Find Your Exact Genre, Find Your Lifelong Book Ambassadors by Shayla Raquel

This blog post was written by a human.

Hi readers and writerly friends!

If you’re a returning reader, welcome back and if you’re new here, thanks for stopping by! For this post, fellow Oklahoma Freelance Editor Shayla Raquel is taking over the blog to tell you all about how to not only grow your audience but how to transform readers into lifelong ambassadors of your book! This post shows you exactly how to gain a clear understanding of your genre and target audience to grow an enduring, loyal readership! Be sure to leave her a comment and check out her website and other socials!

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A best-selling author and public speaker, Shayla Raquel teaches people the ins and outs of writing, publishing, and marketing their books. Her in-person and online classes focus on author branding, self-publishing, book marketing, and the craft of writing.

She is the author of the Pre-Publishing Checklist, “The Rotting” (in Shivers in the Night), The Suicide Tree, The 10 Commandments of Author Branding, All the Things I Should’ve Told You, and “Savage Indulgence.”

In her not-so-free time, she studies all things true crime and obsesses over squirrels. She lives in Oklahoma with her husband and three fur babies.

More recently, Shayla has served as the founder of an incredible non-profit organization based in McLoud, Oklahoma, called Crime & Compassion Inc., through which she helps incarcerated women find their voices and share their stories with the world through their writing.

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Follow & Connect With Shayla On These Platforms:

Instagram | Twitter | TikTok | Goodreads | LinkedIn | Website

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Shayla Raquel, best-selling author, public speaker, and book editor.

Why Do I Need To Know My Target Audience?

Investing time and money into social media, email newsletters, Amazon ads, podcast interviews, and blog posts will net you very little ROI if you do not know your precise genre. 

Because if you don’t know exactly what book you wrote, then, my friend, you don’t know your audience.

And if you don’t know your audience, what good is all that time and money you’ve put toward marketing your book?

My goal today is to teach you how to determine your exact genre as a novelist so you can pinpoint your target audience. Once you do that, you can have lifelong book ambassadors: people who fangirl over your book and tell the world about it.

Amazon Kindle Categories. Photo by Shayla Raquel.

So, What Is Your Genre?

If I ask an author, “What book is your genre?” and they reply “Fantasy,” I get a little worried. 

Go to Amazon.com and toggle the search bar from All Departments to Kindle Store. On the left-hand side of your screen, select Kindle eBooks. (We don’t need the newsstand or singles or anything like that.) 

Next, select Categories. It’s easy to miss sometimes because Amazon doesn’t make it prominent, but it’s usually under the search bar or off to the left-hand side. 

Next, for this purpose, select Science Fiction & Fantasy. Narrow it down once more by selecting Fantasy. There are over 50,000 e-books in the Fantasy category alone. That’s a lot of competition. 

Now you have to determine where your novel fits in the world of fantasy. Before I explain, I have a very important note: I desperately wish authors would do this exercise before writing their novels. If they did, then they’d ensure their story fit within the expected storylines of, let’s say, Gaslamp Fantasy or Arthurian Fantasy. 

Next, select Fantasy. Photo by Shayla Raquel.

My point: Your novel will be difficult to sell if you wrote it without knowing its genre. You can figure it out, but it’s a little bit tougher because there’s a chance there are several genres packed into one story. (I did this with my first novel, so don’t be like Shayla!)

Okay, now that you have a warning to heed, let’s move on to subgenres.

So here you are in the Fantasy genre for Kindle e-books with all this competition. Where does your book fit? If your subgenre is Action & Adventure, that’s more specific than just saying Fantasy, but could you niche it down even more by mentioning the types of characters? (Amazon gives us a handy checklist for various genres.) If you have Elves or Fae, that officially means you’re only competing with 1,000 e-books now! 

Elves. Photo by Shayla Raquel.

Your genre would be, let’s say, Fae Action & Adventure Fantasy.

Let’s shift to Mystery, Thriller & Suspense. If you’re going to find your niche, I suggest looking into Moods & Themes (another handy checklist). If I write Crime Fiction (50,000 e-books in this genre), I have several subgenres within that too:

• Heist

• Kidnapping

• Murder

• Noir

• Organized Crime

• Serial Killers

• Vigilante Justice

Crime Fiction. Photo by Shayla Raquel.

But I have the opportunity to get super specific by selecting a mood or theme, such as Action-Packed. Therefore, it would be: Action-Packed Heist Crime Fiction. 

Action Packed. Photo by Shayla Raquel.

It gets better! I can also look into Settings (beaches, islands, mountains, etc.) and Characters (amateur sleuths, British detectives, gay protagonists, etc.) on the Amazon checklist. 

Setting. Photo by Shayla Raquel.

Characters. Photo by Shayla Raquel.

If your story has some love in it, you would go to the Romance category and narrow it down to, maybe, Time Travel. On the left-hand side, take a look at Romantic Heroes and Romantic Themes (originally called Tropes). By narrowing the genre down to Viking Time Travel Romance, I have certainly found a very specific group of readers!

Vikings. Photo by Shayla Raquel.

Now What?

Now that you know some tricks for finding your exact genre, you have a foundation for marketing your book to the right audience. And marketing it well. 

But how do you get book ambassadors to see your book? 

It depends on the platform, of course. If you label your categories and keywords properly through Amazon KDP and Amazon Author Central, you’ve just made your life way easier. (To learn how to request 8 additional categories and how to find keywords, read 5 Freakishly Helpful Amazon Tricks Every Author Should Use.)

Outside of Amazon, your blurb (back cover copy and Amazon product description) must reflect your genre. In addition to a steller book cover, a blurb helps sell your book. It’s your big flashy billboard: it’s meant to suck the reader right in.

When writing a blurb, follow these steps:

1. Drop the Hook — A hook is meant to entice the reader to bite. I love this hook from The Martian by Andy Weir: “Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there.”

2. Dangle the Characters — Reel them in with intriguing characters.

3. Dive into Conflict — Show them what this book is all about. What’s the plot? Why should the reader buy this book?

4. Determine the Consequences — What hangs in the balance for your characters? Formula: Conflict (“Character must do this”) + Stakes (“Or this will happen”) = Consequences.

5. Dine on the Big Question — End your blurb on an intriguing question or a point of tension—something that will convince the reader to take a chance on buying your book.

For the complete how-to, read Writing Compelling Book Blurbs.

If you’ve got these things down (genre, Amazon, and blurb), you need to spend quality time putting your book in front of people on various platforms to determine where you get the most bites (from readers who want to chow down on your genre). It could be through any one of these avenues:

• Social media (especially TikTok)

• Email newsletter (your own)

• Podcasts (interviews specifically)

• Book promotion newsletters (Book Gorilla, Many Books, Book Rebel, etc.)

• Amazon ads

• Social media ads

• Book reviewers (YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok are full of reviewers)

• Blogs 

Some platforms work better than others for a variety of reasons, but you won’t know until you try and stay committed long enough to determine if it’s worth the ROI. If you write sexy stories, there is a community with 4.2 billion views on TikTok called SmutTok just waiting for you. If you want your book to be reviewed, there are loads of BookTubers on YouTube ready and willing to geek out over your book. 

If you will do the hard work of determining exactly what you write, it will be smoother sailing when it’s time to find your readers.

Best of luck!

Thanks for reading Shayla’s guest blog post! I hope you enjoyed it and found her advice useful and actionable! If you liked this post, please leave us a comment below and don’t forget to check out the other posts on the blog!

Bibliography

• Raquel, Shayla. “Find Your Exact Genre, Find Your Lifelong Book Ambassadors.” Blog Post article and photos, February 3, 2023. 

• furkanfdemir. “Classic wooden shelves with assorted books in store” (Thumbnail photo). Pexels photo, December 28, 2020.

Further Reading

• “Writing Compelling Blurbs: Book Descriptions to Entice Your Reader.” by Shayla Raquel, June 28, 2022. 

• “How Not to Launch a Self-Published Book: 7 Easy Steps for Indie Authors.” by Shayla Raquel, October 18, 2022. 

• “Bad Book Marketing: Three Things Authors Need to Stop Doing Immediately.” by Shayla Raquel,  March 20, 2022. 

• “5 Freakishly Helpful Amazon Tricks Every Author Should Use (2022).” by Shayla Raquel,  January 17, 2022. 

• Or you can just check out all of Shayla’s blog posts about book marketing here!

• Crime & Compassion Inc.—Literature written by those who were written off—a 501(c)(3) registered nonprofit in Oklahoma.

More Like This

• 8 Reasons Why Having A Creative Community Matters

• The Importance of Befriending Your Competition

• 20 Tips and Tricks for a Successful Email Newsletter

• Book Marketing 101: Everything Writers Need To Know About Literary Agents and Querying

• See all Marketing blog posts.

Related Topics

• 8 Ways To Level Up Your Workspace And Elevate Your Productivity

• Yoga For Writers: A 30-Minute Routine To Do Between Writing Sessions

• How To Overcome Writer’s Block

• Writing Every Day: What Writing As A Journalist Taught Me About Deadlines & Discipline

• Why Fanfiction is Great Writing Practice and How It Can Teach Writers to Write Well

• Check out my other Writing Advice blog posts!

Before You Go

• Looking for your next read? I've got you covered. See my Reading Recommendations and Reading Challenges for ideas about what to read next!

• Oh, and don't forget to Get Your FREE Story Binder Printables e-Book!

Recent Blog Posts

This blog post was researched, written, and published by a human author without the assistance of generative artificial intelligence (gen-AI). Gen-AI models are trained on text written by humans, therefore, the presence of specific punctuation, verbiage, tone, or predictable, marketing-style phrases alone are not sufficient indicators of gen-AI usage. I implore readers to use context clues, critical thinking, pattern recognition, research, and employ their best judgement when determining the validity of human authorship of print and digital media today. If you want to learn more about my stance on gen-AI and it’s role in media and the publishing industry, I plan to release a blog post on this topic very soon, so stay tuned for that. This disclaimer will be updated once that post goes live. In the meantime, I will continue to be transparent about which tools and resources I use in my work.

Written by Payton Hayes | Last Updated: August 30, 2025

8 Reasons Why Having A Creative Community Matters

Two writers working on their projects together. Photo by Windows.

This blog post was written by a human.

Hi readers and writerly friends!

If you’re new to the blog, thanks for stopping by, and if you’re a returning reader, it’s nice to see you again! In this post, we’re discussing eight reasons why it is not only beneficial but also why having a writing community is essential for helping writers break out of their shell, embrace criticism, and grow as storytellers. When we hear the word “writer,” the image that comes to mind is that of a hermit holed up in their office or writing room, hunched over their desk, writing at all hours, alone. However, this is often not the case when it comes to successful writers. While writing itself is often a solitary activity, there's a lot of other people involved in the publishing process from mentors, to beta readers to editors, to critique groups, to agents and publishers. The process of writing, editing, and publishing a manuscript isn’t done alone.

However, many writers still forget this crucial part of writing. Writing partners and critique groups serve as excellent sources for feedback, critiques, and writing advice. Many writers avoid writing communities and try to do it all alone. Without other writers around to encourage you, support you, and hold you accountable, it’s easy to give up on your goals.

1. Support

A writing community can provide essential support to both seasoned and aspiring writers alike. I am part of a couple of Facebook writing and editing groups and just scrolling through their posts provides me with an abundance of motivation and support to keep doing what I do. It feels amazing just seeing what everyone else is working on and reading supportive comments from fellow group members. There are many stages of the writing process where writers give up. The difference between an unfinished draft and a published book is a strong writing community.

