Ch. 14......15,16
How does it feel to be this far along in your story? Even if you have not been able to keep up, any progress is good. So pat yourself on the back. This week focus on chapter 14 fully. Think about your story arc and how are your characters growing. It's OK to keep doing 1 chapter at a time but if the words are flowing go on to ch. 15 and 16. Whatever works for you. Think about your dialogue as you write what the characters are saying. Speak it out loud. Does it sound like what you think your character would say? Think about culture, time period and era...my cowboys need to speak 1800 cowboy. Not like modern cowboys. I am working on my story of Leaning Bear...in the story Paint the Sky. I am having to do my research on how a Cheyenne would speak to people of the day. He has had a hard life and speaking freely to a white woman...well let's just say it's fun writing this one. So do your homework ahead of time to make sure. Dialogue should come easy and sound natural. But her3 are some hints. Don't use dialogue as an info dump. Mayne back story Here and there or a little but don't overdo it. Keep conversations moving between the characters. Too much can be as dangerous as too little. Let the speech carry the character's tone. If not then characters do not become distinct to the reader. Watch out for characters sounding similar due to your own voice. Avoid small talk. Every piece of dialogue should be important to the story and up the tension. Make all dialogue count! Another big one is not to let the characters tell the story in dialogue. Show vs. Tell....you show it. It's also unusual for characters to say the other's name each time in general conversation. And a word on writing tags. Action tags are best. He said. She said. Boring. I didn't realize the impact of this until I began listening to books on Audible. And every time the narrator kept saying he said, he said, he said. I was like....NO MORE! Action tags allow your character to move and do something as they are conversing. Doing this can be done well enough to add more to the story. I am not a fan of those passages where the dialogue goes back and forth for several lines with no tags. I always end up going back to read again to understand who said it. So I rarely use those. But some houses like that and ask for me. Use at your own discretion but don't confuse your reader. I suppose I just prefer more descriptive writing. Be careful of too much dialogue and or too little. Cut filler. Make sure as I mentioned every word of dialogue is in the story for a reason. It needs to help the story move forward. Hint at the past and head to the future of what the reader can expect. Again take the time to read your dialogue out loud. Or like me click on your narrator feature in word and let it read a passage to you. I always catch a lot of things I change or fix because I listened and read out loud. So go forward and WRITE! SEE YA ON THE BLOG AND FACEBOOK.