It’s dialogue time again. Over the last two weeks, I’ve addressed paragraphing dialogue and capitalising dialogue. This week, it’s time to address punctuating dialogue so that mere formatting can never again harm your brilliant lines of dialogue. There is nothing profound or … [Read more...] about How to Punctuate Dialogue
How to capitalise dialogue
If you’ve written fabulous dialogue, I’m ready to help you defend it against awkward punctuation, strange capital letters, and wonky paragraphing. Mere formatting errors will never get between your dialogue and your readers again. Last week, we worked through how to paragraph … [Read more...] about How to capitalise dialogue
How to paragraph dialogue
Brilliant dialogue is central to so many of our favourite stories, fiction and nonfiction. So, how unfortunate would it be to develop perfect conversations for the characters, only to format them incorrectly on the page? We can’t be letting paragraphing, punctuation, or … [Read more...] about How to paragraph dialogue
How to avoid talking elephants. Fixing faulty introductory phrases
I wonder how many of us have ever asked our readers to believe in talking elephants: While talking with a friend, an elephant trumpeted. Or dancing coral reefs: Dancing on Friday, the coral reef sprung back into my memory. Or imagine fruit-eating lions: While eating fruit … [Read more...] about How to avoid talking elephants. Fixing faulty introductory phrases
“The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” teaches story structure
In December 2012, a young Matthew took his seat in the cinema without a clue what he was getting himself into. The screen lit up as The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey began. Bilbo Baggins’ welcoming voice uttered that glorious line: “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” … [Read more...] about “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” teaches story structure
