I Help Good Writers
Become Great
Praise For The
Writer's Craft Books
"No-nonsense, practical advice"
Rayne's book The Word-Loss Diet has become my writing Bible, helping me improve my writing in more ways than I can count. When a reviewer said that “not many indie authors pen a smoother, more readable story than Mr. Rossis,” I knew whom to thank.
Epic Fantasy
Her Writing Fight Scenes has shaped the descriptions of fights in my epic fantasy series, Pearseus. When another reviewer said that my battles left her breathless and were the best part of my books, again, I gave silent thanks to Rayne.
Reading Why Does My Book Not Sell? 20 Simple Fixes, I wished I had read it when I first started. Like the rest of her series, the book is crammed with no-nonsense, practical advice distilled into a few pages.
"My writing had improved 100%"
On the edit of my third novel my editor asked what I was doing differently because my writing had improved 100%. All I had done was apply Rayne Hall's Writer's Craft techniques to my manuscript. I couldn’t be happier!
Writing Deep Point of View did wonders for me. Writing Scary Scenes and Writing Dark Stories taught me how to flesh out my thriller tales. The Word Loss Diet opened taught me to remove excess fluff my stories didn’t need. Writing Vivid Settings opened up a whole new world to me. I never thought of the background sounds or smells, little details which turn a good story into an awesome read.
Everything in these books is written in simple plain terms, very easy to understand and incorporate into my writing.
Paranormal Suspense
Mercedes Fox
"It's made the biggest difference in my writing"
Although I have an editor whom I adore, I’m always in search of means to “up my game” and provide a quality experience that my readers deserve. There are many “how to” ebooks out there. I’ve tried quite a few, but none have the same tight focus or have served me as well as the Writer’s Craft series. I cannot recall how I discovered it; I just regret not doing it sooner.
The Word-Loss Diet was my introduction the series. I still reference it as a “refresher.” The “Diet” was a helpful tool in tightening up my first draft to prep for my editor. The difference was noticeable. It’s made the biggest difference in my writing by pointing out the novice gaffes in word choice. I cringe at how many infractions I may have committed in past works.
The appeal of the Writer’s Craft series for me is the succinct presentation of the matter. Rayne cuts straight to the nitty gritty. She even provides exercises to drive the messages home (which is how I learn best). The examples she uses are spot on.
Science Fiction
"Nice comments from my editor show how much Rayne's books
have helped."
Writing Dark Stories helped me create atmosphere, tension and suspense using many different techniques. Writing About
Dark Fantasy & Paranormal Romance
Villains was very informative on how to create your own villain, not the classic evil, dark cloaked, cackling villain of the past.
Rayne goes into great depth about getting to know your villain, his motivation, background, etc., and most important give him a redeeming quality or two. A new concept to me, but one I grabbed onto. I received some nice overall comments from my editor, which clearly shows how much Rayne’s books helped in all areas of my writing.
"Targeted advice"
The Writer's Craft books assume you know how to write, which is good, and give targeted advice that can be implemented immediately, without having to wade through pages and pages of fluff.
Short Stories
Graham Downs
From Writing Vivid Dialogue, I learned about action beats. These let me avoid "white space" writing, and at the same time let the reader know who's speaking when, without lots of boring "he said/she said" tags.
Twitter for Writers helped me a lot, too. I used to struggle to achieve a balance between marketing my book on Twitter, and being a real human being. After reading Twitter for Writers, my account is a lot better off. I don't have that many followers, but they're highly engaged, and I do believe I've actually sold a book or two off Twitter now!"
"This book about fight writing taught me a lot."
My beta reader handed the manuscript back with the comment that the fight scenes were “wishy-washy”. I had a think about this and went looking for information about how to write fight scenes. I came across Rayne Hall’s Writing Fight Scenes, and the book opened my eyes.
This book about fight writing taught me a lot. It covers a huge range of possibilities and the format makes the material easy to absorb. I tried the techniques out and sent the result to my beta reader. He sent it back with the comment “Terrific! Really hits the spot!”
I know the text very well by now and have a number of vivid fight scenes under my belt.
Science Fiction
Judith Rook
"I prune thousands of unneeded words"
With The Word-Loss Diet, I find superfluous words and tangled phrases, and I eliminate or simplify them to make the final copy more readable. When I edit a draft, I prune thousands of unneeded words.
I now grouse at books from big name publishers that would have caught excess verbiage if they too followed The Word Loss Diet.
Alex Binkley
Science Fiction & Fantasy
"These books definitely make me look at my work with a far more critical eye."
I've bought each one of Rayne Hall's Writer’s Craft books. These books definitely make me look at my work with a far more critical eye. Writing Scary Scenes has to be my favourite of her craft books. I had just finished reading this when I wrote the partitular story from my collection of short horror stories, Portraits of Dread. I was able to use Rayne's tips on weather, lighting and sounds to ratchet up the tension far more than was present in my original version.
Michael J. Elliott
Horror & Thriller
"I prune thousands of unneeded words"
I am really using Getting Book Reviews and Writing Short Stories to Promote your Novel. Both help with marketing which is by far my weakest point. During the editing and revision process I use Word Loss Diet. My writing is now leaner with fewer weasel words.
Victoria Lynn Osborne
Mystery, Fantasy
