Last night I sat in a small circle of writers disguising themselves as readers. As we discussed the book of the month, one of the reader-writers said, “The dialog and language really drew me in. It was part of the setting, really.” That hooked me right there. Not to read the book because, well, I wrote the book, but as a blog topic! Using Dialog and Prose to Create the Setting. I never thought of it before but word choice, dialog, the arrangement of words can really help put the reader in the mind set of the PLACE the story is being told. The era. The region. The social class. Education. Even values and belief systems. We’ve all heard word choice is key to the author’s voice. We’ve also learned […]
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What I learned in ’08
As writers, we should never stop learning the craft. The more we write, the more we learn. I’m very fortunate to work with a brilliant editor who sees the art beneath all my mistakes and gently guides me in the right direction. Haven recently rewritten a book with my editors guidance, here are three things I’ve added to my arsenal. Dialog. Yes, of course, I’ve always used dialog. I consider it one of the most important factors of fiction writing, but dialog must count. In 2008, I honed the idea that dialog creates momentum, moves the story forward. Don’t slow it down with paragraphs of description or internal thought. Keep action tags and speaker attributes behind the dialog as much as possible. Of course, the “rule” can be bent, but […]
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