Continued from page 1
lost in long lines of dialogue. This technique helps
readers keep their place.
4) Leave exposition out of dialogue.
--------------------------------------
"Come on in
car," Frank said. Sam hopped in. Frank started down road. "This car is
great," he said. "It has a 255 horsepower engine,
sunroof, and a great stero system."
--------------------------------------
Let's try this instead.
---------------------------------------
"Hop in," Frank said. Sam hopped in and sank back into passanger
seat. Frank turned on radio and opened sunroof
before they started off down road. The engine
roared and pushed Sam back in his seat. He smiled at
Frank. "Nice car."
---------------------------------------
5) Compress dialogue that contains needless or
repetitive details. For example, let's say a character who we'll
call John has just been told an amazing story by another
character named Mike. Now John needs to share that
story with Betty. Instead of repeating dialague
reader has already heard, just do something like this:
--------------------------------------
"Wait till you hear this," John said. He told
Betty whole story. "Wow," said Betty.
--------------------------------------
There, now you're ready to move on with
story.
6) Use dialect sparingly. It's too taxing on
the reader's mind. If you have a character from Texas
with a thick southern accent, instead of this:
------------------------------------
"Y'all ain't see nothin' like dis here messa
trouble."
------------------------------------
Use this: -----------------------------------
Kip spoke in his thick Texas drawl, "You all ain't seen
nothing like this here mess of trouble."
----------------------------------
That's it. Use those rules and your dialogue will show
that professional style you've been looking for. Good
luck.
--------------------------------------------------------
------------------ Jeff Heisler is a freelance writer and editor of Write
Away. Read more of Jeff's writing articles at
http://www.heislerink.com/writeaway.asp. You may also write to Jeff at jheisler@heislerink.com --------------------------------------------------------
------------------
Jeff Heisler is a freelance writer and editor of Write
Away. Read more of Jeff's writing articles at
http://www.heislerink.com/writeaway.asp. You may also write to Jeff at jheisler@heislerink.com