2. Accountability

A writing community can hold you accountable to your goals. If you’re already great at meeting objectives and reaching your goals, then maybe you can show someone else how to. Many writers still struggle with meeting deadlines and achieving their goals. Having a writing community to fall back on is immensely helpful. Even when you don’t feel like writing, their commentary and advice is motivating and inspiring.

3. Feedback

We’ve all gotten feedback from friends and family, and it’s just not as helpful or constructive as advice from other writers. They don’t understand the genre, demographic, subject matter, or other story elements and provide biased feedback when asked their thoughts. Having a writing community means you have access to constructive, actionable, relevant feedback and in turn, you can provide the same for your fellow writers.

4. Advice

Much like feedback, useful writing advice is essential, and non-writers aren’t equipped to provide it. Writers can recommend books, blogs, guides, YouTube videos, speakers, podcasts, and tons of other useful content to each other through their writing communities.

5. Reaching Readers

Writing communities do not have to be exclusive to just writers; readers are a big part of writing communities too. Take beta readers for example —they enjoy reading novel drafts and providing readers with feedback relevant to their genre. Readers can provide vital advice and critiques to writer’s works without the writer’s lenses. A community of dedicated readers or your target audience can be extremely beneficial to you as a writer, especially during the marketing phase.

6. Inspiration

Group of writers cheering each other on in the library. Photo by Yan Krukov.

Inspiration is an important part of the writing process and watching your fellow writers grow and succeed in their craft can serve as crucial motivation and inspiration to keep you on track with your craft as well. The same reason writers read books from their genre or works from their favorite writers, they can also take feedback from their writing community as inspiration.

7. Helping Others

Helping other writers learn and grow in their craft is a wonderfully rewarding feeling. If you’ve got experience writing, you can share it with your writing community and maybe teach someone something they didn’t already know. Writers often post questions in community forums or groups on Facebook seeking advice for specific struggles in the writing process. Helpful answers from fellow writers can be more useful and actionable than simply asking a friend for their opinion or having to sift through a long blog post to answer a quick question.

8. Tribe

Last but not least, having a writing community means that you have a tribe to belong to. Writers from all walks of life come together for a common goal: to write a book, leave a legacy, and make their mark on the world. Having a connected, empowering, inspirational, constructive community is essential for writers of every genre and level of expertise and having a tribe to belong to is important for anyone regardless of if they are readers or writers.

I’ve included some examples of writing communities that I am a part of below.

Bonus Tip: Check Out The Writing Communities Online and Near You

Oklahoma Writing Communities

Below are a few of the writing communities in Oklahoma:

• Yukon Writer’s Society

• Red Dirt Writers

• The Golden Pony Writers Guild @ The University of Oklahoma

• Writers of Oklahoma Facebook Group

Writer’s Societies at UCO

Below are a few of the writer’s societies I am a part of at the University of Central Oklahoma:

• The English Society At UCO

• The Golden PonyCreative Writers Guild

• The Language Society at UCO

Facebook Writing and Editing Groups

Below are a few of the editorial groups I am a member of on Facebook:

• Authors and Writers Helping Each Other Grow

• I Need A Book Editor

• Ask A Book Editor

• Women Writers, Editors, Agents, and Publishers

• Writers Helping Writers

• Developmental Editor Connection Group

• #WriteTip: Writing Tips, Tricks, Tools, Techniques and Theories

• Proofreading and Editing Services

• Business + Professional Development for Editors

• BetaReader Connect Facebook Group

• Beta Readers Facebook Group

Reddit Writing Communities

• Writers Reddit Community (r/Writers)

• Writing Reddit Community(r/Writing)

• Keep Writing Reddit Community(r/KeepWriting)

• Fan Fiction Reddit Community (r/FanFiction)

• Writing Prompts Reddit Community(r/WritingPrompts)

Online Writing Forums and Communities

• Wattpad

• Archive of Our Own (AO3)

• Critique Circle

• Scribophile

• BetaBooks

• Goodreads Beta Reader Groups

• Reader’s Favorite

•  Absolute Write Water Cooler

•  NaNoWriMo Forums

• Mythic Scribes

• Reedsy Discovery

• Writer’s Café on The Next Big Writer

Other Spaces To Build A Writing Community Online

• Twitter/X–Use hashtags like #BetaReaders, #WritingCommunity, #SeekingBetaReaders or #AmWriting to find potential readers.

• Discord Servers–Join writing servers like The Writing Community or BetaReader Connect for live feedback.

• TikTok–Connect with and engage with fellow TikTokers in the BookTok Community.

That’s it for my list of 8 Reasons Why Having Writing Community Matters. Do you have a writing community? How has it helped you in your writing practice? What are some of your favorite writing communities online and in your area? Let me know in the comments below!

Bibliography

• Goodman, Jason. “five person by table watching turned on white iMac photo.” Unsplash photo, March 14, 2019 (Thumbnail photo).

• Krukov, Yan. “Group of People Smiling and Standing Near Brown Wooden Table Raising Hands.” Pexels photo, June 3, 2021. 

• Windows. “3 women sitting on chair.” Unsplash photo, April 22, 2020.

Related Topics

• Get Your FREE Story Binder Printables e-Book!

• The Importance of Befriending Your Competition

• Find Your Exact Genre, Find Your Lifelong Book Ambassadors by Shayla Raquel

• 20 Tips and Tricks for a Successful Email Newsletter

• Book Marketing 101: Everything Writers Need To Know About Literary Agents and Querying

• How To Overcome Writer’s Block

• When Writing Becomes Difficult

• 5 Reasons Most Writers Quit

• Self-Care Tips for Bookworms

• 5 Healthy Habits For Every Writer

• Yoga For Writers: A 30-Minute Routine To Do Between Writing Sessions

• Blank Pages Versus Bad Pages: How To Beat Writer’s Block

• Know The Rules So Well That You Can Break The Rules Effectively

• Writing Every Day: What Writing As A Journalist Taught Me About Deadlines & Discipline

• Let’s Talk Amateur Author Anxiety: 7 Writer Worries That Could Be Holding You Back 

• Why Fanfiction is Great Writing Practice and How It Can Teach Writers to Write Well

• Screenwriting for Novelists: How Different Mediums Can Improve Your Writing

• Experimentation Is Essential For Creators’ Growth (In Both Art and Writing)

• 20 Things Writers Can Learn From Dreamers

• Check out my other Writing Advice and Author Advice blog posts!

Recent Blog Posts

This blog post was researched, written, and published by a human author without the assistance of generative artificial intelligence (gen-AI). Gen-AI models are trained on text written by humans, therefore, the presence of specific punctuation, verbiage, tone, or predictable, marketing-style phrases alone are not sufficient indicators of gen-AI usage. I implore readers to use context clues, critical thinking, pattern recognition, research, and employ their best judgement when determining the validity of human authorship of print and digital media today. If you want to learn more about my stance on gen-AI and it’s role in media and the publishing industry, I plan to release a blog post on this topic very soon, so stay tuned for that. This disclaimer will be updated once that post goes live. In the meantime, I will continue to be transparent about which tools and resources I use in my work.

Written by Payton Hayes | Last Updated: August 30, 2025

NaNoWriMo: 25 Tips To Help You Write A Book In 1 Month + Free NaNoWriMo Printables

This blog post was written by a human.

Hi readers and writerly friends!

We didn’t just come here to win NaNoWriMo—no, we came to slay it. Okay, maybe that line is for the horror writers, but I’m serious when I say I am slaying NaNo this year. 2022 is not only  a new year, but it’s a new beginning. In 2022, we start and finish our novels, we reach our goals, and we don’t stop for anyone!

I’ve prepared this guide months in advance so you can get prepared too! You should be prepping all of October—er, prep-tober for the biggest, baddest, bestest NaNoWriMo ever! And okay, maybe some of those aren’t real words, but we can pretend, and we can still get psyched! Hooray for reaching our goals and stuff!

This blog post covers everything from background information on NaNoWriMo, to how to prepare for the writing challenge, to emergency solutions for that nasty writer’s block, to FREE printables and more!

I discovered this concept from Shayla Raquel from Shaylaraquel.com I took inspiration from her guide which you can check out here!

The NaNoWriMo Crest. Image by NaNoWriMo.

What is NaNoWriMo?

In my opinion, there’s only two valid reasons for asking this question: 1) you’re a writer and you’ve been living under a rock or 2) you’re a non-writer. Either way, I am here to serve and inform. *Bows graciously* NaNoWriMo is an acronym that stands for National Novel Writing Month. It begins every year on November 1. Participants have 30 days to write a 50,000-word novel. It comes out to 1,667 words a day.

How do I participate?

To get started, simply head to NaNoWriMo.org, click the Sign Up button, and fill out your profile. Once you’ve set up your profile, you can announce your novel, add buddies, and start prepping your book.

Is it free?

It’s free. In fact, NaNoWriMo is a nonprofit. However, if you’d like to support them, you can always donate to their organization.

Are there any local events for NaNoWriMo?

Although people all over the world participate in NaNoWriMo, you can go to their Regions page, find your specific region, and see if there are any Come Write-Ins available.

NaNoWriMo’s Come Write In program connects libraries, bookstores, and other neighborhood spaces with their local NaNoWriMo participants to build vibrant writing communities.

For example, the Yukon Writers’ Society in Oklahoma has four official Come Write-Ins. NaNoWriMo sends out official swag and signs so people know where to go.

How do I win NaNoWriMo?

You must reach your goal of 50,000 words by November 30. To receive your official certificate and get the winner badge on your profile, you must update your word count daily and make sure the word count reaches 50,000 words by November 30, 2020. Here’s their how-to guide.

Download Free Novel Binder Printables

Got a binder handy? Fill it with these beautiful printables and add the necessary information.

Here's what you'll get when you download the free PDF:

• Binder title page with name plate

• At a Glance — overview of your novel

• Character List

• The Protagonist — three pages for  character details

• The Antagonist — three pages for character details

• To-Do List—you can fill the list with my NaNoWriMo To-Do List (scroll down!) or make your own!

• Story Outline — three pages detailing the parts of a novel as per the three-act story structure

• Word Count Tracker—with NaNoWriMo daily word count goal and space for your daily word count reached

I suggest tossing these fantastic freebies into a lovely, matching blue binder! Scroll down to download!

NaNoWriMo To-Do List:

1.      Grab some coffee—this is going to be so fun!

2.      Set up your NaNoWriMo account

3.      Fill out your author bio and add a profile photo.

4.      Announce your novel.

5.      Add your buddies. (Add me too!)

6.      Find your region and see if there are any local Come Write-Ins.

7.      Print my free novel binder templates and prepare your binder. (Scroll back up!)

8.      Tell your social media friends about NaNoWriMo. Tag NaNoWriMo and use hashtags.

9.      Tidy up your writing space and add some inspirational NaNo swag. Or make your own! You can also add a candle, some motivational quotes and pep talk books! (Scroll down!)

10.  Put together a NaNo board. This is the fun part! Grab a corkboard or dry erase board and display your outline, character photos, book cover sketches, inspirational quotes—anything that has to do with your book. If you prefer digital vision boards, start a Pinterest board.

