Writing Tips

Melanie Kirk

Five Tips for Writing Realistic Dialogue

I’ll start by saying you should not aim to write dialogue that's indistinguishable from something you would hear on the street.

Melanie Kirk

7 Tips for Writing a Great Romance Novel

Romance is consistently one of the top-telling genres out there, and probably always will be for the simple reason that readers love reading

Melanie Kirk

30 Essential Questions to Ask a Beta Reader

30 essential questions to ask a beta reader.

Melanie Kirk

Novel Too Long? How to Avoid Overwriting in Fiction and Reduce Your Wordcount

There are two types of writer: underwriters and overwriters. Personally, I’m a serious underwriter. My first drafts typically run to 50...

Melanie Kirk

Using Adverbs in Fiction

First off, let’s talk about what an adverb actually is. Cambridge Dictionary has a nice definition: a word that describes or gives more...

Melanie Kirk

Junk Words to Cut From Your Novel

This blog post is partly inspired by having recently re-edited my own 2018 novel. Four years of distance have allowed me to read it with...

Melanie Kirk

How to Use Dialogue Tags in Fiction

What is a Dialogue Tag? A dialogue tag is a short phrase used to denote when a character is speaking, for example “he said”/“she...

Melanie Kirk

How to Format Thoughts in Fiction

If you’re writing a novel or short story, it’s highly likely you’ll have included your characters’ thoughts at some point. There are lots...

Melanie Kirk

Filter Words - How to Reduce your Word Count and Tighten up your Prose

One super simple way to tighten up your prose is to watch out for filter words and phrases. What do I mean by filtering? ‘Filter words’...