Writers Tricks of the Trade Volume 5, Issue 4 | Page 22

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TEN WAYS TO UPGRADE YOUR MANUSCRIPT (CONT’D)
8.

USE ACTION TAGS FOR DIALOGUE . . . CAREFULLY

Instead of the constant use of “said” (luckily, an invisible word), tie your dialogue to
some bit of action on the part of the protagonists. Action tags eliminate the need
for most other identifying tags.


Start with the premise that every character has his own paragraph. He owns it.
Anything he says or does in that paragraph belongs to him.
If he DOES
something, there’s no need to identify him again when he SAYS something.
Example: “John sat in his room looking miserable. ‘Seems like every one
of my friends is gone. Can’t find any of them.’

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Example: “The Spanish Consul stopped abruptly. Turning, he wheeled
toward Dinah Shore with his face radiant and his arms outstretched, the
quintessential adoring Spaniard. ‘Ah . . . Dinah! Dinah!’ He swept her
hand up to his lips.” (From “A Circus Without Elephants.”)
Caution: Action tags can be overdone. Too many, and they become
9.

intrusive.

FOR DRAMATIC EFFECT, INCLUDE PAUSE FOR REACTION TIME

All dramatic scenes need statements of lesser importance throughout the scene—to
slow down the action, to give the reader (and the scene’s characters) time to react.
These pauses are always statements of lesser importance. The reader hardly notices
them. Yet they are vital for keeping the reader’s attention locked in the scene.
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Such “reaction” time beats might include an observation about the passage of time; a
sentence about the strangeness of the setting; a sentence about background sounds;
a sentence about the expression on a character’s face; a sentence about someone
tapping his fingers, or drumming his shoes; a sentence about somebody moving in the
background; a sentence about the weather; a sentence about someone tugging on his
clothing.
10. MAKE YOUR DRAMATIC SCENES LONG . . . AND LONGER.


All truly dramatic scenes are long.



It’s impossible to get mean ingful drama out of a paragraph . . . or even a page.



Most dramatic scenes in most good books go on for pages. Ten printed pages, at
least, seems to be a minimum.



Scenes are enlarged by the inclusion of a thousand small details (as per the
suggestions in # 9). Many of the details won’t be important . . . yet they
contribute to the overall drama.

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JULY-AUGUST 2015

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WRITERS’ TRICKS OF THE TRADE