11. Download my emergency writer’s block kit for when the dreaded writer’s block inevitably strikes! Don’t let lack of motivation or inspiration slow you down or keep you from reaching your NaNoWriMo goals! (Scroll down!)

12.  Create a reward sheet. When you hit 10,000 words, you should get a reward—like a weekly coffee stop for reaching your goals each week or bigger rewards for bigger milestones such as every ten thousand words! Write a list of rewards that go with each big milestone you hit. If all of this motivation fails you, your rewards will keep you on track, believe me.

13.  Print the Word Count Calendar (scroll down!) and pin it to your NaNo board!

14.  Add official Come Write-Ins to your schedule if you found any (#5).

15.  Looks like your cup is empty…coffee break?

16.  Create a NaNo playlist. Don’t forget game soundtracks and Ambient Mixer!

17.  Set a certain time to write then tell your family/friends/neighbors/pets you are writing for X amount of minutes/hours each day. Be proactive in stopping distractions. Consider postponing plans with friends and family until you’ve met your goal each day.

18.  Draw pictures of your characters or Google pictures of what you think they’d look like. I like to have a few photos for every character, including headshots, full-body shots, and photos that accentuate their style. You can add them to your NaNo board!

19.  Look at book covers. Obviously don’t steal someone else’s book cover but find a few that you think would represent your book well. Keep them to refer to when NaNo hits. Add to your NaNo board!

20.  You think we’re busy now, but wait ‘til we’re really in the trenches. Speaking of being busy, I think it’s time for more coffee—gotta keep the productivity levels up, right?

21.  Prepare the manuscript. This is actually really fun and can make you feel like a bona fide novelist. Write your title, table of contents (if you have one), acknowledgments, prologue, and so on. Get the novel looking fancy!

22.  Find your accountability buddy now. Get together with them and discuss both of your books! When NaNoWriMo is in full swing and you’re feeling stuck, you can hit up your NaNo buddy for instant support—or a kick in the pants, whichever.

23.  At the end of NaNoWriMo grab a celebratory coffee—for winning or for simply participating!

24.  Consider donating to NaNoWriMo.

25.  If you finish your novel, then great! It’s now time to edit. If you still have some writing to do, stay on the writing train with 1,666 words a day until it’s finished. By participating in NaNoWriMo, you’re building the habit of writing every day and it’s much easier to maintain the habit than to pick it back up if you let it go. Keep writing and you’ll reach the ending before you know it!

Keeping Up With Word Counts

Download my free NaNoWriMo word count calendar so you can keep track of your writing goals and work count all month long!

Cackling Over Calendars

Don’t like my calendar? That’s okay! Try this one on for size! Humor helps pass the time! @hermiejr157 on DeviantArt designed this hilarious, quirky, and painfully true calendar that accurately describes NaNoWriMo for most writers!

“NaNoWriMo Desktop.” by @hermiejr157.

Worried About Writer’s Block?

Download my free NaNoWriMo writer’s block emergency kit!

NaNoWriMo Articles For Extra Inspiration & Motivation

• “A First-Timer’s Guide to Prepping for NaNoWriMo.”

• “NaNoWriMo Advice: 30 Tips for Writing a Book in 30 Days.“

• “How to Prepare for NaNoWriMo: Your 4-Week Success Plan.”

• “100 Plot Ideas.”

• “Getting Ready for NaNoWriMo.”

• “Writing a Novel in a Month: 10 Tips for Plotters and Pantsers.”

• “What is NaNoWriMo? And How to Win in 2022.”

Books To Read In Preparation Of NaNoWriMo!

The books shown above are:

• Pep Talks for Writers: 52 Insights and Actions to Boost Your Creative Mojo (Novel and Creative Writing Book, National Novel Writing Month NaNoWriMo Guide) by Grand Faulkner

• The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Expression (Second Edition) (Writers Helping Writers Series Book 1) by Becca Puglisi and Angela Ackerman

• Write Your Novel From The Middle: A New Approach for Plotters, Pantsers and Everyone in Between by James Scott Bell

• Ready, Set, Novel!: A Workbook by Lindsey Grant and Chris Baty

• No Plot? No Problem! Revised and Expanded Edition: A Low-stress, High-velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days by Chris Baty

• Your First Novel Revised and Expanded Edition: A Top Agent and a Published Author Show You How to Write Your Book and Get It Published by Ann Rittenberg, Laura Whitcomb, and Camille Goldin

• You can find all of these and more on my Payton’s Picks Page

Build Or Join A Writing Community To Keep Each Other Accountable Throughout NaNoWriMo!

Social Media

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nanowrimo/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/NaNoWriMo/

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nanowrimo/

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/nanowrimo/

• Tumblr: http://blog.nanowrimo.org/

• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/nanowrimo/

Facebook Groups

• NaNoWriMo

• 2020 NaNoWriMo (Support & Encouragement)

Use NaNo Hashtags To Find NaNoWriMo-Related Content

Most social media out there allows you to post hashtags, and often up to at least 30 per post! You can comment even more hashtags on the post to increase visibility! Here are 50 different NaNoWriMo hashtags for you to use with your content!

• #1667wordsaday

• #amediting

• #amwriting

• #authorlife

• #book

• #bookish

• #bookishthings

• #booklove

• #booklover

• #booklovers

• #bookstagram

• #bookwormforlife

• #bookworms

• #characters

• #creativewriting

• #fantasy

• #fiction

• #fictionbooks

• #iamawriter 

• #igbooks

• #ilovewriting

• #inktober

• #inspiration

• #instawrimo

• #nanoprep

• #nanowrimo

• #nonfiction

• #poetry

• #preptober

• #procrastination

• #scrivener

• #stylewriting

• #wip

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• #yalit

Bibliography

• Baty, Chris. No Plot? No Problem! Revised and Expanded Edition: A Low-stress, High-velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days. California: Chronicle Books LLC, 2014. Amazon (Image and link).

• Faulkner , Grand. Pep Talks for Writers: 52 Insights and Actions to Boost Your Creative Mojo (Novel and Creative Writing Book, National Novel Writing Month NaNoWriMo Guide). California: Chronicle Books, 2017. Amazon (Image and link).

• Grant. Lindsey, and Chris Baty. Ready, Set, Novel!: A Workbook. California: Chronicle Books, 2011. Amazon (Image and link). 

• hermiejr157. “NaNoWriMo Desktop” Deviantart post, November 4, 2008.

• McNulty, Bridget. “Writing a Novel in a Month: 10 Tips for Plotters and Pantsers.” Now Novel blog post, accessed October 18, 2022.

• NaNoWriMo. “NaNo Prep 101.” NaNoWriMo website, accessed October 18, 2022. 

• NaNoWriMo. "NaNoWriMo Logo.” Image. Accessed October 18, 2022. 

• NY Book Editors. “A First-Timer’s Guide to Prepping for NaNoWriMo.” Blog post, accessed October 18, 2022.

• Puglisi, Becca, and Angela Ackerman. The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Expression (Second Edition) (Writers Helping Writers Series Book 1). JADD Publishing, 2019. Amazon (Image and link).

• Raquel, Shayla. “100 Plot Ideas. “ Shaylaraquel.com blog post, October 16, 2022. 

• Raquel, Shayla. “NaNoWriMo 2018 Novel Binder Printables.” Shaylaraquel.com blog post, September 30, 2022. 

• Reedsy. “What is NaNoWriMo? And How to Win in 2022.” Reedsy blog post, October 5, 2020. 

•  Rittenberg, Ann, Laura Whitcomb, and Camille Goldin. Your First Novel Revised and Expanded Edition: A Top Agent and a Published Author Show You How to Write Your Book and Get It Published. Ohio: Writer's Digest Books, 2018. Amazon (Image and link).

• Scott Bell, James. Write Your Novel From The Middle: A New Approach for Plotters, Pantsers and Everyone in Between. London: Compendium Press, 1707. Amazon (Image and link).

• Steve. “Getting Ready for NaNoWriMo.” Storyist blog post, accessed October 18, 2022.

• Strawser, Jessica. “NaNoWriMo Advice: 30 Tips for Writing a Book in 30 Days.“ Writer’s Digest article, October 6, 2015. 

• The Write Life Team. “How to Prepare for NaNoWriMo: Your 4-Week Success Plan.” The Write Life blog post, October 3, 2022.

Related Topics

• Get Your FREE Story Binder Printables e-Book!

• Book Writing 101: How To Come Up With Great Book Ideas And What To Do With Them

• Book Writing 101: How To Write A Book (The Basics)

• Book Writing 101: Starting Your Book In The Right Place

• Book Writing 101: How To Choose The Right POV For Your Novel

• Book Writing 101: How To Achieve Good Story Pacing

• Book Writing 101: How To Name Your Book Characters

• Book Writing 101: How to Develop and Write Compelling, Consistent Characters

• Book Writing 101: Everything You Need To Know About Dialogue

• Info-Dumping in Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels by Breyonna Jordan

• How To Write Romance: Effective & Believable Love Triangles

• How To Write Romance: Enemies-To-Lovers Romance (That’s Satisfying and Realistic)

• How To Write Romance: 10 Heart-Warming and Heart-Wrenching Scenes for Your Romantic Thriller

• How To Write Romance: Believable Best Friends-To-Lovers 

• How To Write Romance: The Perfect Meet Cute

• Check out my other Book Writing 101 and How To Write Romance posts!

• Payton's Picks: The Best Books On Writing Books

• Manuscript Format Basics

• 4 Of The  Most Useful FREE Apps For Writers (2022)

• 25 Strangely Useful Websites To Use For Research and Novel Ideas

• Check out my other Book Writing 101 and  How To Write Romance blog posts!

Recent Blog Posts

This blog post was researched, written, and published by a human author without the assistance of generative artificial intelligence (gen-AI). Gen-AI models are trained on text written by humans, therefore, the presence of specific punctuation, verbiage, tone, or predictable, marketing-style phrases alone are not sufficient indicators of gen-AI usage. I implore readers to use context clues, critical thinking, pattern recognition, research, and employ their best judgement when determining the validity of human authorship of print and digital media today. If you want to learn more about my stance on gen-AI and it’s role in media and the publishing industry, I plan to release a blog post on this topic very soon, so stay tuned for that. This disclaimer will be updated once that post goes live.

Written by Payton Hayes | Last Updated: August 30, 2025

For Content Creators and CEOs with ADHD: Strategies to Succeed Despite Overwhelm and Distractions

This blog post was written by a human. 

Hi readers and writerly friends!

As someone with severe adult ADHD, I personally know how this neurotype can affect one’s personal and professional life. ADHD is a neurodivergence, not a disorder, and worth looking into whether or not you have been diagnosed with it. Readers and writers, I’ve created a list of tips and tricks (ADHD friendly) that can help you in your business whether neurotypical or neurodivergent, like myself. If you’re in a rush, check out the headers and sections in bold to get the most out of skimming this post.

Note: Some of the advice in this blog post is from my own personal experience, tips and tricks from other people I know who have ADHD, and the book, Mastering Your Adult ADHD: A Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment Program, Second Ed. Client Workbook by Steven A. Safren. Any quotes from the workbook are cited in-text and at the end of this post (Safren 2017)

Rearrangeable Corkboard Calendar. Photo by Monica Sauro.

