Two Dialogue Death Sentences & How to Get a Stay of Execution
By Marcy Kennedy (@MarcyKennedy)
In my years as a freelance editor, I’ve worked with clients all the way along the writing path—from newbies who are just starting their first book to seasoned veterans with multiple books on the market. I can now guess with a high level of accuracy where a writer is along the path based on the types of dialogue mistakes they’re making.
Newer writers tend to use creative dialogue tags or allow their characters to speak for paragraphs (or pages!) at a time without interruption.
But new level, new writing devil.
As writers gain experience in the craft and stop making the newbie mistakes, they run into a new dilemma. They’re told their writing still isn’t ready.
And one of these dialogue death sentences is probably playing a role in killing their chances at publication success.
If you’d like to read the rest of this post, please join me at Kristen Lamb’s blog. I’m back home here next week continuing our series on genre with thrillers 🙂
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May 15, 2014 @ 19:08:49
Just when the post was getting good you include a link that unfortunately goes nowhere. However, I’m still very interested in what the dialogue mistakes are for the somewhat more experienced writers.
Me: “I’m pretty sure I don’t have anyone talking in longwinded paragraphs that run on forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and don’t allow the speaker to ever take a breath without being interupted by the other caracters because when does that ever happen, that never happs. . . ”
Myself: Ya, shut up you git!”
I: “I’d truly appreciate it if you’d not use that language or tone of voice with me or I, thank you myself for restraining your . . . self.”
Myself: “Oh Bugger Off!”
Me: ” ‘e’s ‘aving a bad day.”
I: “Since when did you starting talking like Hagrid? And anyway, the narrator said nothing about tone so how could I possibly know what it was?”
The 1st Person Omniscient Narrator: Sorry I couldn’t resist. Love the website, blog and article. I’m looking forward to find the rest of the article.
May 15, 2014 @ 19:13:04
Ack! So sorry! I’m not sure what happened to my link. I’ve updated it, so it should work now. Just in case, here it is: http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2014/05/13/two-dialogue-death-sentences-how-to-get-a-stay-of-execution/