Menorah House Publishers

28/02/2021

A Recent MHP release! Check it out!

(Remember, we publish books for $495, which INCLUDES 10 FREE copies of your book!) Contact us to get started today!

The Process to the Promise

05/10/2016

Here are some great pointers for using DIALOGUE in your fiction novel or non-fiction memoir:

1.Accept the fact that you’ll never remember exactly what someone said. Trust me. You may think you will, but you won’t. The thing said is lost to time; all that remains is the shape you give it as you do your best to call it back.

2. Other people will remember the thing said slightly different than you will remember it. Let them. It may help in the composing process to hear what they remember. They may give you a line better than any you could have written. If it has the ring of truth, go with it. If it doesn’t have the ring of truth, put it away from you.

3. The ring of truth is the feeling memoir writers get when something flips over inside them, and they know they’re in touch with the essence of the experience they’re trying to recreate on the page. Dialogue can take us to the ring of truth. Maybe a father said, as mine did, “Can’t never did nothing.” When did he say it? Often. I may not remember the exact moments when he said that line, but I can recall the feeling of inadequacy it always gave me, the feeling that I’d never be able to please him.

4. What were the things the people in your memoir said with frequency? Those lines are always there for you to use—yes, even if you don’t remember if they said them at the exact time you hear them saying them in the scenes you’re writing.

5. Dialogue should be distinctive. Read enough fiction to catch onto the fact that the reader should be able to identify the speaker without any dialogue attribution simply from the sound of the voice.

6. Cadence, vocabulary, syntax. Mine isn’t yours, and yours isn’t mine.

7. Dialogue should move the narrative forward while also contributing to characterization. In Barry Lopez’s “Murder,” he recalls the time a woman, a stranger, asked him to kill her husband. “I’ve got a gun over there in that car,” she says. “He’s in a garage outside of town, working on his car. All you have to do is walk in there, walk right up to him, and shoot him. He won’t know you. There’s no one else there. No one could hear.” This speech lays out the plan, but it also reveals just how desperate this woman is and how intensely she’s imagined this solution to her problem.

8. Dialogue has subtext. Everything we say doesn’t say everything we want to say. A well-constructed line of dialogue can be interesting for what it doesn’t say. In my essay, “Drunk Man,” I recall the time my father offered to buy a local man with a drinking problem a meal. “C’mon, Odie,” he said. “Let’s get you something to eat.” Odie picked up right away on the thing not said and the judgment it carried. “I don’t need no handout. Let me out of this damn truck.”

9. Miscommunication through dialogue can make a memorable scene. What have you or the people in your life said that was misunderstood, that caused some shift in your relationships?

10. Spoken speech isn’t written speech. Even memoirs require a little shaping when it comes to dialogue. Sometimes we have someone say a line (something we “remember” them saying) even if we’re not sure he or she said it at that exact time. Sometimes we give the line a little something extra by combining things we remember someone saying. Maybe we let a character use a pet name that he or she always had for us. Maybe we make the speech a little less or a little more formal than it might have been. Maybe we take liberties in service of the work a particular scene is trying to do. Maybe we mess things up a bit. Everyday speech usually isn’t without a little mess. We do what we can to convince our readers that our characters said what we say they did even if they really didn’t. Sometimes we rearrange, add, and subtract. We remember that our dialogue has to have the feel of reality, and sometimes to do that, we give ourselves permission to make stuff up—not to the point that we change the essence of who someone was or the experience that we’re recalling. We don’t lie. We shape. There, I’ve said it.

--LEE MARTIN (leemartinauthor.com)

23/07/2016

Are you ready to publish? Let us do all the work, starting at only $399!

To build God's kingdom and enhance Jesus' reputation in the earth through various forms of written media. Q&A How much does it cost to print the books when I want them? And Can I print just one? The cost to print books is very reasonable and is based on several factors (length of book, color or B&W,...

08/03/2016

Avoid using these three words in your writing:

"In order to"

You almost never need the phrase "in order to" to express a point. The only situation where it's appropriate to use this phrase is when using "to" alone would create ambiguity or confusion.

I'm giving you the antidote in order to save you. Now, read the sentence again without "in order to" in it. Do you see how these three words are unnecessary?

By Robbie Blair

15/09/2015

A recent publish from MHP...

The man who walks by faith will be blessed. He will not only be blessed, but his possessions will be blessed also. He will be blessed with good harvests. The man of faith will win great, decisive victories. He will please God and God will exalt him publicly. God will establish him and keep the pr...

23/07/2015

New book release...

Why does God allow so much suffering to go on in the world? Where is God when a loved one is diagnosed with a terminal illness? Where is God when a devastating hurricane wipes out thousands of people? Where is God when a deranged man shoots and kills nine people during a Bible study at a church? ...

09/07/2015

New Release! Check it out!

For many centuries, religious men have purposely suppressed the Holy Spirit’s superhero-like power because it threatened their personal kingdoms—a power that gives every believer purpose and provides lasting victory over sin. This is the same power that was evident in the Apostle& ...

05/02/2015

WATCH OUT for these common grammar mistakes in your writing:

Not a grammar geek? Doesn't matter. Using words incorrectly can make you look bad. Here's some help.

27/01/2015

This is an excellent article on how to write a proper introduction for your book...

How to write an introduction to a nonfiction book that will grab your reader’s attention. Prefaces, prologues, and introductions for nonfiction. How to get an introduction for your book.

09/01/2015

The "Final" word on CONCLUSIONS. Your book's conclusion should summarize the main point(s) of your book. Try to avoid including any new information if possible. Happy writing!

27/07/2014

Here is a good tutorial on how to do chapter section breaks in MS Word.

Learn how to: 1) creat section breaks; 2) odd/even headers; 3) format page numbering for roman numerals and 4) change the starting page number for a section

19/08/2013

Publishing a book is quite like selling your home. Have you ever tried selling your home BY OWNER? It's not as easy as it would seem. From the outside, it looks simple enough, until you see all the pitfalls later. Publishing is the same. There are several ways you can go about publishing your own book for little or no cost (or so it would seem). But it really does help to have someone publish for you who has been down that road many times before and who knows the pitfalls along the way. In publishing, that old saying does ring true, "You get what you pay for." Will you pay more for a publishing service like Menorah House? Yes, of course. But just like using a more costly realtor to sell your home, you will often gain better results in the end.

13/08/2013

Hey writers! Here is some good information on copyrighting and the "fair use" part of the law. Sometimes you don't necessarily need permission to quote something for your book. Enjoy the article!

In some situations, you may make limited use of another's copyrighted work without asking permission or infringing on the original copyright.