Becoming a Lifelong Learner of the Craft of Writing

By author, editor, educator Shon Bacon aka ChickLitGurrl™

The Write Life for You is a series of articles on the writing craft.  Past articles have focused on building character, developing a solid plot, and harnessing a writing style.  In April’s article, I look at DIALOGUE. I can’t even begin to stress its importance in your story.

Here’s a snippet…

He Said/She Said. Many writers will attempt to go beyond “said” and use words like articulated, screamed, yelled, sighed, and interjected. You won’t be deemed a poor excuse of a writer if you use “said” more.  Besides, ultimately, you want your dialogue to be strong enough to carry its own weight and not have to depend on a tagline.  Besides, sometimes the words used in a tagline, such as sighed, moaned, groaned, pointed, are words that cannot be performed in speech.  We don’t sigh words.  We don’t point words.  If a character has a long stretch of dialogue, don’t wait until the end to drop a tagline. Place one in the middle of the dialogue so the reader doesn’t have to wait until a long passage to see who’s speaking. If you have two characters talking, initiate their dialogue with taglines and then drop the taglines. The reader will know who is speaking.

Want to learn MORE about dialogue?

Then head to APOOOBOOKS.COM to read my latest article in The Write Life for You series!

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