the Tom Swift series, published for boy readers 100 yrs ago, gave you terms such as “Fire! “Tom cried alarmingly” That was then. Today readers are much more sophisticated. Avoid what I see over and over e.g. “no,” I said flatly. I said sincerely, I replied, I called, I blurted, he muttered, she hissed (really?), snapped. You must convey all with the words you use, your writing, and said is invisible. all the best writers tell us to use said for the attribution Read Self-Editing For Fiction Writers By Renni Browne and Dave King or please don’t speak to me. thanks. If you can’t “show” how that character feels thru intimate pov, interior monologue, you cheat the reader with short cut adverbs after an attribution. And please, always put “said” after the speaker.. not before. I call those “Dick and Janes’s” e.g. Hello Jane, said Dick, Hello Dick said Jane. get it?
Select Titles
-
Recent News
- I’m about to buy, own, read, and mark up these new books
- July 1: Dialog is the heart and soul of your novel or memoir.
- Toni talks about how to write a query letter for a novel
- Join Toni at the 805 Writers Conference in Thousand Oaks on Sunday, May 20
- So You Want To Become A Writer? Do You Have What It takes?