Calendars, Planners, and Daily Task Lists

As per the workbook and my own experience, having a toolkit of simple, practical, sustainable, and daily organization and planning tools is key to combatting prioritization-confusion, time-blindness, and forgetfulness in general. This is true for people with and without ADHD. Having a 3-step planning system ensures consistency and employs repetition —a useful tactic for remembering important tasks day-to-day, week-by-week, and month-to-month. I’ve been using this system for three months now, and it has changed how much I can get accomplished in a single day. I’m not advising you go overboard with adding tasks to your plate and burn yourself out. But you’ll be amazed at the productivity and action you can achieve by employing a simple planning routine that can be scaled up or down and modified in many ways to fit many different lifestyles and stages of life.

How to execute this planning strategy:

• Use a Calendar for a monthly view. This can be paper or dry-erase calendar, but make sure its simple and big enough to write 1-3 important tasks, appointments, or events in each day’s space.

• Use a Planner or weekly agenda for keeping up with tasks throughout the week. Realistically plan your days so that you can get your professional and personal work done in a timely manner without overworking yourself. Unless you can consistently produce quality results, stick to no more than 3-5 tasks a day until this becomes a habit. Pick out a planner that you like and avoid choosing frills over functionality. The more space the better. I prefer just a plain planner with a calendar view for each month and a few lines for each day of the month in an agenda format. Ensure the planners size can accommodate your handwriting as well as portability, because this will be your middle-man between your home calendar and task list as well as your point of reference when away from home.

• Use a Daily Task List for daily task planning and organization. Again, limit your responsibilities to reflect your true capability and slowly add more tasks onto your plate when you feel comfortable doing so.

Pro Tip: Use the same color-coding system in your planner and task list as you do on your monthly calendar. Get colored pens that match your expo markers so that you can peek at either tool and read it at-a-glance, ensuring ease of understanding and consistency. Only use a color-coding system if it will benefit you, though. If you’re worried it will become too complicated, take too much time to set up, or you’ll get hung up on perfectionism, opt for 3 colors max, or skip this step altogether.

For Digital Planners: I would love to be more eco-conscious and go paperless, but the repetition of writing plans down 1-3 times helps me remember when and what I’ll be doing each day. This process also helps me to catch any discrepancies between one of my planning tools and I can catch mistakes (such as an event written on the wrong day of the month) much easier and usually before the event. However, if you’re really not one for writing things down and would prefer to go the digital route, there’s a few tools you can use to achieve the same 3-step planning system mentioned above.

Tablet displaying a virtual weekly planner. Photo by Jess Bailey.

• Pick a good virtual calendar such as Google Calendar. Color-code events as needed and try to keep colors consistent across all apps and devices.

• Use a good digital planner as well —below, I mention Notion as a great resource for note-taking but it can also serve as a fully-customizable virtual planner/agenda as well. If you’re overwhelmed by the customization, there’s a ton of other free and paid virtual planning/productivity apps out there!

• Use a simple virtual notes app or list app such as Google Keep Notes or Google Tasks. Notes has more formatting options but Tasks has a satisfying check-off function for when you’ve completed tasks.

If you’re going the virtual route, use digital alarms to help you stay on track! The Pomodoro Technique is a great strategy for getting both quality work and breaks done in a timely manner. If you’re not going digital, keep hand-held timers around your house or at your desk in the office to use to help with time management.

The workbook provides some rules for effective use of the calendar and task list:

Rules for the Calendar and Task List

The calendar and task list system replaces ALL pieces of paper

• Pieces of paper just get lost.

• Instead of keeping an appointment slip, a business card, or anything like this, copy the information onto the task list or enter it directly on your calendar.

Phone messages from voice mail or other places go on the task list.

• Log every phone message (from voice mail and so forth) on the task list as a to-do item.

• If you date when you have completed the task, you will then have a record of having done it in case anyone asks you about it in the future.

All appointments go on the calendar.

• No appointment slips that can easily get lost!

All tasks must go on the task list.

• Task list items should be looked at EVERY DAY, and revised accordingly.

Do not obsess about trying to get a perfect system.

• Many individuals want to have the perfect calendar and task list systems. Do not fall into this trap! This will just result in not having any systems.

• If you cannot decide on the “best” system, then just use a simple calendar and task list system.

• Remember it’s important to give your system a fair shot! This means keeping one system for at least three months, long enough to get used to it.

Use a system that is within your comfort zone.

• There are many options for calendar and task list systems—including paper systems, applications on smartphones or tablets, and multiple computerized applications. Many of our clients ask us which is the “best” system, and this is not really a question that we can easily answer. The question for you to ask yourself is this: “What’s the best system for me?”

— (Mastering Your Adult ADHD, 29-30)

Manageable chunks

Downsize overwhelming parts into manageable chunks. Make step-by-step processes for tasks that seem daunting and go one step at a time. This will help you manage overwhelm, anxiety, and, unnecessary busy work. Make a list of items and order them according to due date or priority, and try to get them done as soon as possible. Do not wait until the last minute, no matter how tempting that next episode of Orange Is The New Black may be. Make a reasonable, executable game plan for your goals or project, and proceed one step at at time. Don’t get hung up on the details or perfectionism, just start.

“A good plan executed right now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.” —George S. Patton.

Woman looking through her weekly planner. Photo by Covene.

Task Prioritization with the A,B,C’s

Now that you know of an effective and sustainable planning strategy and you know to break overwhelming tasks up into more manageable steps, it’s time to prioritize. As mentioned earlier, without prioritizing tasks, its easy to get caught up in busy work. Getting a lot of tasks completed and crossed off your to-do list feels good, but is it really getting you closer to your goals? By being overly productive with mundane tasks, are you actually getting any important work done?

That’s where the A,B,C’s come in. I learned this strategy in the workbook as well:

List all of your tasks. Then assign an “A,” “B,” or “C” rating to each task:

• “A” Tasks: These are the tasks of highest importance. They must be completed in the short term (like today or tomorrow).

• “B” Tasks: These are lower-importance, longer-term tasks. Some portions should be completed in the short term, but other portions may take longer.

• “C” Tasks: These are the tasks of lowest importance. They may be more attractive and easier to do, but they are not as important.

Be very careful not to rate too many items as “A”!

Practice doing all of the “A” tasks before the “B” tasks and all of the “B” tasks before the “C” tasks.

— (Mastering Your Adult ADHD, 34-36)

When first going over this concept, my therapist put it this way: “A” tasks must be done on the day they’ve been assigned to. “B” tasks can be moved to other days but not move more than a week away from their original date. “C” tasks can be infinitely moved and do not require a defined date/time. An “A” task might be going to a doctor’s appointment. A “B” task might be getting your car’s oil changed. A “C” task might be finishing a book you’re reading for pleasure. This prioritization strategy will look different for everyone, especially at different stages of life.

Just remember the priority: “A”= Highest importance, “B”=Medium importance, and “C”=Lowest importance. Avoid overwhelm and burnout by strategically spacing “A” tasks throughout the week if possible. Try to limit “A” tasks to no more than 1-3 things a day until you feel comfortable with this system.

Color-coding tasks instead: If you’d rather use a color-coding system for prioritization, traffic light colors Red, Yellow, and Green make a great color-combination for action! Red= Stop what you’re doing and do the most important tasks first. Yellow=Be cautious of time and complete the lesser-important tasks next. Green= Go! on tasks of lowest importance once you’ve completed Red and Yellow tasks first!

Just “Eat the Frog” or “Start”

Have you ever heard of someone eating the frog when it comes to content creation, their personal to-do list, or professional positions? This means to start with the hardest item or most difficult item on the to-do list. This item is typically something that requires research, planning, and time to execute. It is a task that requires more energy and time to complete. Often these tasks are called ”frogs” because they’re hard to swallow, or hard to get done and often include a lot of planning and/or procrastination. By getting them done early, one can look forward to the “downhill” slope throughout the day/list. Get the hardest task out of the way and it will be easier as the day goes on.

If you’re more of a “work your way up” to the hardest task from the easiest tasks, that’s okay too! Not everyone feels comfortable starting with the “frog".” Just make sure you’re not doing busywork or deluding yourself with a false sense of productivity. Ensure your actions and “warm-up” tasks are actually moving the needle, and getting you closer to your goals.

Make use of versatile apps and devices

I’m saving for an iPad and Apple Pencil so I can do digital artwork, digitize my existing physical artwork, and start creating unique animations for my YouTube channel. I’ve seen some pointillism artists doing dotwork with tattoo guns on paper, saving their hands the trouble and repetitive stress. Utilize the technology we have today to save time tomorrow.

Clickup’s Blog has tons of great resources for productivity and combatting ADHD. Greg Swan’s post “10 Best Mind Mapping Software (Pros, Cons, Pricing)” explains how mind-mapping can be a useful tool for productivity and breaking tasks down into actionable steps:

Mind map software lets you create a diagram or flowchart of your ideas. This helps you easily illustrate the relationships and hierarchy between concepts. 

Most mind mapping tools come in different sizes to suit various needs, offering other functionality. Generally, your average mind map maker falls under one (or more) of these categories:

• Diagramming: a technical diagram such as engineering flowcharts, architectural designs, network diagrams, etc.

• Brainstorming: problem-solving sessions to organize and present an idea visually

• Business intelligence: visualize data as charts by importing it from business applications

• Software development: prepare site map diagrams, software wireframes, etc.

— (Swan, paragraphs 5-8)

Checkbox to-do list on paper. Photo by Thomas Bormans.

Take notes

When it comes to conventions, panels, educational videos, courses, classes and other avenues for creative information, remember to take notes —and not just cover vocabulary. Let’s get honest for a second, aesthetically pleasing notes make studying that much easier, for sure, but it’s not a necessary effort. As long as your notes are legible and cover important topics that will likely come up later (or for students, will be in the exam) then you are good to go. Feel free to digitize or edit your notes later. First, focus on jotting down as much information as possible.

Pro Tip: If you don’t feel confident in your ability to type as fast as the professor or speaker talks, then feel free to record the panel or discussion. Make sure you get permission/clearance before recording someone else. When you have time, type up and refine the notes into easily-digestible, succinct, effective, and at-a-glance notes. Put them on the wall, your vision board, or bathroom mirror to see them frequently until their concepts and advice is cemented solidly in your brain. Then, file your notes away in an organized fashion and make sure to refer back to them regularly.

Notion and other note-taking apps

I genuinely enjoy this app and the features it provides users. Notion has an almost overwhelming number of features and useful elements. I personally use the application to create lists, blog post rough drafts, flesh out poems, and to tack down other ideas, but this barely scratches the surface of Notion’s versatility. This post is not sponsored by Notion, nor am I affiliated with them.

Celebrate milestones, big and small

Don’t forget to celebrate hard work and milestones. Go out every once and a while to celebrate and acknowledge the hard work you’ve done. If the work is online, it can be especially hard to quantify successes or measure productivity, so go out every now and again and celebrate the small and big wins! Don’t. Skip. On. This. Even if you don’t drink, are veggie, or have a tight curfew, make sure you allow time for you to, celebrate both the small and big wins and really soak it in. When your supervisor gives you a compliment, treat yourself to a nice coffee, or when you meet a work or personal creative deadline early, grab that chocolate-chip muffin as treat (as long as your not on a diet, lol —look into other rewards systems if you’re alcohol-cruelty-gluten-free, etc.!”

FAQ pages

For entrepreneurs and creatives with websites, this page can save you a lot of time and trouble. Although it’s pretty self-explanatory, a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s) page serves as a buffer between you and your reader’s repetitive, previously answered/address queries. Link the FAQ page in the footer or contact section of your website and put 5-20 of the most frequently asked questions there, to help avoid repetition and wasted time re-addressing the same questions over and over again.

