Comments on: Writing Effective Dialogue

By: Necronomicon, Part 2 « Nancy's Notes From Florida

Necronomicon, Part 2 « Nancy's Notes From Florida — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 12:04:31 +0000

[...] patterns. Read your material aloud to see if it sounds stilted. For more detailed advice, see my Blog on Writing Effective Dialogue. Below: Author Gary L. Zeiger and his lovely wife selling his book in [...]

By: Tag, you’re it! | Emily's Tea Leaves

Tag, you’re it! | Emily's Tea Leaves — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 00:22:55 +0000

[...] Writing Effective Dialogue (nancyjcohen.wordpress.com) [...]

By: Nancy J. Cohen

Nancy J. Cohen — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 01:21:04 +0000

Avoiding info dumps can be difficult. In each of my Drift Lords series installments, I have to inform new readers what’s going on in terms of the mythology and such. Fortunately, the heroines are Earth women with no clue as to their role in an ancient prophecy. Thus the hero gets to explain what it’s all about.

By: Nancy J. Cohen

Nancy J. Cohen — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 01:19:07 +0000

Screenwriting is a different ballgame as is writing plays. Those are all about the dialogue and action. I’ll bet that experience is highly helpful to your novel writing.

By: Nancy J. Cohen

Nancy J. Cohen — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 01:17:56 +0000

Glad you found it useful enough to print out!

By: MishaBurnett

MishaBurnett — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 21:23:06 +0000

I took a science fiction writing class taught by Simon Hawke once, and he used the phrase “As you know, Dr. Frankenstein…” to point out those conversations where the characters are explaining something that they both know just to inform the reader. I can still hear him intoning those words whenever I find myself doing it.

It’s particularly tough for what I’m working on, because I deliberately set out to break away from classic science fiction and fantasy tropes, and I have to go back a lot and ask myself, “Would they really need to explain these things to each other?” If not, I look for some other way to get the necessary information to the reader.

By: Sharon

Sharon — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 16:43:19 +0000

This was a great post. I, too, printed it out. I write plays, too, and I think that exercise has really helped me with dialogue in my novels. Keep this kind of helpful stuff up. (Maybe you could do “ending sentences with a preposition” sometime! Ha!) Sharon Moore [aka Angelica French]

By: Diane Schultz

Diane Schultz — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 16:34:20 +0000

Love it! Had to print it out….thanks for sharing, Nancy.

By: Nancy Cohen (@nancyjcohen)

Nancy Cohen (@nancyjcohen) — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 15:59:59 +0000

Thanks so much, Marilyn.

By: Marilyn Levinson

Marilyn Levinson — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 15:01:30 +0000

Nancy,
Great post! You’ve covered every aspect of dialogue writing.