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In This issue... Handling Dialogue in your Novel
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What's the best way to handle dialogue in your novel?
... (continued below)
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Handling Dialogue in your Novel, by Bruce L. Cook)
Handling Dialogue in your Novel
By Bruce L. Cook
What's the best way to handle dialogue in your novel?
In your first draft, avoid a focus on technique, punctuation rules, etc. Work on these in your second and consecutive revisions.
Typically, your first draft dialogue sounds a lot like you. Don't let that stand.
Next, think of your characters’, well, character. Big and gruff? For them, use short gruff dialogue. Soft and professor-like? For them, long introspective utterances, complex vocabulary. Go on like this, assigning a cadence for each main character.
In this revision, among the myriad of other unplanned changes, modify each person's dialogue to match your list.
In the next revision, modify dialogue for strength. Replace adjectives and adverbs that lie adjacent to the dialogue and make them implicit within.
Examples...
"Git her done!" he said loudly - is replaced with "Move!" he exclaimed. "Now!"
"Come to me," he crooned- is replaced with "Here, love," he said.
These are hard calls. But the point is to put the strength in the dialogue; not the adjectives and adverbs.
Oh, and before I forget, be sure of two basics; (1) make punctuation correct, and (2) clearly identify which character is speaking.
Now, it's time to customize your dialogue.
Start now. The rest is easy.
Git her done!
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--Bruce Cook, Publisher
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Publishing New Writers,
April, 2023 (vol. 24, no. 4)
Publisher:
Dr. Bruce L. Cook
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Elgin, IL 60123
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