Lead magnets

Sometimes called freebies, lead magnets are the little juicy bits of content that readers subscribe to your content in order to access. For cooking blogs, it may be a 20-page mini cookbook. For writing blogs, it may be a short guide for combatting writer’s block or a writing checklist. Just about any website can have a lead magnet and it’s the easiest, most automatic way to obtain an email address from a visitor to your site. Lead magnets are powerful, effective, enticing marketing tools and they’re very easy to create. Design a unique, actionable, useful piece of downloadable/printable content with an editor such as Canva and upload it as a downloadable file into your newsletter block on your website. Once the reader enters his or her email into the box and hits the subscribe button, they’ll be prompted to download the content they signed up for. Now you’ve unlocked another potential customer who you can market to, straight to their inbox, and they just gave you that access!

Minibatch and time-batch tasks

Similar to prioritization and chunking tasks into more manageable steps, minibatching tasks can serve as a useful strategy for planning, organization, optimization, and execution. To do this, break your larger tasks down into smaller, doable steps, then put those smaller tasks onto your calendar or planner, according to the type of activity required to complete the task. For example, if your car needs several maintenance tasks done, schedule a time to look at and order car parts, make appointments to the alignment shop and oil-change shop, and plan a day to get all the car work done. Another example, if you need to record videos, take photos, or hop on webcam, schedule these tasks all on the same day if possible. You’ll save yourself the time and trouble of getting ready for each individual appointment and get the most wear out of your outfit/makeup/hair-styling too!

Have frequent co-working sessions

Schedule in regular co-working sessions with friends, partners, and colleagues. These sessions are for working collaboratively on projects and brainstorming and are an amazing resource for creatives and office-workers alike. Friends can help you pick paint samples and the interior design of your living room, while colleagues can help you come up with new strategies for success in the workplace. Who says you can’t have coffee in the morning with a client in the morning and meet up with your bestie for lunch in the afternoon?

Schedule “people days”

Much like the time-batching tasks, schedule all of your face-to-face appointments, coffee-shop meet-ups, conferences, phone calls, and co-working sessions in the same day, when possible. This will save you time getting read for each appointment and once you’ve made it through the first meeting, you’ll be ready to tackle the next meeting as your confidence and productivity high snowballs you throughout the day.

ADHD management and CBT therapy

Regardless of if you’ve been diagnosed with ADHD or not, these tips can be useful for anyone who gives them an honest try because they’re practical, scalable, sustainable, effective, and simple. However, these tips may not be enough if your life is a hot mess like mine was in 2020-21. After having done my own ADHD management program and CBT program for PTSD, I can truly say it has changed my life for the better. I would recommend anyone struggling with ADHD symptoms to reach out to your primary healthcare provider and discuss options for treatment with them. Depending on the severity, you may require therapy, management, medication, or lifestyle changes in order to manage any debilitating or annoying symptoms you may have. I’m not a doctor —I just know this process helped me understand and embrace myself and gave me the patience and grace to work through my challenges without shame, fear, or judgement. Please do not diagnose yourself. If you feel you may be struggling with ADHD, contact your doctor or counsellor and have a formal assessment and diagnosis done.

Thank you so much for reading this blog post! If you liked this post, let me know what you thought of it in the comments below, and please check out my other posts! If you have any other actionable tips for productivity as a creative with ADHD, drop a comment below!

If you’d like to see more of my blog posts, consider subscribing below to get updates as soon as a new blog post is published! You’ll also gain exclusive subscriber-only access to the new and improved Story Binder Printables e-Book! Feel free to check out the recent blog posts linked at the end of this post as well!

Bibliography

• Bormans, Thomas. “Free Pen Image.” Unsplash photo, August 30, 2020. 

• Covene. “woman in white long sleeve shirt, holding pen, while writing on paper.” Unsplash photo, May 21, 2021. 

• Fernandes, Nuberlson. “Man in white crew neck shirt wearing black framed eyeglasses.” Unsplash photo, February 27, 2021 (Thumbnail). 

• Notion Labs Inc. “Notion - notes, docs, tasks.” Google Play Store, accessed 11, 2022. 

• Safren, Steven A. Mastering Your Adult ADHD: A Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment Program, Second Ed. Client Workbook. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.

• Sauro, Monica. “Brown calendar photo.” Unsplash photo, May 16, 2019.

• Swan, Greg. “10 Best Mind Mapping Software (Pros, Cons, Pricing)” ClickUp Blog. October 13, 2022.

Related Topics

• Get Your FREE Story Binder Printables e-Book!

• 8 Ways To Level Up Your Workspace And Elevate Your Productivity

• Get Things Done With The Pomodoro Technique

• How To Organize Your Digital Life: 5 Tips For Staying Organized as a Writer or Freelancer

• 5 MORE Ways To Stay Organized As A Writer Or Freelancer

• 20 Tips and Tricks for a Successful Email Newsletter

• Self-Care Tips for Bookworms

• 5 Healthy Habits For Every Writer

• Writing Every Day: What Writing As A Journalist Taught Me About Deadlines & Discipline

• Yoga For Writers: A 30-Minute Routine To Do Between Writing Sessions

• Check out my other Productivity & Organization Writing Advice, Freelancing, and Content Creation blog posts!

Recent blog posts

This blog post was researched, written, and published by a human author without the assistance of generative artificial intelligence (gen-AI). Gen-AI models are trained on text written by humans, therefore, the presence of specific punctuation, verbiage, tone, or predictable, marketing-style phrases alone are not sufficient indicators of gen-AI usage. I implore readers to use context clues, critical thinking, pattern recognition, research, and employ their best judgement when determining the validity of human authorship of print and digital media today. If you want to learn more about my stance on gen-AI and it’s role in media and the publishing industry, I plan to release a blog post on this topic very soon, so stay tuned for that. This disclaimer will be updated once that post goes live.

Written by Payton Hayes | Last Updated: August 30, 2025

Book Marketing 101: Everything Writers Need To Know About Literary Agents and Querying

This blog post was written by a human.

Hi readers and writerly friends!

If you’re a returning reader, welcome back and if you’re new to the blog, thanks for stopping by! In this blog post we’ll be covering everything from querying basics to how to find a literary agent and land a book deal in the 2020’s, when more than 75% of books published by the big five New York presses get sold by literary agents. Literary agents are experts in the publishing industry and can be career-long mentors and managers and there’s plenty of reasons why writers both new and experienced alike could benefit from hiring an agent.

Agents are market experts and can secure the best possible book deal for their clients as well as negotiating fair contracts, protecting the writer’s rights, ensuring clients are paid accurately and fairly as per industry standards, and ultimately serve as the middleman between the author and publisher.

In 2021, more than 75% of books published by the big five New York presses get sold by literary agents. Literary agents are experts in the publishing industry and can be career-long mentors and managers.

Do I Need An Agent?

Honestly, it depends on the commercial viability of your book. If you want to be published by one of the five major New York publishing houses, (i.e., Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Macmillan, and Hachette) then you’ll need an agent to be sure. However, if you’re instead writing for a niche market (i.e., time period fashion) or wrote an academic or literary piece, then perhaps you don’t need an agent. Agents take on clients based on the size of the advance they think they can for the project. If your book doesn’t command a decent advance, then the project may not be with the agent’s time and you’ll have to sell it yourself. Unfortunately, most writers have a difficult time being honest with themselves about their work’s potential. We all want to see our names on the New York Times Bestseller’s list, but that’s just not a realistic expectation. It comes down to this: not every book is cut out to be published by a New York house, or even represented by an agent.

There are different levels of commercial viability in the publishing industry. Some books are “big” and are suited for Big Five traditional publishing houses, while others are “quiet:” books and are suitable for mid-size and small presses. If you’re realizing your work might not be a good fit for one of the major publishers, don’t despair. There are many mid-size houses, independent publishers, small presses, university presses, regional presses, digital-only publishers who might be thrilled to have you work —you just need to find them.

These types of books typically are suitable for a major traditional publisher:

• Genre or mainstream fiction, including romance, erotica, mystery/crime, thriller, science fiction, fantasy, young adult, new adult

• Popular nonfiction you’d see stocked in Barnes & Nobel —contingent upon a strong premise and existing author platform.

Major New York publishers usually won’t sign a nonfiction book unless it realistically anticipates selling 10,000 to 20,000 copies minimum.

To better understand what sells, consider picking up a month-long subscription to PublishersMarketplace.com and study the deals that get announced. It’s a quick and inexpensive education in commercial publishing. I’d also suggest taking a peek at the agent database at Literaryagencies.com

When To Query

Naturally, the easy answer is once the book has been completed. Truthfully, there is no one size fits all approach to figuring out when you should query your novel, but the query questionnaire below might help you determine based on the state of your manuscript, feedback you’ve received, and your experience with the writing process, whether or not you’re ready to query.

What Stage Is Your Manuscript Currently In?

Incomplete/Rough Draft. Graphic by Payton Hayes.

Critique Groups & Beta Readers. Graphic by Payton Hayes.

Revising/Editing Process. Graphic by Payton Hayes.

Querying To No Avail. Graphic by Payton Hayes.

If you are still in the preparation phases of the writing process, consider checking out my Manuscript Basics guide for some quick tips for formatting your manuscript for editing or submission.

How To Find An Agent

When it comes to actually selecting agents to query, you definitely should do your own research. Look into as much as you can find on current releases, popular titles, publisher names, top/mid-tier agents, authors, and trends in your genre. Finding a literary agent for your book is like finding a spouse —it’s a learning process and period of research best conducted by you and there is not one-size-fits-all approach to securing an agent.

PublishersMarketplace.com is the best place to research literary agents; not only do many agents have member pages there, but you can search the publishing deals database by genre, category, and/or keyword to pinpoint the best agents for your work. Some other resources to consider include QueryTracker (free and paid versions) and Duotrope.

If you really prefer to hire someone to find appropriate agents for you to submit to, try Copy Write Consultants.

Consider attending writer’s conventions and getting involved in editorial associations to build connections and organically network with industry professionals. Local writing workshops and bookstore/library events (such as indie author signings/readings) are great ways happen upon literary agents in the as opposed to seeking them out from behind the screen!

Assuming you’re ready to query, there’s a few common materials you’ll likely be asked to provide:

• Query Letter - a one-page pitch letter that gives a brief description of your work

• Novel Synopsis - a brief summary (typically no more than one or two pages) of your story from beginning to end

• Nonfiction formal book proposal - complex proposal documents (Roughly thirty pages worth) to sell nonfiction books to publishers

• Novel proposal - your query letter, a synopsis, and perhaps the first chapter. There is not an industry-standard definition of what a novel proposal is.

• Sample chapters - the first two to five chapters of your manuscript. (Always start from the beginning of the manuscript; don’t select a middle chapter, even if you think it’s your best.)

Keep these questions in mind when researching agents in your genre:

• What’s the agent’s sales track record? Examine their client list and the publishers they’ve recently sold to and determine based on your genre/category and your own sense of author identity if they’d be an appropriate fit for you and your project.

• Does their communication with you and other writers inspire confidence?

• Do they seem genuinely interested and enthusiastic in you and your project?

