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Writing effective dialogue is one of the most valuable skills for writers of fiction and nonfiction. If your dialogue needs shining up, here’s a little refresher. Writing Tip for Today: Here are some tips to help your dialogue skills improve: Punctuation is Vital The most basic rules of dialogue concern how each line of spoken […]
Last post we talked about writing effective dialogue in general. Today let’s take it a bit further. Writing Tip for Today: Here are some more tips for writing effective dialogue: Too Much or Not Enough New writers often lean heavily to one side or the other—either they allow too much narrative to dampen scenes or […]
Entire books have been written on the subject of dialogue. Of all the definitions, I like this one best: “Dialogue sounds like real speech–but isn’t.” Yet many novel writers struggle.Writing Tip for Today: What can you do to improve your dialogue? Here are three easy ways: Mix it Up with Beats. Practice weaving action, inner […]
The Last Supper After we get our writing noses back to the grindstone, we’re all faced with making our stories come to life. You’ve heard the saying, “Character is Story and Story is Character?” It’s true!Writing Tip for Today: As you develop your lead character, supporting cast and any others in your novel, take advantage […]
Writers hold in high esteem experts and writing books and authors we think are doing it right. We practice, we’re persistent and some of us are patient. Intent on mastering our craft, we perfect our skills. Yet sometimes when I’m frustrated, I grumble. “Who made up these rules, anyway?”Writing Tip for Today: Writers obediently learn and follow […]
For the last several years a debate has raged amongst writers: Should writers replace all dialogue attributions or tags with action or other complete sentences?Writing Tip for Today: Effective dialogue sounds like real speech, but it isn’t. That is, no inconsequential banter or chit-chat. Characters should only speak words which propel the story forward. And […]
Are your characters constantly staring, gazing, and looking? Now and then they throw in a glare, glance or glower? While we tend to read eyes as a way to gauge emotion, writers can and should strive to be original in their descriptions and actions.Writing Tip for Today: For any character, getting beyond “looking” can be […]