Tips and advice for writing?

Question

What makes a good book a good book? How do I choose the right character name? What resources should I use? Can you give me the addresses of some publishing companies and what genre of books they publish? I know you are probaly going to have to type a lot to answer this, so thank you very very much for your time!

Answer 1

Suspense, even if your writing a romance or paranormal thriller. No matter what your writing a creating a feeling of suspense always helsp your books. Your characters names are very important. They don't have to be unusual or made up. It depends on what your writing. If your writing about a young parsons daughter in 18th century england thatn Sarah can be the perfeect name. The name has to fit the character.
you can try allinar pulishing, they actually have a group on yahoo groups, just google it or you can email me I have their address in my contacts, just can't get to them right this second on this slow comuter. They are a good publishing sompany and love to take on unknown writers. Hope this helps.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alinaradult/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alinarpublishing/
sorry I got those site adresses for you. hope they help

Answer 2

What makes a good book a good book - is the fact that the author write's it for their own sake. If you write it in the mindset that you'll be published and become the next J.K. Rowling - chances are your book will not be very good. Rowling became the person she is today, because she wrote Harry Potter for her own needs, for her own pleasure, not thinking of anyone else.

Character name isn't really important. Really - just choose names you like. Maybe you've always wanted your parents to have given you a certain name - but your not that name. So give your character that certain name you always wanted.

Writer's Market 2008 will list hundreds of publishers for you, what genre they are looking for, their website, and their actual address. And it will say if you need an agent or not to send in your manuscript. That's another thing you can look into - agents. Again, WM will list that for you.

I wish you the best of luck.

Answer 3

will give you a few tips from my writing courses in College.

Write to please yourself.
Remember without conflict there can be no story
A good story can be short -- Wrote one of my best on a page and a half.
Profane language is NOT necessary. use **** ---- +++++ ( as an example ) for this strong language. This will allow the reader to use their own imagination as to what the character said.
A good description and development of both the characters and surroundings lead to a better understanding of the plot.
As your story starts to unfold each of the characters develop their own set of characteristics. let the characters develop themselves.
Have fun in the writing of the story. when you have a blank period set the story aside and either work on a different story or wait until you think of more activities.
Hope these help a little and want to wish you good luck.

Answer 4

Good book are good for different reasons, but typically I find that strong novels have good character development (ie, the character undergoes some sort of change of the the course of the plot), that is, they aren't flat; the plot isn't predictable, and the sentence structure is varied. Also, strong imagery is a plus.

As for publishers: check out the link below for the info you need. Good luck!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_publishers

Answer 5

A good book is a good book because of the characters, you have to make the heroine likable and the villian hated. For names look at a phone book. Research the era.