McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

That Stuff Around Dialogue...

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terroja:
I like that technique. I might start using it myself.

Brian Peace:

--- Quote from: Cathy Clamp on September 03, 2006, 03:19:45 PM ---Actually, when I'm writing dialogue, I use movements INSTEAD of dialogue tags (he said/whispered/explained). In fact, I try never to use dialogue tags unless there are more than two people in the conversation. Once the people have been introduced, it's no longer necessary.  Here's an example from my latest (it's paranormal by the way--shapeshifters):
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Yes, yes, yes, and once again... YES!

I have three rules when writing dialogue:

1. No adverbs: "...he said stiltingly."
2. Use "he said/she said" as much as possible in dialogue attribution
3. Try to use descriptive text surrounding the sentence in place of dialogue attribution as much as possible to bring the scene alive.

That last one, once you get used to the technique, is the most fun way to write dialogue.    ;D
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Antimatter Girl:

--- Quote from: terroja on September 03, 2006, 07:30:55 AM ---Often times it's not neccessary to put a 'he said/she said' at all. Such as in the following example (ignore the occurences of my name--my screen name is the name of the character in the story).

"Aren't they pretty?" said Naomi.
 
"Aren't what pretty?" asked Terroja, cracking his neck without the assistance of his hands.


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This is a nitpicky style thing, but usually, if you're going to attribute like you're doing here, you put the name first, said/asked/shouted second. It's an AP thing that I haven't really seen authors deviate from. That's just me, of course ^.^

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