by gatlin | Jun 29, 2014 | Mystery Writing 101
“What are dialog tags?” he asked, inquisitively. “Dialog tags are the little obvious fragments that writers add to the end of speech to identify who is speaking and what feeling the character is emoting,” she explained. “So dialog tags...
by gatlin | Apr 14, 2014 | Mystery Writing 101
Do you feel like you’ve got too many “he said,” “she said” tags in your dialog? Are you leaning on adverbs to express your character’s feelings? Do some research on body language to add emotional and descriptive depth to your...
by gatlin | Jan 16, 2014 | Manuscript Editing
I’m deep in the throes of editing a book right now. It’s tedious. It’s time consuming. It’s also a critical step in storytelling. Ultimately, I think there are two levels in the editing process. Level 1 is The Narrative Flow. It’s the part where the...
by gatlin | Dec 8, 2013 | Manuscript Editing
There’s one thing I’m guilty of doing in my first draft, and that’s writing characters who constantly respond by smiling, frowning, nodding or shaking their heads. So, when I go back to update that draft, I try to come up with more expressive and...