•     SHOW, DON’T TELL

-never tell emotions, show

            *takea bit of favorite food, push it away (depressed)

•     Characterization and exposition—narrativesummary

-don’t tell me things I will laterfind out through dialogue

-set-up charaters, not thoughdescription like (a good-looking man in his fifties.  Too vague. 

-describe using character’sactions, reactions, interior monologue (thoughts), and dialogue.

•     SEE HOW IT SOUNDS

-You don’t have to use perfectgrammar in dialogue.  Run-ons,contractions, fragments okay if you do it for a reason. 

-you can have characters lie

Don’t use too much unusualspellings or other tricks.

þ    POINT OF VIEW

-voice appropriate to character(language and vocabulary)

*12 year old thinks and seesthings like a 12 year old.

1^{st (personal)}, 2^nd,3^{rd (distant)} POV

•      DIALOGUE MECHANICS

-noun before said (Jill said, notsaid Jill)

-No explanationsin dialogue

-no ly adverbs.

*hysterically,angrily…

-        attributions:

-        Try not to use them (use beat instead)

-make sure theyare not impossible

            *he grimaced, or snarled.  (Replied or answered are okay).

•    PORPORTIONS:

-Don’t spend toomuch time on characters that aren’t important.

•  INTERIOR MONOLOGUE:

-Don’t say I thought

-just say what you are thinking initalics. 

*(She invited me in.  Great.  I had to agree.)

Not

-(She invitedme in.  “Great,” I thought.)

•    EASY BEATS:

-Bits of action that can be usedto break up long scenes of dialogue and can be used to tell who isspeaking.  That way you avoid using toomany said’s.

• Sophistication:

-Don’t use too many –ing or –assentences.  Use ctrl + F buttons to findhow many you use in story. 

-Use short sentences to show formore intense scenes.

-Live some things to theimagination:  kissing, violence, etc.

•   Make sure that the reader cares about yourcharacter or is fascinated by him/her or they will not want to read anyfurther. 

•    Have fun with your story.  Enjoy it.