No, I didn’t interview la Nora.  I have seen her at RWA conferences.  I stood in a hallway with her once (and a couple dozen others), but The Guardian recently did a piece on her, and I thought it worth reading.

I can’t say I’m a big Nora fan.  Her novels seem so exhausting to read, but I’m open to trying again, especially after the praise given her regarding her kick ass heroines.  I’ve been reading Regencies lately, so a kick ass H will be a good change.

I won’t budge on my opinion, though, that she’s a robot.

Maybe an alien robot.

It bears investigating

My apologies for the huge gap between posts – I’ve been trying and trying to post, but each time I hit “publish,” nothing but the title would make it onto the website.  However, if you are reading this, I have found a way to outsmart my computer. Hah!

Lately, I’ve been getting a lot of questions about writing dialogue. The grammatical mechanics of writing dialogue can be found in any English book. However, even with the quotation marks and commas in all the right places – it can be difficult to write good conversations on paper (or screen). So here are some tips I’ve found to be helpful:

• Forget proper sentences. When was the last time you heard an entire conversation conducted in complete sentences? It almost never happens. There may be a full sentence here or there, but most people speak in fragments and run-ons. The key is to punctuate the fragments and run-ons in such a way that they convey what you want your reader to “get.”
• Remember who’s talking. Grandma might speak in full sentences and use rich vocabulary, but her twelve year old granddaughter is unlikely to say more than a few monosyllabic words at a time.
• Remember their mood. The police officer might be feeling interested and articulate, but the parent he’s questioning is unlikely to be spouting off.  Mom is going to be numb, defensive, or depressed, and she isn’t going to be perky – make sure her words don’t come out sounding like Sarah Palin.
• Use body language. You don’t have to note it constantly, but remember that people don’t use their mouth independently from their body when they talk.  Sometimes a person merely shrugs instead of speaking. Something distasteful is often met with a crinkling of the nose, something shameful or untrue with the speaker’s gaze sliding down to one side. Other gestures: nodding, head shaking, pursed lips, eye rolling, jaw clenching, fist clenching, a long stare, arms crossing, toe tapping, grimacing, lip licking, sighing, snorting…
• Make the conversation count for something. Dialogue is best when it reveals something or advances the plot in some way. If you have people conversing for no reason except to set a mood, keep it short. Meaningless conversation can create or foster a connection in real life, but it’s boring in writing.

Have a great day!

Mary