honeysuckle

Are you participating in National Novel Writing Month? Send an emoji from the following list to the person who reblogged this game, then reblog yourself to play!

📝 What’s your hour or word count goal for your NaNo project(s)?

✒️ Do you plan on rewarding yourself with something special after you meet your NaNo goal? If so, what will it be?

📖 Tell us about your NaNo project(s)! (Title, log-line, WIP page, etc.)

📘 Have you participated in any NaNo events before this one?

✏️ Are you coming into NaNo with an outline for your WIP?

⌨️ What kinds of inspo have you collected so far for your NaNo WIP?

📙 Do you have a writing schedule that you plan to stick to for NaNo?

🖊️ Tell us about a scene you’re looking forward to writing during NaNo!

📓 Have you made a writing playlist for your NaNo WIP?

📗 How are you feeling about NaNo? (Stressed? Ready? Excited?)

🖋️ What is the “origin story” of your NaNo WIP? (Where did the idea come from? What motivated you to write it?)

📒 Do you plan to share snippets of your NaNo draft?

📕 Tell us about the main character in your NaNo WIP. (What’s their age? Ethnicity? Sexuality? Affiliation? Occupation? Whatever you want!)

✍️ Have you created any artwork or aesthetics for your NaNo WIP yet?

📋 Are you looking forward to following any fellow writers’ WIP progress during NaNo? (Recommend a WIP!)

hey everyone, i’m new around writeblr but i have been lurking around and now that i feel comfortable, i’m excited to meet new people and their works. hope i’m doing this right!

― about me

my name’s alex v. , just turned eighteen this month, my preferred pronouns are he/him

i write mainly short stories but decided to switch into writing novels

have a bunch of ideas but reasonably lazy to do it

my main focus in my works are paranormal, it’s kinda staple of my life

― my projects

snowpiercer: i describe this as a paranormal new adult with a hint of futuristic in the background, maybe a little alternative history too. it’s based around the idea what if the romanov dynasty never ended? and what if monsters were invented by them?

blood midnight: another paranormal adult, but really dark and gay, oh demon hunters are a thing. i was really inspired by shakespearean plays and gothic literature. this is still in the planning stage / rewriting because i wasn’t satisfied with the short story format. i feel much of the world wasn’t fleshed out enough, and there’s more that needed to be explore.

Avoiding Repetition with Dialogue Tags

If your dialogue tags are starting to sound redundant, that’s because you’re overusing them or using them in the exact same way. But there are lots of ways you can vary tags, and often you don’t need them at all. Here are some tips to keep in mind when writing dialogue:

1. Vary tag placement.

Dialogue tags don’t have to be just “she said” or “he mumbled” at the end of a line of dialogue. You can also place tags at the beginning and in the middle:

“What time do you want to leave?” Kimberly asked.

Frank looked at his watch and said, “Maybe around seven?”

“Isn’t that too late?” Kimberly asked, frowning. “We need time to park.”

2. Use action tags instead.

Action tags focus the reader on who is about to speak, or indicate who just spoke, without using speaking words like “said” “asked” “mumbled,” etc.

Kimberly glided into the room, all satin and expensive perfume. “What time do you want to leave?”

Frank looked at his watch. “Maybe around seven?”

“Isn’t that too late?” Kimberly’s fake lashes fluttered in concern.

3. Don’t use a tag at all. ««««

– Use context to indicate who spoke.

Sometimes you can use one speaker to set-up the next speaker:

Kimberly glided into the room, all satin and expensive perfume, stopping before Frank with an expectant look. “Well? When did you want to leave?”

“Maybe around seven?”

“Isn’t that too late?” Kimberly asked, fake lashes fluttering in concern.

Since Kimberly is staring at Frank expectantly before she asks her question, we can assume the question is meant for Frank and that he is indeed the person responding.

Another example:

“This is ridiculous! We’ll never make it to the concert before it’s over,” Caroline whined, throwing her arms up in exasperation.

Jason folded his arms and drew in a breath through his nose. “Not unless someone can drive us…” 

All eyes in the room landed on Ted.

“What? You want me to drive? I just got my license yesterday!”

Since all eyes in the room landed on Ted, we can assume Ted is the one who speaks next, and the context of his answer makes sense as a reply.

– Use the natural “back and forth” pattern to your advantage.

If a character’s dialogue extends beyond a paragraph, we indicate that by withholding the end quotation mark but still using one at the start of the next paragraph. This is how you know the same person is still talking. Otherwise, when the end quotation mark is present, a new line should equal a new speaker. Because of this, when there are only two people conversing, or two people dominating a conversation, you can rely on the natural “back and forth” pattern to let the reader know who’s speaking:

Kimberly glided into the room, all satin and expensive perfume. “What time do you want to leave, darling?”

Frank folded his newspaper and looked up at his wife. “I was thinking about seven?”

“Isn’t that too late? We need time to park.”

“Very well, then. We’ll leave at a quarter ‘til. Unless you think that’s too early?”

“No, darling. Quarter ‘till will be fine.”

Even though the speakers are only indicated in the first two lines of dialogue, it’s very clear who says what. When Frank answers Kimberly’s question, who else would be replying but Kimberly when there’s no one else in the room? And when she expresses concern that seven is too late, who else would be there to acquiesce? We know that it’s Frank.

– Use character voice to indicate who’s speaking.

Some characters have particular ways of speaking that make them easy to identify in dialogue. Maybe they’re the stereotypical “mopey teenager” and everything is “ugh” and “whatever.” Maybe, like Kimberly above, they use a lot of nicknames or terms of endearment. Maybe there’s a particular type of slang or vernacular that they use, like someone from the south saying “darlin’” and “y’all.” Even if there had been a third person in the example in #4, we could have guessed the final response was uttered by Kimberly since she called Frank darling at the beginning, too.

So, let’s look at a final example putting all of these ideas into practice:

Kimberly glided into the room, all satin and perfume, stopping before Frank with an expectant look. “Well? What time did you want to leave, darling?”

“I was thinking about seven,” Frank said as he folded his newspaper and looked up at his adoring wife.

“Seven? Don’t you think that’s too late? We need time to park, after all.”

Frank shook his head. “Very well, then. We’ll leave at a quarter ‘til. Unless you think that would be too early?”

“No, darling. I think quarter ‘til would be fine.”

“Splendid. I’ll go get ready, then.”