The statement itself implies that the person who wrote the book drew inspiration from a real-life event or person, but that the audience shouldn’t expect a factually accurate retelling of this event. This statement tells the reader that the author is choosing to prioritize entertainment and good storytelling over staying true to events. Therefore, readers who are interested in these books go in with the expectation that they will be reading a novel that is both entertaining and masterfully plotted. So, if you’re taking on a ‘based on a true story’ novel, here are some tips.

1) Keep the voice neutral

Whether you’re writing a ‘based on a true story’ book about something historical or something from personal experience, you need to remove your own voice from the narrative. You shouldn’t be portraying certain characters or events as right or wrong because readers can very quickly sense personal bias in a novel and, with that, you’ll lose their trust. They want to simply experience the events and have the freedom to make their own judgments about what occurred. So make sure you’re working hard to show the events to your readers rather than telling them how to think or feel about characters and situations.

2) Be the Writer & Editor

This may sound like a writer’s worst nightmare at first, but it’s simpler than it seems. When it comes to the scope of the events that took place in the story, you’ll need to put on an editor’s hat and strategically think about where to cut down. If the event you’re writing about took place over the course of a day you likely won’t have to do this much, but if it took place over weeks or years there will likely be a lot to cut around in terms of scenes and events. As a general rule of thumb, if a scene doesn’t contain a character choice, feeling the effects of a character choice, or someone discovering the motivations behind a character choice, the scene will likely need to be cut.

Just as you may need to omit some scenes, it may benefit the story to combine or eliminate some characters from the story. Remember, since this is a ‘based on a true story’ book, you are allowed to take liberties and make it somewhat fictional. If you know only a few details about a character, perhaps combine them with another character to make them more well-rounded and also less confusing for the reader. If there was someone who was part of the story but didn’t play an integral role, perhaps they’ll need to be cut for the sake of having a well-paced novel.

3) Make Additions Where Necessary

Just as you’ll need to cut events or characters who don’t serve the narrative, you may need to add motivations or events that make the story more exciting or narratively sound. Remember that, in the case of this type of novel, your goal is to tell a good story, not necessarily a true story. So if a character seemingly had a simple unexciting motivation for an action in a story, get creative and add a more complicated motivation that you feel would still make sense for their personality. If the real-life events don’t culminate in a necessarily satisfying way, add to the climax to give it more drama.

Many novels and films of this genre wind up creating stories that have very little to do with the real-life events by which they were inspired, but they created a good story nonetheless.

The post How to Write a ‘Based on a True Story’ Book appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.

“I didn’t like [Insert Scene]. I don’t know why; I just didn’t like it.”

Translation: I didn’t like that scene purely based on my own opinions and biases, which shouldn’t be taken seriously at all since they have no basis on literary merit. In fact, I don’t even have the language to describe my own biased reasoning for not liking that scene, so instead I will not offer any suggestions on how to fix this mysterious ailment. In fact, I’m so ignorant about the personal nature of writing that I’m completely oblivious to the fact that you’ll be spending the next five days with very little sleep, cycling between rereading that scene repeatedly and crying over a tub of ice cream, purely based on my two-sentence comment.

“[Insert Character] annoys me.”

Translation: This character in your book bothers me, again for inexplicable reasons that I don’t have the language to articulate. They likely just annoy me because they remind me of someone I knew once who I don’t like, thereby giving me a personal bias against your character. Will the fact that I summed up a character that you worked very hard on using one word annoy you? Yes. Will I be aware of that? Nope.

“[Insert Scene] was boring.”

Translation: I have a very short attention span and little appreciation for the subtle nuances of scene writing, so if things aren’t getting blown up constantly or people aren’t in screaming matches with one another- you’re going to lose me. Was that scene being used to build tensions or foreshadow later events in your story? Heck if I know, I was too busy being mad that no one was getting stabbed.

“Why can’t you make [Insert Character] more like [Insert Character Trait]?”

Translation: I’m basically asking you to rewrite an entire character to be more like whatever I want them to be. Do I understand how much work it would be for you to add a new character trait to an already existing character? Nah, to me it’s as simple as changing a few lines- that should be so hard, right? Why do I want your character to be more [insert character trait here]? It’s either a) ‘I just think it would be cool’ (which doesn’t help you at all) or b) I’m having trouble telling the difference between a few of your characters because they both have the same color hair so I think this would make it easier. Will this make you question our friendship? Yup.

“I feel like [Insert Part] came out of nowhere.”

Translation: I didn’t notice all the hard work you put into foreshadowing this part or reiterating character traits through action which made this part perfectly in-character. When you point out all those instances to me, instead of admitting I’m not a very astute reader, I’ll instead say, “Oh… I don’t think anyone will be able to pick up that.” And then I’ll turn around and miss you in the background pulling out your hair in frustration.

“[Insert Character] is kind of whiny.”

Translation: This character either cried or complained maybe twice, but that’s too much for me to handle. I simply have no empathy or patience for people being upset or complaining about their lot in life and not doing something to change it. Take me, for instance. I’ve never once in my entire life complained about some aspect of my life without immediately taking action to rectify whatever I was upset about. Nope, not once. No, sir. So, you can see why I’d have very little patience for someone else doing that very same thing.

“What if instead of [Insert Plot Point] you made it [Insert Worse Plot Point]?”

