February 10, 2016
Dialogue is used for a variety of purposes. To convey information To help define character To break up the monotony of long passages of narrative and provide more white space on the page Dialogue tags are the narrative that tells the reader who is speaking. “Good morning, students,” the teacher said. “Help!” she screamed, hoping […]
August 21, 2013
“There are three rules for writing a novel, unfortunately no one knows what they are.” W. Somerset Maugham. That might be so, but more than once I’ve heard a writing instructors say, or a writer say, “Never…” and then go on to give a rule. Although I’m very conscious of rules, and usually follow them, there’s something […]
February 13, 2013
I go to the pool to use the hot tub for my back and to listen to people talk. I admire writers who give their characters distinctive voices. Word usage, sentence structure, even the tempo of the speech can distinguish one character from another without the addition of dialogue tags or mentioning their names. Since […]