I love to read other people's tips for writing dialogue. Today I stumbled upon a page written by Mary Rosenblum that just about shattered my ideas about dialogue.
Can you really dispel the use of 'said'? And how can you get your reader to picture an eventful scene whilst shoving dialogue into their eyestalks?
This post really changed the way I looked at dialogue.
Is it really possible to have your characters talk without using 'he said, she said' and so on? I myself had included some of the elements she talks about myself, but the biggest piece of advice that stuck otu to me was this:
Whatever characters performs the action, the reader will assume is the speaker.
While I don't think that 'said' or speech tags can be eliminated altogether (nor should they) they can be cut back like a bargain bin movie.
Aspiring writers will want to read this:
http://www.longridgewritersgroup.com/rx/wc11/action_tags.shtml
- Coty, Out
Can you really dispel the use of 'said'? And how can you get your reader to picture an eventful scene whilst shoving dialogue into their eyestalks?
This post really changed the way I looked at dialogue.
Is it really possible to have your characters talk without using 'he said, she said' and so on? I myself had included some of the elements she talks about myself, but the biggest piece of advice that stuck otu to me was this:
Whatever characters performs the action, the reader will assume is the speaker.
While I don't think that 'said' or speech tags can be eliminated altogether (nor should they) they can be cut back like a bargain bin movie.
Aspiring writers will want to read this:
http://www.longridgewritersgroup.com/rx/wc11/action_tags.shtml
- Coty, Out
Amazing Action Dialogue Tips