best friend, Hana Tate. Set during the tumultuous summer before Lena and Hana are supposed to be cured, this story is a poignant and revealing look at a moment when the girls' paths diverge and their futures are altered forever.

Lena's mother, Annabel, has always been a mystery--a ghost from Lena's past--until now. Her journey from teenage runaway to prisoner of the state is a taut, gripping narrative that expands the Delirium world and illuminates events--and Lena--through a new point of view.

And as the passionate, fierce leader of a rebel group in the Wilds, Raven plays an integral role in the resistance effort and comes into Lena's life at a crucial time. Crackling with intensity, Raven is a brilliant story told in the voice of one of the strongest and most tenacious characters in the Delirium world.

So I’m giving away both these books. Thanks to Harper Collins for providing them to me. There will be two winners. To enter, To enter, all you need to do is be a follower (just click the follow button if you’re not a follower) and leave a comment by midnight on May 31st. Have any questions on how I organize my interviews and book promotions? Anything you really like that you'd like to see more of? Leave a comment. I'd love to know. I’ll announce the winner on June 3rd.

If you mention this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or your blog, mention this in the comments and I'll give you an extra entry. You must be 13 or older to enter. International entries are welcome, but I’ll only pick one international winner at most due to postage costs.

Here’s what’s coming up:

On Monday, I’m excited to interview debut author Natalie Whipple about her book, TRANSPARENT. It’s about Fiona, invisible to the world and herself, in a futurist world, desperately trying to carve out a normal life and escape her dad. I really enjoyed reading about her story and that of her friends who have unique powers too.

Next Wednesday, I’m interviewing debut author Dorine White about her book, THE EMERALD RING. I really enjoyed learning about the powers of the emerald ring with Sara, a smart middle grader, and her friends. And I found the mythology based on Cleopatra to be unique.

I’ll be off on Monday, Memorial Day. Yay! We all need a rest.

On Wednesday that week, I’m participating in HB Bolten’s blog tour for her new book, THE SERPENT’S RING, a middle grade fantasy that will fans of Percy Jackson should like. There will be a giveaway too.

And don't forget our Tuesday Tips and Casey's Thursday agent spotlights.

Hope to see you on Monday!

Tip Tuesday #162 AND HOW TO BE ALMOST FAMOUS IN TEN DAYS GIVEAWAY

Tip Tuesday features writers' tips on craft, research, querying, blogging, marketing, inspiration, and more. If you'd like to send in a tip, please e-mail me at agentspotlight(at)gmail(dot)com.

Hi Everyone! Natalie here today. Today, I’m excited to share a tip by author Kathleen Allen about writing good dialogue. Her newest book, HOW TO BE ALMOST FAMOUS IN TEN DAYS, a YA contemporary novel, was released March 16, 2013. Details of the giveaway are at the end of the post.

Talking Heads or How to Write Realistic Dialogue 

Dialogue seems to be one of the writing skills writers love to hate. I’ve heard many writers bemoan how their dialogue feels stilted or unrealistic (or that’s what someone says about it). How do you make your dialogue realistic?

The first thing I would suggest if you are having this problem is to go to a coffee shop, bookstore or anywhere people congregate and listen in on conversations. Take notes only don’t be creepy about it or you may find yourself leaving the establishment before you’ve finished your coffee. If you write young adult novels, go somewhere teens hang out and listen in. You’d be amazed at what you hear. Or maybe not.

The next thing is to take a realistic look at the dialogue in your writing. Do your characters speak to one another without having any sort of action? This is known as the Talking Heads Syndrome. Even if you are clear who is speaking, your reader will not be. Add in some action to go with the dialogue. For example here is a bit of dialogue from a well-known book, see if you can figure out who is speaking.

“Hungry, are you?”
“Starving.”
“She always forgets I don’t like corned beef.”
“Swap you for one of these. Go on.”
“You don’t want this, it’s all dry.”

Now here’s the dialogue again:

“Hungry, are you?”
“Starving,” said Harry, taking a large bite out of a pumpkin pasty.
Ron had taken out a lumpy package and unwrapped it. There were four sandwiches inside. He pulled one of them apart and said,
“She always forgets I don’t like corned beef.”
“Swap you for one of these,” said Harry, holding up a pasty. “Go on---“
“You don’t want this, it’s all dry,” said Ron.

I added in the italics for emphasis. See how the second passage reads better than the first? That’s because the author put in actions to go along with the dialogue. And that’s my second tip. Make sure you use action along with dialogue.

The third thing you need to do in order to write realistic dialogue is to read your dialogue out loud. This is one of the best tips for any writer to know. Most computers have a text-to-speech function in your control panel. I downloaded a free software called Natural Reader (http://www.naturalreaders.com/download.php#freewin) but there are others out there you might want to try. The advantage of using a text-to-speech program is that even if you read your writing out loud, you may miss a word because our brains fill in especially if the writing is familiar. But if the computer is reading it to you, you can discover awkward pauses, misspellings or missing words and if the dialogue sounds realistic.

