Title: Force your muse to work! It's easy. by Jeff Heisler

I find I don''t need a prompt when I sit down as much as I need a structured writing regimen.

Why?

I think creative mind hates structure. Even so, it scrambles to find solutions to problems it faces. If I tell myself that I''m going to write scene X at 8:00 Monday morning, my creative brain panics and hurries to pull something together to meet this challange.

By time I sit down to write it''s really just about dictation.

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6 Ways to Better Dialogue

By Jeff Heisler

Question: What's wrong with this segment?

"Hey John!" Sam shouted. "Yeah, what?" John replied, puzzled. "Look at this," Sam implored to John. John replied, "Look at what?"

Answer: A lot. It needs some work in dialogue

mechanics.

So what are rules for dialogue in fiction?

Let's go through a few points in no particular order.

1) Simple dialogue tags work best. The most

effective tag in fiction is "he said" or "she said." No

"he uttered," "he stated," "he implored," or anything

similar.

2) You don't need a dialogue tag on every line.

Here's some examples for illustration:

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"Hello sweetheart," he said. "Hello honey," she said. "How was your day?" he said. "Fine, how was yours?" she said.

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Now- let's look at it again without so many

tags.

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"Hello Sweetheart," he said. "Hello honey." "How was your day?" "Fine, how was yours?"

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Ahh- that's better. In second example we

get dialogue without being distracted by tags.

3) You can also use to few tags. IF you have

long strings of dialogue, make sure you throw a tag in

now and then so reader doesn't lose their pace. A

good way to do this is to throw some action in there

with dialogue. For example, if you've had a long

exchange between husband and wife in eample

above you could throw in a line like this.

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She sat down at kitchen table. "I went to

the bank today," she said.

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That exchange breaks monotony of simple

dialogue exchanges and places a touch of action, however

small, into scene. It also serves to keep