Additionally, you may want to keep these optional extra steps in mind if you’re waiting to hear back from queries:

• Author media kit

• Author/Book website

• Author newsletter

New authors with an existing reader base are highly desirable to literary agents and publishers. Putting your work out into the world and building a fan base beforehand can easily give you a leg up over competing writers in your genre. (I’ll have a blog post discussing exactly how to do this in a future post so subscribe to know when that comes out!)

Hook, Book, and Cook Query Sandwich Formula

If the idea querying, marketing, selling, and putting yourself out there makes your skin crawl, then think about it this way: it’s much easier to sell to one person than to ten. If you have an agent, they will do all of the gross publishing heavy lifting so you can focus on writing and connecting with your reader base.

The three main ingredients of a great query sandwich are as follows: the hook, the book, and the cook. To start, the hook is the query —or the pitch, as mentioned earlier.  Next, the book is the book itself (what key information about the book should you divulge to the agent on first impression). And lastly, the cook is the writer —you. In keeping with the sandwich metaphor — the “hook” and “cook” sections are the slices of bread and the “book” section is the meat of the sandwich — the slices are the least important part of the query and should take up the least amount of reading time in comparison to the meat. 

Hook

You can probably guess why the first section of this metaphor is called the “hook,” but as expected, this section is specifically the pitch to the agent and it’s what “hooks” or demands their attention as a reader. Queries serve to sell the agent your story and the hook’s sole purpose is just that. It’s at most, a few lines to grab the agent’s attention and make them invested in your story and you as a potential client. If the agent reads the hook and finds their interest piqued, they might then read the description of the book and become even more interested to read more, (at which point you’ve “hooked” an agent and opened up connections for potential book deals).

Book

Center around character and work in subtle details about the world rather than info-dumping or over-worldbuilding. Your query isn’t the place for overly flowery vocabulary or backstory either. This section of your query should give the agent just enough of a taste to make them interested in being invested in the story, but not enough to give the plot away or disinterest them before they can even read it.

Be sure to keep storytelling elements character, conflict, and stakes at the forefront of your mind. This section of the query is designed to make the agent care, so show them enough character to make them make a connection and then weave in the conflict and stakes so that not only does the agent now know who the characters are, what they want, and what will happen if they don’t get what they want, but they’re also emotionally invested in the story, which is what will drive them to read it for themselves.

Pro tip: Don’t open the “hook” or “book” sections with rhetorical questions as a cheap grab at the agent’s attention. It’s overdone, comes off as try-hard, and doesn’t deliver the effect as intended so it’s better leaving them out altogether. Here’s an example: “Can Clara save the world and still make it to the school dance by 8? Keep reading to find out!”

Cook

Two women talking at a conference table. Photo by Amy Hirschi.

While the “cook” section of your query is technically about you, don’t give the agent your whole life story or try to cultivate any specific perception of you as a person other than being a writer. This section is your time to showcase your knowledge and experience as a writer and make the agent confident in your abilities. Consider any certifications or degrees you have earned, any workshops, courses, or masterclasses you’ve attended, or any writing clubs or critique groups you’re involved with and how you can use these connections to demonstrate that you’re a capable, competent, writer who is serious about sharing their work with the world.

Additional errors to avoid include mentioning side characters or love interests that do not critically pertain to the prevailing plotline, bogging down descriptions with hard-to-pronounce proper nouns and/or stylistic spellings. Likewise, remember the KISS method —keep it simple, sweetie.  Simplicity, clarity, and subtlety are the keys to a great query.

Personalize Your Query

Some optional personalization to your query email includes introductions, genre comparisons, and any additional important/useful information about your novel/series as it pertains to the agents and marketing side of publishing.

One example of a great introduction/connection in action is when a friend of mine attended a writing conference where she unknowingly met her agent. She had never given agents much thought beforehand, but after attending a panel where several literary agents spoke about the book marketing process, she realized she needed to reach out. When she finally completed her book, she was able to break the ice in her query email simply by mentioning they’d attended the same conference and how her advice had helped her.

Don’t include that you’re a first-time or new author; your agent will assume unless you include any relevant published works or previous agents, that you are a new author. The “cook” section of the query is an excellent place to mention relevant writing/marketing experience.

You might also consider providing some comparisons for other books in your genre. Genre comparisons demonstrate to agents that you’re well-read in your niche genre and that you’ve done your research and understand the market you’re writing to. Genre comparisons can also provide a lot of marketing information such as where it might sit on the shelf, what demographic the book might appeal to most, what tones, themes, and tropes are to be expected from a book of any given genre. However, make sure you don’t outright put down other authors or genres when providing comparisons. You’d be surprised how many stories I’ve heard about writers who have included “my book is like so and so’s book but better” when the writer simply means they’ve put an interesting new spin on an old storytelling element.

Additionally, it might be wise to mention that your book is standalone or intended as part of a series. While we might know where the story is headed as the author, it’s ideal for a novel to both be able to stand on its own as well as having series potential, so try not to have your plans set in stone.

Check Agent Guidelines Before Submitting

At the end of the day, every agent conducts business differently and their submission guidelines may vary from one agent to the next. Ensure you’re doing everything in your power to result in a successful query by double checking your agent’s submission guidelines prior to submission. When it comes to personalization, some agents enjoy getting to know more about the writers that send in submissions while others prefer you simply leave it out. Checking guidelines before sending your query through will ensure you don’t push potential agents away by making careless mistakes.

Additionally, if it takes some pressure off, remember that if you simply take time to research your genre and potential agents, proofread and put effort into your query, and ensure that it follows agent guidelines, you will be a step ahead of your competition. Just by chatting with other editors and agents, I’ve learned that the general consensus is that most people just send a query off without a second thought and if you put even just a little extra energy into your query, that time and effort will shine through.

Note: Almost no agent accepts full manuscripts on first contact. (This is what “no unsolicited materials” means when you read submission guidelines.) However, almost all agents will accept a one-page query letter unless their guidelines state otherwise. (If they do not accept queries, that means they are a completely closed market.)

Sleep On Your Query Before Sending It

Once you’ve drafted the perfect query email, save it as a draft in your inbox for at least 24-hrs before sending it. When that time is up, sit down and re-read your query for any missed typos. I personally struggle with this and it’s why I always say everyone can benefit from a second set of eyes, even editors. Grammar, usage, and spelling are unfortunate errors that conceal the quality of your work, so thoroughly proofread your query before hitting that send button. Read it out loud or consider having a mentor or critique partner give it a second set of eyes. If you’re your only proofreader, get some distance from your query by literally stepping away from it and coming back with a fresh perspective so that you can catch any errors you might have missed in your previous revisions. That being said, don’t let this waiting period keep you from hitting send after your 24-hour timer is up. Draft your best query, sleep on it, reread it, put on the finishing touches and hit that send button. I find that if I procrastinate too long, I will actually end up forgetting to send it out. Try to aim for sending out that query after 24 hours and before 72 hours.

Do I Need An Editor Before Querying?

It’s completely up to you and how you feel about the state of your manuscript. Whether or not you hire an editor to polish your manuscript, your submission should be 100% complete and in its best version prior to querying.

Sara Megibow of the Nelson Literary Agency said “In general, too many submissions come through our slush pile that aren’t ready. In my opinion, an editor could have helped many of these books get to the next level. However, I acknowledge that hiring that person is expensive. If you are going to get an editor, don’t skimp - hire someone with credentials and client referrals in the genre of work that you are writing” and suggests that writers “read 3-5 books in your genre, published in the past 2-3 years, preferably by debut authors and published by major publishing houses” if they believe they need professional editing but can’t afford to hire an editor. (Megibow 2021) However, I think this advice is excellent for familiarizing oneself with their given genre. Inversely, you could find agents that represented your favorite books and research their work as well.

Keep Your Query Short & Sweet

Consider closing out your query email with a classic “Thank you for your consideration” and a “Sincerely, YOUR NAME.” Sign your email with your legal name (and if writing under a pen name or pseudonym include “YOUR NAME, writing as YOUR PEN NAME HERE” as well). There is no need to bog down the end of your email with statements such as “I look forward to hearing from you soon,” or “Will send manuscript upon request” because these are automatically assumed as part of the agent intake process. After closing your email, include your contact information and relevant social media links (author/public pages.) Omit these social links if you don’t already have a sizable readership. Don’t include photos, logos, or headshots either.

Simultaneous & Personalized Queries

The writer to agent intake process is inherently an individualized experience and should be treated as such. As writers with a vast overwhelming competition, it’s easy to see how mass-emailing could be tempting since getting a book deal seems like such a numbers game, but it’s more delicate than that. Agents are humans who make connections to stories just like our readers do and thus, you want to ensure you’re doing your research and finding an agent who will be a good fit for you. Querying an agent is a lot like cold emailing in business—it’s harder than most other forms of communication because you typically lack any prior relationship with your audience and you lack non-verbal feedback so you can’t modify your approach in real time, but it doesn’t have to be cold, per se. Much like with editors, writers can and should be encouraged to make a real, lasting connection with your agent and truly, your writing, book sales, and reader base will all benefit from having that genuine writer-agent relationship.

Another way to add some warmth and attention back into your cold queries is to always address agents by their name (never “Dear agent,”) and ensure their name is spelled correctly. Additionally, if you decide to use pronouns to regard your agent, ensure in each instance that the correct pronouns are being used. While you should never mass email a whole list of agents, it is okay to query multiple agents if you’re emailing them individually. Simultaneous queries are perfectly fine as long as you personalize each email for each individual agent. If you query several different agents simultaneously keep track of who you’ve queried and when. If you get any acceptance offers be sure to let the other agents know, especially if multiple agents are interested in your work.

Author Email Address and Professional Headshots

This seems like a no-brainer, but don’t put in all that work to come up with the most amazing query email only to have it flop on the transmission level of the process. As an author, you should have a professional email for all your writing business needs, but if you get a lot of traffic in your inbox already, consider creating an account designated solely for query submission. Ensure the email address itself is self-explanatory, easy to read, write, pronounce, and remember. yournamequeries@gmail.com is simple enough. If you have an author website or own your own domain, then hello@firstnamelastname.com is another great option. For your profile photo, consider a professional business-style headshot photo or a company logo if applicable. If you want to show some personality through your profile picture, try to avoid obscene or offensive imagery.

Leave Rejection Letters On Read

Don’t waste your time by sending responses to rejection emails. It might be tempting ask them to elaborate on any feedback they gave you or to thank them for notice of rejection, but it’s just not necessary at the query stage. Agents can provide incredibly useful feedback when appropriate, but in response to a rejection email is not the place to seek out further feedback. Delete the rejection email, move that agent’s message history to your archives, and move on to the next query email.

Smart Query

Smart querying is the perfect combination of querying best practices, batch querying, and cold email marketing tactics that serves as the single most effective strategy for landing literary agents out of thin air.

Put Together Your Agent Pool

Once you’ve done some market research and you feel like you have a decent grasp on publishers and agents that deal in your genre, start building a pool of agents who you can smart query and query again later. To establish a truly effective agent pool, come up with a mixture of middle and top tier agents as well as agents who typically are known for responding slower/faster to query submissions. It’s generally a good idea to have a healthy mix of different kinds of agents for your genre (as opposed to all top-tier or all quick-responding agents) because you may want options. Likewise, agents that work independently or alongside publishers are good to add to the mix. Additionally, consider querying to agents that represent different demographics that your book may appeal to (such as marginalized or underrepresented communities). A wide variety of stable, established agents as well as emerging agents with potential, is essential to successful and smart querying.