Another tip is to make sure each character has a different style of speaking. I recently read a book with two main characters and their speaking patterns were so much alike, I had no clue who was speaking.
Use dialogue to advance your story. Instead of doing an informational dump, use conversation to convey back story.

My last tip is to read a good screenwriting book because screenwriters have to have good dialogue. I recommend Save the Cat by Blake Synder , Save the Cat Strikes Back or Save the Cat Goes to the Movies.

http://www.amazon.com/Save-the-Cat-ebook/dp/B00340ESIS/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1364145678&sr=1-1&keywords=save+the+cat

There are others out there, find one that interests you.

Tips:

1. Hang out at a coffee shop and take notes on conversations you hear. Make your dialogue realistic.
2. Watch what people do when they talk, what are they doing with their hands? Write down how they gesture, what they hold and so on. Use action to go along with dialogue.
3. Read your dialogue out loud using a text-to-speech program. You can also read it out loud to your cat. I’m sure your cat would approve.
4. Use different styles of speaking to differentiate each character but be careful writing dialect. It can be hard for the reader to stay in the story. It can be done but it has to be done sparingly. Again, listen to how people talk. People don’t speak in long conversations and they don’t call each other by name every time they talk.
When I am talking to my friend I don’t say, “Hi John, how are you doing today? What are you going to order, John? I know the house special is always good here at Joe’s.”
A better example would be: I slid into the cracked, well worn red vinyl booth across from John. He always beat me to Joe’s no matter how much I hurried. The menu’s lay on the table in front of us. I shoved mine aside. “What’s up? I’m gonna get the house special, it’s usually worth getting. You?” I smiled. Well, you get the idea.
5. Use conversation to advance your story instead of doing an informational dump.
6. Read a good screenwriting book to see how screenwriters write dialogue.

What other tips do you use for writing realistic dialogue? Check out my new book, a YA contemporary: HOW TO BE ALMOST FAMOUS IN TEN DAYS released March 16, 2013 by Gypsy Shadow Publishing.
17yo Cassie wants to be “seen” so when she finds a book of rules on how to be famous in ten days she devises a plan---with the help of her BFF---to do just that. She has hilarious and sometimes serious, almost disastrous consequences. Cyrano de Bergerac meets Comedy of Errors with a teen girl.

BOOK TRAILER:

http://youtu.be/IIGB1EoXnLA

Buy Link on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/How-Almost-Famous-Days-ebook/dp/B00BUX4FEI/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1363433820&sr=1-1&keywords=how+to+be+almost+famous

Buy Link on Nook:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/how-to-be-almost-famous-in-ten-days-kathleen-s-allen/1114845002?ean=2940016184265

HOW TO BE ALMOST FAMOUS IN TEN DAYS BOOK BLURB:

My fingertips drifted across the dusty books stacked haphazardly on the shelf. I wasn’t looking for any particular book title—just wasting time while Rachel searched for a book in the romance section. I walked around the second hand books piled in haphazard stacks on the faded brown carpet in search of a science fiction. Closing my eyes as my fingers flitted over the books, I played a game I used to play when I was younger. If some book wanted me to read it, I’d know by the feeling the book gave me. Forgetting about the piles everywhere I ran into one—or two, I’m not sure—I opened my eyes just as I fell, sending the piles sprawling across the floor. Which, by the way, smelled and looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in centuries.
Rachel called out, “You okay, Cassie?”
“Yes,” I mumbled, sitting up.
No clerk came to my rescue, so I began to restack the books. My elbow was a bit scraped a bit, but otherwise no damage. Sighing, I continued piling up the books until a small yellow book caught my eye.
“How to Be Famous in Ten Days,” I read aloud.
“What?” Rachel asked from the other side of the aisle.
“I found a book,” I yelled back.
###

FIND KATHLEEN HERE:

Websites:

www.kathleensallen.weebly.com

www.gaelicfairie.webs.comwith blog

On Pinterest:  www.gaelicfairie.webs.comwith blog

On Twitter: @kathleea

On Facebook: Witch Hunter  http://ow.ly/cWMFB 

Author Central page: amazon.com/author/kallen

Book Trailers on You Tube here: http://www.youtube.com/user/gaelicfaerie1?feature=mhee

Kathleen has generously offered an e-book of HOW TO BE ALMOST FAMOUS IN TEN DAYS for a giveaway. To enter, all you need to do is be a follower (just click the follow button if you’re not a follower) and leave a comment by midnight on May 31st. I’ll announce the winner on June 3rd.

If you mention this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or your blog, mention this in the comments and I'll give you an extra entry. You must be 13 or older to enter. International entries are welcome.

Hope to see you tomorrow when I interview one of our followers Lisa Gail Green about her debut novel, DJINN: THE BINDING STONE, a YA paranormal story about a genie. I’ve just started it and it’s fantastic. There will be a giveaway too.