WRITE THIS, NOT THAT! A short, pithy writing treatise by yours truly

Write This, Not That!

Write This, Not That! is the distillation of many hours at the computer, talking with critique partners, and absorbing the wisdom of better authors than I.

If you want to tighten your fiction writing, read this. It’s a CHEAP 99 cents and will be FREE February first and second. Get it here: http://www.tinyurl.com/SuzdeMelloWriteThis

Why should you read a writing manual authored by me? Well…a lot of people seem to think I know how to write. Others feel that this is a pretty good little book. And did I mention you can get it FOR FREE?

Still a doubter? Here’s a little info about me:

Sue Swift/Suz deMello

Best-selling, award-winning author Suz deMello, a.k.a Sue Swift, has written over sixteen romance novels in several subgenres, including erotica, comedy, historical, paranormal, mystery and suspense, plus a number of short stories and non-fiction articles on writing. A freelance editor, she’s worked for Total-E-Bound, Ai Press, and Liquid Silver Books. She also takes private clients.

Her books have been favorably reviewed in Publishers Weekly, Kirkus and Booklist, won a contest or two, attained the finals of the RITA and hit several bestseller lists.

A former trial attorney, her passion is world travel. She’s left the US over a dozen times, including lengthy stints working overseas. She’s now writing a vampire tale and planning her next trip.

Find her books at http://www.suzdemello.com

For editing services, email her at suzswift@yahoo.com

Befriend her on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sueswift

She tweets her reading picks @ReadThis4fun

 

**Hey writers! Your vampires should suck, not your dialog**

Today I am the guest of the marvelous Maria-claire Payne, who allows me to exhort my fellow writers on the extremely important subject of dialog, using an example from Highland Vampire–this is Maria-Claire’s Merry Month of May I suck your____ promo.

http://maria-clairepayne.com/your-vampires-should-suck-not-your-dialog-welcome-sue-swift

I’ll be back at her blog next week with more about writing, vampires, and other scary stuff.

 

**About Words: Memes, Tropes, Turns and “A Smart, Funny Ride.”

I’ve noticed that in mass media, there are trends and fashions, just like everywhere else, and it’s my best guess that they emanate from New York. Yesterday, I was listening to a NY based commentator on NPR discussing the “Occupy Wall Street” meme and from where it had evolved. And I realized that I was hearing the word “meme” an awful lot lately.

Apparently “meme” has replaced “trope,” the “in” word of 2010. I remember seeing Malcolm Gladwell on Jon Stewart’s show, and he seemed to adore the word. Being a notable idea man, Gladwell could have started the trend.

“Trope” replaced “turn,” as in a “star turn”—which apparently means “featured performer.” (I used the phrase to describe a year in Queen of Shadow, but in the book it’s a reference to the length of time it took the planet Janus to circle its sun. When I wrote that I was living in Thailand in 2008 and wasn’t reading much US mass media).

Prior to the popularity of star turn in the mass media, one could not read a movie review without the film being described as “a smart, funny ride,” just as a year prior every film review seemed to use the phrase “star turn.”

All of these copycat catchphrases are substitutes for inventiveness, and are a way for the writer to self-identify with media leaders. That “meme” is this year’s fave term is ironic since the word means, according to Merriam-Webster, “an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture.”

We all do things to make ourselves feel good. I eat savory foods. Ernest Borgnine masturbates (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I_PeLNzxNQ). NY journalists use cool words that the rest of us here in the hinterlands aren’t likely to know without finding them in the Urban Dictionary.