Yesterday, I challenged you to figure out what’s wrong with the way an author used attribution tags in her novel.
Now, let’s talk about where you should put attribution tags (said so-and-so) and how to punctuate them.
Short quotes:
Place the attribution tag at the end, so your reader pays attention to the quote itself.
“I’m feeling confident [...]
Tackle this attribution exercise:
As I was skimming through a Young Adult adventure novel, I couldn’t help but notice the author’s use of attribution tags (said so-and-so). Here’s a sample, excerpted from five pages of dialog between the narrator (”I”) and her new friend, whom I’ll call “Sara.” I spelled each attribution tag exactly as the [...]
By Susan Helene Gottfried
Guest Columnist
Like many new bloggers, I flailed during the first few months of the life of my blog, West of Mars — the Meet and Greet. I would surf other blogs, find ones I liked and leave a comment, hoping they would reciprocate.
Sometimes, I made a new friend. Most times, I didn’t. [...]
“I can’t think of anything to write about.”
When I taught high school English, my students frequently moaned about the lack of interesting things to write about.
My standard response:
I’d roll my eyes and challenge them to keep their eyes and ears open and to ask questions about everything they see and hear.
When I was driving near [...]
Boring writing drives me nuts. And you?
The problem? Most writers don’t have a distinct voice.
My good friend Randy Ingermanson is a genius in a number of areas, but the one I appreciate most is his voice that makes everything he writes fun to read.
Rather than give a (boring) explanation of what “voice” is let’s [...]
Detective novels always contain detailed descriptions of the suspects, the witnesses, and, well, pretty much everyone. Here’s a paragraph from a novel I just finished, written from the viewpoint of a detective who’s interviewing members of a family in which a 12-year-old girl was murdered:
The Foleys were an unprepossessing bunch. The fifteen-year-old settled into an [...]
Lessons learned at the ACFW writing conference I went to last week:
1. Don’t stay up till 4am when you have to get up at 6am the next morning in preparation to wedge yourself into the middle seat on a long flight home.
2. I get massive energy being around other people insane enough to write novels.
3. Karen [...]
I hate reading series books because they leave you hanging, and you have to wait at least a year for the next installment in the series. By then, you’ve forgotten what happened in the first book. The whole thing is one big, vicious circle intended to frustrate readers and generate big bucks for publishing houses.
But [...]
Every published writer I know (and I’m acquainted with my fair share) is a voracious reader. We drown in books, simply because it brings us joy to read them.
We are our local public library’s best friend. Bookshelves are tucked into every crevice of our homes. We lovingly stare at those good friends—the books on [...]