Test Batch Queries

One key element of smart querying is “test batch querying” where like the name suggests, you send out query emails in strategic batches. Unlike just mass-emailing, agents test batch querying allows you to essentially test-run your query before putting all your eggs into baskets. To batch query, choose 3-5 agents from your pool who respond quickly to queries (leave your dream agents out of test batches) and send your query to them first. If you get 1-2 interested responses (they’re requesting the full manuscript for review) then your query is working, and you can open it up to the rest of the agents in your pool. If you find that agents are getting to the manuscript and losing interest, your manuscript may need more attention first.

Pro Tip: When building your pool of agents to query, do your due diligence on various social media platforms. Research your prospective agents on and off the page and ensure your values and work ethic align to avoid any creative differences in the marketing process down the line.

Feedback & Follow-Ups

This may seem obvious, but be sure to take any and all writing-related advice and feedback with a grain of salt, of course. Literary agents, like editors and writers, are all just readers and book lovers at the end of the day. They too are looking for the next greatest story to fall in love with. They make real, meaningful connections to characters and events, so the main goal of a query letter isn’t to sell your story to the agent, but rather to make your story matter to an agent.

After you send out queries, you’ll get a mix of responses, including:

• No response at all, which means it’s a rejection. Don’t sweat it—this is normal. Read it, sit with it for a moment, appreciate the opportunity, and move on.

• A request for a partial manuscript and possibly a synopsis.

• A request for the full manuscript.

If you receive no requests for the manuscript or book proposal, then there might be something wrong with your query. If you succeed in getting your material requested, but then get rejected, there may be a weakness in the manuscript or proposal. You might occasionally receive personalized feedback regarding the state of your manuscript but it’s not standard practice.

Keep in mind that a literary agent’s inbox may be swamped with queries from other writers so it may take them some time to get to your query. If the agent has outline specific query guidlines on their website or social media, look out for estimated response times. If the agent has specified that you can expect to hear back as early as thirty days, then set a reminder to follow up within one week of that estimated response date. If the agent has specified that you can expect a response within two weeks, schedule your follow up for three weeks out. This allows the agent extra time to review your manuscript without being pressured to respond too quickly. A good rule of thumb is one month for independent agents or agents working smaller imprints; for agents working with larger publishers, allow at least three months before sending a follow up. Regardless of the notoriety of the agent, if you don’t recieve a responsee after your first query or your follow up, then its most likely a silent rejection. Don’t send another follow up and don’t send another query to that agent for that specific manuscript later on. Consider it a rejection and move on.

And that’s it for my extensive guide on literary agents and querying! Thanks for checking out my blog post! Did you find any of this helpful? Please let me know and don’t forget to share your experience the comments below!

Bibliography

• Copy Write Consultants. “Literary Agent & Publisher Research.” webpage, accessed September 11, 2021. 

• DuoTrope. “Homepage.” Duotrope website , accessed September 11, 2021. 

• Hayes, Payton. “Incomplete/Rough Draft.” Graphic created with Canva, September 11, 2021. 

• Hayes, Payton. “Revising/Editing Process.” Graphic created with Canva, September 11, 2021. 

• Hayes, Payton. “Querying To No Avail.” Graphic created with Canva, September 11, 2021. 

• Hayes, Payton. “Critique Groups & Beta Readers.” Graphic created with Canva, September 11, 2021. 

• Hirschi, Amy. “Woman in teal t-shirt sitting beside woman in suit jacket.” Unsplash photo, (Thumbnail photo) March 5, 2019. 

• Megibow, Sara. “Should You Hire an Editor Before Querying? Agents Weigh In!” Adventures in YA Publishing, July 6, 2014. 

• Publishers Marketplace. “Home.” Publishers Marketplace website, accessed September 11, 2021. 

• QueryTracker. “Home.” QueryTracker website, accessed September 11, 2021. 

• The Directory of Literary Agents. “Find USA Book Agents Looking for New Writers | List of Literary Agents 2022-2023.” Literary Agencies Website, accessed September 11, 2021.

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Recent Blog Posts

This blog post was researched, written, and published by a human author without the assistance of generative artificial intelligence (gen-AI). Gen-AI models are trained on text written by humans, therefore, the presence of specific punctuation, verbiage, tone, or predictable, marketing-style phrases alone are not sufficient indicators of gen-AI usage. I implore readers to use context clues, critical thinking, pattern recognition, research, and employ their best judgement when determining the validity of human authorship of print and digital media today. If you want to learn more about my stance on gen-AI and it’s role in media and the publishing industry, I plan to release a blog post on this topic very soon, so stay tuned for that. This disclaimer will be updated once that post goes live. In the meantime, I will continue to be transparent about which tools and resources I use in my work.

Written by Payton Hayes | Last Updated: August 30, 2025

Book Writing 101: Everything You Need To Know About Dialogue

This blog post was written by a human.

Hi Readers and writerly friends!

This week in Freelancing, we’re discussing dialogue tags and how to properly format them. Consider this as your new intensive, all-encompassing guide for doing fictional dialogue well.

No matter what genre you write in, learning how to write dialogue effective is an essential part of any writer’s toolkit. Poorly-written dialogue can be distracting or worse —it could cause your readers to close the book in disgust. However, dialogue that is done well can transform your characters into truly believable people and you readers into satisfied, lifelong fans. Of course, the best kind of dialogue isn’t just believable conversation between characters. Good dialogue provide exposition, involves distinct language true to the voice of the speaker, and most importantly, helps move the story along. Dialogue is directly tied to pacing, plot, and tension, and can make or break your story just as much as lame characters or a sagging plot.

This guide is separated into three parts for your convenience: 1) Dialogue Basics, 2) Punctuating Dialogue, and 3) Dialogue Tags—and is filled with cheat sheets, quick-reference-guides, examples, and more to help you with your writing! (This post took me a long time to write, so if you found it helpful, please consider leaving a comment and sharing this with your writerly friends!)

Of course, this is just my own experience as well as examples of other writers who have done dialogue well, but this is by no means a rulebook for dialogue. I’m simply a proponent of the idea that if you know the rules of the writing world well, you can effectively break them well.

Dialogue Basics

Enter late, leave early.

If you’ve been around the writing world for a moment, you might have heard this phrase tossed about when discussing scenes, pacing, and dialogue. It’s a helpful saying for remembering to start a scene at just the right time instead of too early or too late.

Alfred Hitchcock once said that “drama is life with all the boring bits cut out.” Hinging on that, you could say that good dialogue is like a real conversation without all the fluff, and one of the best/easiest ways to cut out that boring fluff is to enter the conversation as late as possible.

Think about it: How many times have you heard someone in real life or in media say, “I hate small talk.” It is the same for your readers. They don’t want to be there for every single “Hi, how are you doing today?” or “I’m doing great, how are you? Thanks for asking. The weather is lovely, isn’t it?” This is a fine and good, but its not interesting dialogue, and it’s highly unlikely that this would move any story’s plot along in a meaningful way. The same goes for other kinds of small talk that usually occurs at the beginning and end of a scene. In order to avoid this kind of slow-paced dialogue, simply enter late and leave early.

Keep dialogue tags simple.

Dialogue tags are the phrases in writing that indicate who is speaking at any given time. “I want to write a book” Layla said. In this case, “I want to write a book” is the dialogue and “Layla said” is the tag. Of course, there are plenty of other dialogue tags you could use besides “said,” such as “stated,” “exclaimed,” or “declared” and so on. When writing dialogue, you generally should keep these elaborate tags to a minimum. Think of it this way, to the reader “said” is boring and simple, but its virtually invisible. Readers expect you to use “said” and because of this, it isn’t distracting to the reader.

Remember the KISS method —Keep It Simple, Sweetie? Remember that for dialogue tags. It’s always better to air on the side of caution than risk potentially distracting your reader with overly complicated, elaborate or convoluted dialogue tags.

As American novelist and screenwriter Elmore Leonard put it:

“Never use a verb other than ‘said’ to carry dialogue. The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in. But ‘said’ is far less intrusive than ‘grumbled,’ ‘gasped,’ ‘cautioned,’ ‘lied’” (Leonard 2021).

“Intrusive” is the operative word here. You want to bring readers into your scene and make them feel like firsthand observers, like one of the characters in the background, without drawing attention to the fact that they’re reading a book. Wordy dialogue tags are a surefire way to yank your readers out of the immersion of a story and snap them back to reality. When you raid your thesaurus for fancy dialogue tags, you risk taking readers out of the scene for a fleeting display of your verbal virtuosity. This is true for any writing where you use convoluted language where you would be better served using simple language instead. If it serves a purpose to use uncommon or elaborate verbiage, then by all means, do so, but if its just for the sake of using big words, the practice of using “wordy” language is best avoided.

Additionally, in some instances, dialogue tags can be removed altogether. If there are only two or three people present in a conversation, dialogue tags aren’t always necessary to keep track of the speaker, especially if their voices are distinct convey a character’s personality to the reader.

Descriptive action beats are your friend.

Action beats are descriptions of the expressions, movements, or even internal thoughts that accompany the speaker’s words, and are included in the same paragraph as the dialogue to indicate that the person acting is the same person who is speaking. Action beats help illustrate what’s going on in a scene, and can even replace dialogue tags, avoiding the need for a long list of lines ending in “he said,” or “she said.”

Check out the fourth part of this guide for an example of how to use action beats to strengthen and vary your dialogue structure.

Character voices should be distinct.

Another key aspect of writing realistic and engaging dialogue is make each character sound distinctly like “themselves.” This employs the use of a number of different linguistic elements, such as syntax and diction, levels of energy and formality, humor, confidence, and any speech-related quirks (such as stuttering, lisping, or ending every sentence like it’s a question). Some of these elements may change depending on the circumstances of the conversation, and especially when it comes to whom each person is speaking, but no matter what, there should always be an underlying current of personality that helps the reader identify each speaker.

Example: Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

In the very first piece of dialogue in Pride and Prejudice, readers encounter Mrs and Mr. Bennet, the former of whom is attempting to draw her husband, the latter, into a conversation of neighborhood gossip.

“My dear Mr. Bennet,” said his lady to him one day, “have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?”

     Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.

     “But it is,” returned she; “for Mrs. Long has just been here, and she told me all about it.”

     Mr. Bennet made no answer.

     “Do you not want to know who has taken it?” cried his wife impatiently.

     “You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.”

     This was invitation enough.

     “Why, my dear, you must know, Mrs. Long says that Netherfield is taken by a young man of large fortune from the north of England; that he came down on Monday in a chaise and four to see the place, and was so much delighted with it, that he agreed with Mr. Morris immediately; that he is to take possession before Michaelmas, and some of his servants are to be in the house by the end of next week.” (Austen 2002)

Austen’s dialogue is always witty, subtle, and packed with character and is never simple or convoluted. Readers instantly learn everything they need to know about the dynamic between Mr. and Mrs. Bennet from their first interaction: she’s chatty, and he’s the beleaguered listener who has learned to entertain her idle gossip.

Develop character relationships.

Dialogue is an excellent tool to demonstrate and develop character relationships throughout your story. Good dialogue establishes relationships, but great dialogue adds new, engaging layers of complexity to them.

One of the best ways to ensure your character’s dialogue reflects their personalities and relationships is to practice some dialogue writing exercises. It’s likely that you won’t actually end up using the products of these exercises in your writing, but they’re an easy, low-pressure way to practice developing your characters and their relationships to one another.

