Dialog Tips & the Prompt for the Day

Dialog is a very effective way to bring life to a story; it helps you show what goes on rather than telling about it. Of course, it can go the other way if written poorly! So, what does make it work? First of all, you, the writer need to avoid those things called speaker attributions. They tend to distract from what the characters are trying to say. For example, "I told you I don't want to go!" she shouted. The word shouted... is it really necessary when you already see the exclamation point? "I told you I don't want to go!" she said. Here the focus is on the quote. And it works. If you don't believe me, check out those novels you have sitting on your bookshelves. I bet you don't see too many attributions other than -- he said, she said, or maybe he asked, etc. Another tip that goes hand in hand with speaker attributions deals with those dreadful "-ly" words. For example, "Susan asked quietly" "John spoke loudly". Avoid them, too. If you write your dialog effectively, you won't need fancy attributions. And if your dialog seems to be missing something without them, then rework your dialog. Bottom line? Dialog should "speak" for itself. (Okay, I know, I know, I shouldn't have... but it is funny. Corny, but funny.)

Now, enough of this instruction stuff. Let's have some fun. I think we should try another story. Let's add some interesting dialog. So, here goes....

"I'll tell you what you can do with it," she snapped....