Never, ever explain your dialogue. If it doesn’t convey what you want, rewrite it.
Paragraph whenever a character starts speaking unless just a very few words precede the dialogue (He looked up.) Don’t bury your excellent dialogue—set it off. Paragraphing for dialogue also makes a dialogue scene look more inviting, thanks to the white space on the page.
Use plenty of sentence fragments. Most people do in conversation, so have your characters do it more often.
Use past perfect tense rarely—and only when it’s really necessary.
Screenwriter’s trick: Try to avoid direct answers to questions asking for a yes or no. The answer is nearly always obvious from the rest of the sentence.
By Ross Browne|2023-10-30T20:25:41+00:00October 30th, 2023|Renni's Words of Wisdom|Comments Off on On dialogue Quick tips for new authors
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