Formatting dialogue can be difficult. Understanding commas and dialogue tags will help you put your commas in the right place.
I’m working on a list of my top self-editing tips to send to people who sign up for my email list. So those of you who are on the list already will have that coming to you in the future! … Read More
Writing and editing advice are full of pithy phrases like Show Don’t Tell, Said Bookisms, or White Room Dialogue. Unfortunately, I have yet to come across a popular saying to describe the best piece of writing advice I’ve ever heard: … Read More
“Show, don’t tell” is a phrase that gets flung around a lot in writing and editing circles. I’ve seen people complain about it and even come to hate the phrase. Perhaps in part because it is used a lot. But … Read More
I had a conversation with an author the other day about villain monologuing. He pointed out that plenty of fictional villains throughout the ages have revealed their plans to the heroes. I quoted Syndrome: Villain monologuing is one of those … Read More
As I was writing last week’s post about white room dialogue, I kept thinking about Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card—a book which famously (and thoroughly) breaks the rule about white room dialogue. So since my last post about a … Read More
Most writers fall into one of two camps: those who prefer to write dialogue and those who prefer description. Personally, my innate talents fall more on the dialogue side of the spectrum. As such, I have a tendency—if I’m not … Read More
While planning my post on said bookisms, I began reading a series by Robert Asprin called Myth Adventures. My husband convinced me to read the first book, Another Fine Myth, and it was pretty easy to get hooked. One of … Read More
Often you will hear writers and editors talk about an aspect of dialogue called the said bookism. I first learned this term many years ago from the excellent writing podcast Writing Excuses. Since then, proper use of dialogue indicators has … Read More