Translation: Take what is a good and well-planned plot point and change it into a completely different and much worse plot point because the latter would better suit my tastes. I would just rather the latter plot point happen; I don’t care if it’s not earned at all and explaining that to me will only make me more sure that I’m right. And yes, I’m sure my personal tastes will align perfectly with your target audience despite the fact that I’m not an avid reader of your genre, why do you ask?

“I didn’t get [Insert Scene].”

Translation: I didn’t understand this scene. Rather than doing some self-reflecting and wondering if maybe it was my own fault I didn’t understand something, I blame you and your writing. Do you regret letting me read your book? Yes, yes you do.

The post Your Friend’s Book Critiques: Translated appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.

ProWritingAid

This tool is a combination online editor, writing coach, and style guide. It helps to identify potential problems in your writing that a grammar checker may miss such as overused words, transitions, vague and abstract words, etc. You simply upload your document to the program and you’ll have access to more than 20 in-depth writing reports on various areas of writing strength and clarity. The program is able to be integrated with GoogleDocs, Microsoft Word, Open Office, Scrivener, or Chrome.

Grammarly

Likely the most well-known among the apps, Grammarly allows you to customize what errors you’d like to catch. This includes everything from tense, spelling, repetition, and even tone. You can set it to make sure your tone is consistent with a certain tone- business memo, personal blog, academic- and the software will suggest changes so you stay consistent.

Grammarly is an especially helpful tool for writers who want to actually improve their grammar instead of having a quick fix. Not only does it tell you what you’ve done wrong, it tells you why it’s wrong. The tool is integrated with Microsoft Word so all you need to do is enable the app from the menu and you’re good to go. It also provides assistance through your internet browser.

They have a free version of the software which is able to catch 150 types of mistakes, but the more advanced version (able to catch 250 types of mistakes) is $29.95 per month (or $139.95 per year).

Hemingway

This app was named after the master of clear and concise writing himself, Ernest Hemingway…and that’s precisely what the app allows you to do. Rather than check your grammar, this app goes through and analyzes your writing quality. It highlights any filler words, sentences that are hard to read, sentences that are too long…basically any sentences that should be rephrased. It also catches passive voice, (which is a big no-no in terms of quality writing) and gives you suggestions on words that will improve the impact of the sentence.

The program is also easy to use: you simply place the text in the web-based program and then suggestions appear on the right side of the page. It also provides you with a readability score so that you’re able to see how well the entirety of your book or story is currently flowing (the lower the score, the better). The web-based version is free, and the desktop app is a one-off payment of $19.99.

Are you ready to publish your book? Contact us today!

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The post Best Apps to Improve Grammar & Writing Quality appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.

Unfortunately, when it comes to self-publishing, it can be kind of a mixed bag. Perhaps you’re doing all of the work yourself. This means you’re the one editing (or making a friend do it in exchange for pizza), and handling page design, cover design and artwork. The other option is sending  your work to a self-publishing company that you think would work well with your material.

There is a wide array of companies with various publishing strategies. Some self-publishers will only employ salespeople and then contract out per-project-based freelancers to do the editing, page, and cover design. This process may be appealing in terms of price, but it comes with a few downsides. First, the people they’ll contract to work on your book aren’t typically people with whom they have a long standing relationship. This means that the quality of work may vary. Second, they don’t employ Project Coordinators, which can mean lower quality communication as well as disorganization within the company.

Dorrance’s publishing process involves a division of roles in order to keep the project as organized and high quality as possible. As a result, there are more hands on deck working on your book at any given time than you’d typically find with another self-publisher. At the center of our publishing process, we have Project Coordinators.

A Project Coordinator acts as a liaison between the author (you) and the several different roles and steps needed throughout publishing. We employ several artists, designers, and editors on staff and it’s the Project Coordinator’s job to communicate your desires and concerns to those people.

You might be wondering why an author should even have a Project Coordinator.  Why not just have authors talk directly to their designer/artist/editor? The reason we have this division is, firstly, for customer service based reasons. We know how nerve-racking it can be to hand your book over to strangers. The Project Coordinator is someone who could speak to you weekly (and even daily), reassuring you about the process, explaining certain steps, and communicating effectively with the people who are working on your book.

This process also helps alleviate any internal miscommunication. This is because our author’s are solely communicating with one person. We don’t expect our authors to know who within a publishing company they’d have to give specific information to…that’s our job. If we expected this, situations may arise where an author might tell their editor one thing, but forget or not know to tell their designer- which can lead to a series of messes. The Project Coordinator will funnel your specifications to exactly where they need to go within the company. It also keeps our authors from having to call five to ten different people every time they need to make an adjustment.

It also means that our editors, designers, and artists are able to use their time to work on your book instead of having to divide their time between their work and being a customer service representative. We have hundreds of authors from all over the world at any given time. So, let’s face it, if our author’s were communicating directly with their designers/editors/artists- they’d never get anything done!

So, let us walk you through a daily scenario here at Dorrance: An author will talk to their Project Coordinator, perhaps about a change to their cover. The Coordinator will spend as much time as needed on the phone with their author, making sure they have all the details necessary. Once they’re off the phone, the Project Coordinator will walk over to where our designer sits and talk to them about the author’s desires for the cover. The designer will make a cover for the author based on that information and then make revisions if need be until it is exactly what the author has envisioned. It’s a collaborative process with streamlined communication.

When you’re publishing with Dorrance, your Project Coordinator wears many hats for you: communications expert, project management, creative problem solver, and even therapist every now and again. They’re here to hold your hand and walk you through the publishing process every step of the way.

The post Day In The Life Of A Project Coordinator appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.