Beaten to a Pulp

Here’s the fifth part in Randy Ingermanson’s series on dialog:

If you like this info, check out his novel writing materials.

In the last four issues of this e=zine, I talked about
why dialogue is not like “real conversation”, about
what makes good dialogue, about the importance of using
dialogue tags, and about why Point of View is essential
to great dialogue. I made the point repeatedly that
dialogue is war.Let’s remember that there are hot wars and there are
cold wars. You don’t need bombs and bazookas to have a
war. Sometimes war is a subtle thing, with spies and
tea-time diplomacy and softly muted threats on the Red
Line to Moscow. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s the fourth part in Randy Ingermanson’s series on dialog:

If you like this info, check out his novel writing materials.

In the last three issues, I talked about why dialogue
is not like “real conversation”, about what makes good
dialogue, and about the importance of using dialogue
tags. In all three cases, it comes down to showing
conflict, not telling it. Dialogue is war and you need
to Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s the third part in Randy Ingermanson’s series on dialog:

If you like this info, check out his novel writing materials.

In the last two issues, I talked about why dialogue is
not like “real conversation” and about what makes good
dialogue. In both cases, it boils down to conflict.
“Real conversation” either lacks conflict or it lacks
the right kind of conflict. Good dialogue has
conflict — lots of it — and the Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s the second part of Dialog and the Art of War by Randy Ingermanson. If you like what he’s said, you should check out his other writing materials.

Dialogue and the Art of War–Part 2

Dialogue, as I said last month, is war. It’s not fought
with guns and tanks. It’s fought with words. But it’s
all about the same thing. Conflict. If you don’t have Read the rest of this entry »

I read Randy Ingermanson’s monthly ezine almost religiously. He’s recently printed a fantastic series of articles on writing dialogue, which I’m going to reprint here in the hopes that it will find and help even more writers. This is stuff I’m working hard to use in my writing, and I believe it makes for much more readable fiction.

If you like this, then you should check out his other writing materials.

Here’s Part I

Dialogue and the Art of War

If you write fiction, then you have probably gone
through a stage where you Read the rest of this entry »