Dialogue: Where the Heck Do Commas Go?
2019-04-29
Formatting dialogue can be difficult. Understanding commas and dialogue tags will help you put your commas in the right place.Continue Reading
Editing by Reading
2018-08-03
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! But I’ve decided to go ahead and expand on someContinue Reading
Double Duty Writing
2018-06-15
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: Every sentence should serve multiple purposes. Frankly, you could probablyContinue Reading
How to Show and When to Tell
2018-06-08
“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 I think a fair portion of the dislike of theContinue Reading
You Caught Me Monologuing!
2018-05-18
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 stereotypes that popular culture both accepts and ridicules at theContinue Reading
Orson Scott Card’s Dialogue
2018-04-20
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 dialogue rule was followed by an example of breaking theContinue Reading
White Room Dialogue
2018-04-13
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 careful—to write “white room dialogue.” In general, this is aContinue Reading
Robert Asprin’s Dialogue
2018-04-05
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 the first things that grabbed my attention—other than the cleverContinue Reading
Said Bookisms
2018-03-29
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 become one of my biggest editing crusades. Let’s talk aboutContinue Reading