Dialog or Dialogue?

Numbers 16:31 And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them:
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“Excuse me, can you help me?”

No! I’m busy.

“But I need your help in understanding something.”

Okay, but make it quick, I have a lot of work to do here.

“What is dialog? And why can’t I use tags?”

Well, missy, you need to listen up. Dialog is a conversation between two people in a story. Like what we’re doing?

“Are we in a story?”

No, but your on my blog and I’m talking to you!

“Oh.”

***
Did you see that play on words up there? This weeks lesson at f2k is dialog. The word dialog can be spelled with the U.E or without, just for those of you grammar checkers out there. I’ve looked up the word and either spelling is acceptable.

Anyway, our lesson is for dialog with no tags. Tags are the cozy words at the end of who is speaking.

“Excuse me, can you help me?” she says in a timid way.

“No! I’m busy.” The lady behind the counter grumbles.

Practicing not using tags, really helps you see into the window of the characters. We have no backdrop, no setting up of the scene, we have words. Words that need to be read by the reader, and they need to follow who is speaking. If you can’t do a 500 word piece of dialog with no tags, then you need to strengthen the personality of your characters.

Something always stands out with your character, whether it is a strong accent, a southern belle type character, a farmer Bob type guy. In practicing no tags, we’re fleshing out our character and giving them personality and making them come alive.

Yes, in books we use tags. Novels are written with the dialog using tags, but take a look at those novels, any one of them. The dialog does not have a tag EVERY SINGLE sentence of a conversation. It doesn’t because once you’ve established who is speaking, you can really carry a conversation along a few pages with a tag here and there.

This is a tough lesson also. I never said that F2k was this easy, fly by night course on easy writing. No, it teaches important skills that are going to carry you through your writing and hopefully have you writing better with just one course. Maybe through all my blog posts on the matter of the free course, you can tell if it is something that you’d like to try when we offer it again in April.

Even if your not a writer, maybe this course will give you something to try for. Believe me, it will help when you’re jotting down a blog too. You’ll soon see that this course will have you using these skills without you realizing that you’ve drank from the knowledge pool and are now serving it to others.

Color My World

The Benefits of Prose to Color Your Work...

I’m always asked how people can make their writing have oomph. “Well,” I say, “take a poetry course!”

“But I don’t like poetry,” they say.

Well I’m here to tell you now that you don’t need to like poetry to write better you just need to put to use some of the elements of poetry to make your writing get up and dance. Yes, your writing will dance. It will do a pirouette across your blank screen. Your words will form across the sky and take flight in new directions.

Assonance, alliteration and rhythm; all of these elements digested in poetry will spew forth better writing. Rhythm in writing? Is there such a thing? Yes there is. Have you ever read a choppy book? No? Why not? Because the writer took the time to find a rhythm in his words. The editor/publisher picked up on the rhythm and decided that the book needed to be published.

Having yourself a good poetry critique group will have you becoming aware of your words. You will make every word count and you will also be finding the over used words unnecessary in writing. Being aware of those words that you use a little too much is essential.

So many times I critique a writer and they say they didn’t even SEE the word "AND" twenty times in a paragraph. By writing poetry you’ll know that the word AND is not needed all of the time to finish or begin a sentence to make it complete.

Poetry and prose isn’t all about rhyme. It is about eloquence. The way to make your writing more eloquent is by the feel and flow of the words slipping off your tongue. Some writers have said they never thought to read their work out loud. I say, “How could you NOT read it out loud?"

Do we always read silently? Come on now be honest with me. Don’t most of us at least move our lips or utter an almost silent whisper as we read? Do we all read in silence? If this is true, it’s time to speak up! Feel those words. Speak those words. Realize what you’ve written by SAYING the words.

When I read a poem I can’t help but utter the words, then by some crazy manifestation I’m reading the poem out loud, even if no one is there to hear me. Can you imagine reading Robert Frost’s poem ‘Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening’ in silence?

Well, I once again am going to tell you to speak up! Here the words, feel the rhythm, tap those keys, and make your writing dance!