This is another question I’ve seen authors ask online. It’s a good question. Dialogue is a necessary part of fiction, because dialogue it drives a lot of the plot. But it is possible to have too much dialogue? I suspect the answer is yes. It is possible to have too much dialogue. And like the …
This post is part of the monthly Author ToolBox Blog Hop, organised by Raimey Gallant. We now have over 40 blogs participating. To find more Blog Hop posts: Click here to visit the main Blog Hop page Click here to find our posts on Twitter Click here to find our Pinterest board Writing Strong Interior Monologue …
Over the last three weeks, I’ve discussed various aspects of writing dialogue and dialogue tags. I’ve covered: Tips for writing realistic dialogue in fiction Why “said” is the most effective speaker attribution Tips for writing strong action beats Today I’m looking at three more options for writing dialogue tags: Body language Dialogue cues Interior monologue …
Last week, I discussed why “said” is the most effective speaker attribution. No, I’m not a fan of creative dialogue tags (she apologised unrepentantly). But using “said” all the time can get boring and repetitive, and we don’t want our fiction to be boring or repetitive. What can we do? Fortunately, there are several alternatives …
Last week, I shared some tips for writing believable dialogue, given that dialogue is one of the main ways we can show plot movement and characterisation in a novel. But no discussion around dialogue is complete without adding advice on dialogue tags. Dialogue tags are how we indicate to readers which character is speaking. There …
Dialogue is one of the most important aspects of a novel. Great dialogue enhances characterisation, and moves the plot forward. But stilted or unrealistic dialogue makes a novel difficult to read, and can encourage the reader to abandon the novel (#TrueStory). Dialogue needs to read like words real people will say, but it also needs …
Plot and structure are two of the foundations of a great novel. I have previously discussed the high-level structure of a novel—the three-act structure—and the micro structure—scene structure. But knowing how to write a great scene or structure a novel is no guarantee of a great novel. Great novels need a plot. And conflict. I …
Over the last two weeks we’ve covered comma usage and the punctuation of dialogue in fiction. Today I’m going to discuss seven less common punctuation marks, and how they’re used in modern fiction: Brackets (Parentheses) Colon Ellipsis Em-Dash En-Dash Hyphen Semicolon Note that I am focussing on the use of these punctuation marks in modern …
Every now and again, I come across a self-published novel where the author doesn’t know how to punctuate dialogue correctly. This can make it difficult for the reader to follow the conversation, because it’s hard to work out which character is talking. The good news is that this is one of the easiest aspects of …
The comma is one punctuation mark where there is a large degree of judgement and personal preference. Our struggle with commas isn’t helped by some of the misinformation we’ve heard over the years. However, there are clear grammatical rules about how to use commas in fiction. Examples of correct comma usage include: To link coordinate …