For this kind of practice, I’ve found that exercises like “What Did You Say?” are particularly helpful.

Pretend three of your characters have won the lottery. How does each character reveal the big news to their closest friend? Write out their dialogue with unique word choice, tone, and body language in mind.

If the lottery isn’t interesting enough, consider changing things up. Maybe three of your characters have a role to play in a murder investigation. Each one knows a different take on what happened. Lottery or murder investigation aside, developing your character’s relationship will teach you more about your characters themselves, their stories and circumstances, and how to write dialogue that best fits within that framework.

 Find similar exercises here.

Developing character relationships alongside and through dialogue is an excellent opportunity to work on both simultaneously. In this exercise, there are a number of characteristics that will affect how each character perceives and delivers the news that they’ve won the lottery (or that they’ve been involved in a murder investigation).

These characteristics might include whether a character:

• Is confident and outgoing vs. shy and reserved

• Takes things in a lighthearted manner rather than being too serious

• Has lofty personal aspirations or doesn’t

• Couldn’t care less or wants to help others

• Thinks they deserve good things or not

Carefully consider each of your characters and which of these categories they fall into. This should help you determine how they all relate and react to each other in the context of such news.

Show, don’t tell.

We’ve all heard this slice of writing advice, probably more times than we can count, but it’s for good reason. Much like the “enter late, leave early” saying, you’ve probably seen or heard this phrase making rounds throughout the writing world. It’s a sliver of advice that creatives like to use as a buzz phrase in writing communities, but there may be a golden nugget of wisdom to be found in it.

Readers enjoy making inferences based on the clues the author provides, so don’t just lay everything out on the table. This doesn’t mean be cryptic —on the contrary. It basically means you should imply information rather than outright stating it.

Take the dialogue below for example. Even if this is the first instance the reader encounters of Jones and Walker, its easy to deduce that they are police officers who used to work together, that they refer to each other by their last names, and that Jones misses Walker — and possibly wants him to come back, despite Walker’s intentions to stay away.

 Hey, Jones. Long time no see.”

“Heh, Yeah, Walker, tell me about it. The precinct isn’t the same without you.”

“Well, you know I had good reason for leaving.”

“I do. But I also thought you might change your mind.”

However, cloaking this information in dialogue is a lot more interesting than the narrator simply saying, “Jones and Walker used to work together on the force. Walker left after a grisly murder case, but now Jones needs his help to solve another.”

Of course, sometimes dialogue is a good vehicle for literally telling — for instance, at the beginning or end of a story, it can be used for exposition or to reveal something dramatic, such as a villain’s scheme. But for the most part, dialogue should show rather than tell in order to keep readers intrigued, constantly trying to figure out what it means.

Bounce quickly back and forth.

When writing dialogue, it’s also important to bounce quicky back and forth between speakers, like in a tennis match. Consider the ping-pong pace of this conversation between an unnamed man and a girl named Jig, from Hemingway's short story, "Hills Like White Elephants".

It might seem simple or obvious, but this rule can be an easy one to forget when one speaker is saying something important. The other person in the conversation still needs to respond. Likewise, a way to effectively break this rule is to intentionally omit the other character’s response altogether if the plot warrants it. Sometimes, leaving the other character shocked proves to be just as effective on the reader. 

On the other hand, you don’t want lengthy, convoluted monologues unless its specifically intended and needed to drive the plot forward. Take a close look at your dialogue to ensure there aren’t any long, unbroken blocks of text as these typically indicate lengthy monologues and are easily fixed by inserting questions, comments, and other brief interludes from fellow speakers.

Alternately, you can always break it up using small bits of action and description, or with standard paragraph breaks, if there’s a scene wherein you feel a lengthy monologue is warranted.

Try reading your dialogue out loud.

It can be tricky to spot weak dialogue when reading it on the page or a computer screen, but by reading out loud, we can get a better idea of the quality of our dialogue. Is it sonically true to the characters’ distinct voices? Is it complex and interesting, conveying quirks and personality beyond plot? Does it help drive the plot in a meaningful way or is dialogue being used to fill space? If it is the latter, it should be removed, but more on that next.

For instance, is your dialogue clunky or awkward? Does it make you cringe to hear it read aloud? Do your jokes not quite land? Does one of your characters speak for an unusually long amount of time that you hadn’t noticed before, or does their distinct "voice" sound inconsistent in one scene? All of these problems and more can be addressed by simply reading your dialogue out loud.

Don’t take my word for it, take John Steinbeck’s! He once recommended this very strategy in a letter to actor Robert Wallston: “If you are using dialogue, say it aloud as you write it. Only then will it have the sound of speech.”

Remove unnecessary dialogue.

Dialogue is just one tool in the writer’s toolbox and while it’s a useful and essential storytelling element, you don’t have to keep all of the dialogue you write in your first or second drafts. Pick and choose which techniques best tell your story and present the interior life of your characters. This could mean using a great deal of dialogue in your writing, or it might not. Carefully consider your story and the characters and whether or not it makes sense for them to have dialogue between one another in any given scene. Just because dialogue can be brilliant, doesn’t mean it’s always integral to a scene, so feel free to cut it as needed.

Format and punctuate your dialogue properly.

Proper formatting and punctuation of your dialogue makes your story clear and understandable. Nothing is more distracting or disorienting within a story than poorly formatted or improperly punctuated dialogue —well, except for an excess of wordy dialogue tags instead of “said,” but I digress! Likewise, knowing when to use quotation marks, where to put commas, full stops, question marks, hyphens, and dashes will make your text look polished and professional to agents and publishers.

How to format dialogue:

• Indent each new line of dialogue.

• Put quotation marks around the speech itself.

• Punctuation that affects the speech’s tone goes inside the quotation marks.

• If you quote within a quote, use single rather than double quotation marks.

• If you break up a line of dialogue with a tag (e.g. “she said”), put a comma after the tag. However, if you put a tag in between two complete sentences, use a period.

• Speaking of tags, you don’t always need them, as long as the speaker is implied.

• If you start with a tag, capitalize the first word of dialogue.

Avoid these major dialogue mistakes.

Tighten up your pacing and strengthen your dialogue by avoiding these common dialogue issues. Although the differences in some of these examples are subtle word choice, usage frequency, and arrangement play a big part in dialogue delivery. Consider how these small changes can make a big difference in your writing.

Too many dialogue tags

As you might have guessed, the most contradictory advice you can receive and most egregious errors you can make when writing dialogue have to do with dialogue tags. Do use them. Don’t use them. Don’t use “said.” Do use “said.” Do use interesting tags. Don’t use too elaborate tags. How does the lowly writer win?

Consider this: good storytelling is a delicate balance between showing and telling: action and narrative. So, how does one do dialogue well? Craft and maintain a sustainable balance between action and narrative within your story. I can’t tell you when and when not to use elaborate dialogue tags or when  to cut tags out altogether, but I can suggest that when you examine your dialogue, keep this idea in mind and consider it when you sense the balance of action and narrative has skewed slightly (or dramatically) to one side or the other.

Constantly repeating “he said,” “she said,” and so on, is boring and repetitive for your readers, as you can see here:

So, keep in mind that you can often omit dialogue tags if you’ve already established the speakers, like so:

One can tell from the action beats, as well as the fact that it’s a two-person back-and-forth conversation, which lines belong to which speaker.  Dialogue tags can just distract from the conversation — although if you did want to use them, “said” would still be better than fancy tags like “declared” or “effused.”

Lack of structural variety

Much like the “too many tags” issue is the lack of structural variety that can sometimes arise in dialogue. It’s an issue that most commonly presents itself in narrative but can occur in dialogue as well. Not sure what I’m talking about? Take a look at these sections again:

Now, action beats are great, but here they’re used repeatedly in exactly the same way — first the dialogue, then the beat — which looks odd and unnatural on the page. Indeed, any recurrent structure like this (which also includes putting dialogue tags in the same place every time) should be avoided.

Luckily, it’s easy to rework repetitive structure into something much more lively and organic, just by shifting around some of the action beats and tags:

Another common dialogue mistake is restating the obvious — i.e. information that either the characters themselves or the reader already knows.

For example, say you want to introduce two brothers, so you write the following exchange:

This exchange is clearly awkward and a bit ridiculous, since the characters obviously know how old they are. What’s worse, it insults the reader’s intelligence — even if they didn’t already know that Sherri and Kerri were thirty-five-year-old, twin sisters, they wouldn’t appreciate being spoon-fed like this.

If you wanted to convey the same information in a subtler way, you might write it like:

This makes the dialogue more about Indiana Jones than the brothers’ age, sneaking in the info so readers can figure it out for themselves.

Unrealistic smooth-talking and clichés

In your quests to craft smooth-sounding dialogue, don’t make it flow so smoothly that it sounds fake. Unfortunately, this is a weak point of sounding your dialogue out aloud because even though it may sound good, it may not sound believable. Consider reading dialogue with a friend or critique partner to see if it sounds believable coming from someone else. If it doesn’t sound any better read by your friend, it might be an indicator that your dialogue needs some work. It can also be helpful to record dialogue (with the participants’ permission, of course) and study it for natural speech patterns and phrases. (Feel free to leave out any excess “um”s and “er”s that typically accompany authentic dialogue.) Authentic-sounding written dialogue reflects real life speech.

Likewise, you should steer clear of clichés in your dialogue as much as in the rest of your writing. While it’s certainly true that people sometimes speak in clichés (though this is often tongue-in-cheek), if you find yourself writing the phrase “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” or “Shut up and kiss me,” you may need a reality check.

For a full roster of dialogue clichés, check out this super-helpful list from Scott Myers.

Disregarding dialogue completely

Finally, the worst mistake you can make when writing dialogue is… well, not writing it in the first place! Circling back to one of the first points made in this guide, dialogue is an integral part of storytelling. It’s an important element in any story, no matter the genre because it provides exposition, indicates, personality, and character relationships, and can even be used to reveal a major plot twist during the climax.

So, what do you think of this guide? I will be adding to it periodically, so make sure to bookmark it and join my newsletter to get notifications when updates go live! Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Bibliography

• Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. London: Penguin Books, 2002. Amazon.

• Du Preez, Priscilla. “sihouette of three people sitting on cliff under foggy weather photo.” Unsplash photo (Thumbnail photo), March 5, 2019. 

• Leonard, Elmore. “Elmore Leonard: 10 Rules Of Writing.” Fs blog post, accessed June 27, 2021.

• Myers, Scott. “The Definitive List of Cliché Dialogue.” Medium article, March 8, 2012. 

• Reedsy. “A Dialogue Writing Exercise.” Reedsy blog post, accessed June 27, 2021. 

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This blog post was researched, written, and published by a human author without the assistance of generative artificial intelligence (gen-AI). Gen-AI models are trained on text written by humans, therefore, the presence of specific punctuation, verbiage, tone, or predictable, marketing-style phrases alone are not sufficient indicators of gen-AI usage. I implore readers to use context clues, critical thinking, pattern recognition, research, and employ their best judgement when determining the validity of human authorship of print and digital media today. If you want to learn more about my stance on gen-AI and it’s role in media and the publishing industry, I plan to release a blog post on this topic very soon, so stay tuned for that. This disclaimer will be updated once that post goes live. In the meantime, I will continue to be transparent about which tools and resources I use in my work.

Written by Payton Hayes | Last Updated: August 30, 2025