There's Too Much Writing Advice On The Internet!

Hey, everyone.

So, in my last post for Cryptids and the Paranormal, I wrote a rant about something that bothers me about the paranormal community. And recently, I got the raw end of a business deal, so I'm feeling a little fired up this week. As a result, I've decided to rant about something that burns my ass when it comes to the world of writing, and that is...

That's right; there is too much writing advice out on the Internet. Whether you're a new writer starting out or you've been at this a while and you're looking for tips on current writing styles, there's a lot of information out there. It can especially get confusing if you think you knew everything or you had a style already worked out, and then suddenly, you start seeing tips that suggest just the opposite. So, what the hell are you supposed to do?

At first glance, the answer seems obvious: change your style to fit the recommendations. But, when professional and world renowned authors like Stephen King say that "he said, she said" is king when it comes to dialogue tags, but several pins on Pinterest have titles saying "Said is Dead," it gets quite frustrating.

Why would you use "asked" if you have
a question mark in the line?

I noticed something rather irritating about my own writing recently as well. See, I signed up to be a tutor for a local company. The first student they tried to set me up with wanted a crash course in grammar and punctuation. (I say tried, because I couldn't schedule a first meeting with her, and to my knowledge, neither have they.) Anyway, to make sure I was up to snuff on punctuation, I went looking for copies of Strunk and White's Elements of Style. Turns out you can download the whole book for free as a PDF. Anyway, as I was brushing up on the punctuation, I noticed a mistake I've been making with my commas. Apparently, I've been running my sentences on, when actually there's more than one sentence there and they need to be separated by a comma. Here's the example from Strunk and White.

I met them on a Cunard liner many years ago. Coming home from Liverpool to New York.

Strunk and White say it should look like this:

I met them on a Cunard liner many years ago, coming home from Liverpool to New York.

Looking at my last finished novel, I noticed quite a few places where I don't do that. To add to my confusion, I noticed places where I can't justify the rule; perhaps because they aren't two separate sentences. But the real chagrin came when I realized there were probably dozens or even hundreds of places where I've made this mistake in my first novel. Does this mean I have to go back and re-edit both books in their entirety even though I'm so close to self-publishing both of them?

No. While I admit I'm a perfectionist, something I realized was that no one had caught this error and called me out on. I'm sure I've made this mistake in my book Tales of Horror: Macabre Monsters of Michigan, and like I said, I've likely done this everywhere in ROCCO. But, no one on Inkitt, not even my beta reader, caught it. Does that mean that Strunk and White's comma is superfluous? Well, it could be. Strunk and White are only two "experts" of the rules of writing. Something that you must realize is that writing isn't a science. There are basic rules that everyone accepts as being the rules on how to write, but they're not immutable laws of the universe. They are subject to change as evidenced by the fact that there are multiple editions of Elements of Style, and some writers just straight up ignore them. I heard of an Indie author who doesn't use quotation marks at all. And, some of the rules for writing in Britain are completely different from those here in America. So, where does that leave me?

Well, being so close to self-publishing both books, I'm not going to go back and re-edit them. I probably will re-edit them some day, but not this day. Like I said, no one seems to have caught my blunder, so most people must either not care or don't notice. But, moving forward, I will be a little more careful. Coming back to "he said, she said" versus "Said is Dead," what does one do moving on from here?

I suggest you do what's natural for you and make up your own style as necessary. After all, unless you're an English teacher yourself, you're not likely to know all the writing rules, and there will still be times when you'll forget them or you'll be unsure of what to do yourself. So, follow the rules for the most part, but deviate when necessary. Something I've discovered while editing some pieces is that in order to obey certain rules and styles, I've had to make a sentence quite awkward. Instead of doing that, I say screw it, and just do it in the simplest way possible, even if that means adding words when you're trying to cut back, and even if that means using the abominable adverb.

Next week, I don't know what I'm going to cover, but I hope to have something a little more focused.

Keep writing, my friends.

Writing Theory: Dialogue Tags

Hey, everyone. So, let's talk about writing. This week's topic is dialogue tags.

I know it may sound a bit queer, but when it comes to the craft of writing, the technical aspects as well as the art and philosophy can drive some writers crazy as they think about how a sentence or phrase should be constructed. For whatever reason, you forget your basic grammar and English lessons, and start making things up as you go along. Places that you used to throw commas in every time you saw them are now comma-less. Other times, places that don't seem to need commas have them all over the place. You convince yourself that commas are needed. And then you begin to find new uses for a colon or semi-colon. It can get quite confusing. That's one of the reasons why it's so important to read stuff that isn't by you so you don't get stuck in your echo chamber of absurdity.

But, I don't want to talk about punctuation. Generally, the rules for punctuation are pretty stout and going over a quick tips blog or pin on Pinterest is all that's needed to straighten you out. No. This week, I want to talk about dialogue tags. Why? Well, I was editing my upcoming book Heroes of Majestia: The Company of Flight, and I began to see some things differently with regards to the dialogue tags. I started seeing things that I'm not entirely sure of whether or not they're there.

Now, generally, there are some good guidelines for dialogue tags, such as don't be redundant:

"Don't do that!" he shouted.

In this sentence, there's no need to specify "shouted" because the context or the situation as well as the phrase itself tells us that he is shouting. Advice from Stephen King in his book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (get it here) says to only stick to he said, she said. I will agree that this makes sense when the context of the situation is understood. There's no need to say someone is saying something excitedly if there's an exclamation mark at the end of the sentence and the character is bouncing up and down in the scene. But, with regards to redundancy, what about when a new character speaks?

"Is that dynamite?" asked Ted.
"Yes," replied Fred. "I'm going to drop a match on it."
"No, don't!" shouted Sally.

In the above scenario, it makes sense for Sally to say what she does, but here's the question: should it read "No, don't!" said Sally? To be honest, that sounds strange to me. Given the emotion of the scene, it makes sense to say she shouted. Not to mention, a new character is introduced in that sentence, or a new character is speaking. If it were Ted saying, "No, don't!" we could ignore a dialogue tag. So, where does that leave us?

Well, I think the way it's written in the example is the best way to do it. It conveys the emotion of the scene and serves a double purpose by introducing Sally. Now, some people may argue it would be better if that scene was written like this:

 "Is that dynamite?" asked Ted.
"Yes," replied Fred. "I'm going to drop a match on it."
Sally rushed forward and snatched the match from Fred. "No, don't!"

I will admit, that does add a bit of flavor and does do away with the redundancy, but as many of you (writers) are aware, you will come across times when it isn't appropriate to add the extra action and flavor. But overall, it is better.

But, what I really wanted to talk about with regards to dialogue tags is the verb subject order. For instance, should it be Daven asked or asked Daven?

"Should I go, too?" asked Daven.

"Should I go, too?" Daven asked.

Now, they convey the same information, but I think there's a slight contextual difference, and I'm not too sure how to describe it, but I'll try.

In the first example, that's the simple as you like it version. It would be acceptable in all possible contexts, no questions asked. But in the second example, it sort of feels like Daven interrupted or like him asking a question is an added bit. It isn't necessary for Daven to ask that question--his part wasn't even considered in the scenario.

I think what it comes down to is if you were to list every part of the sentence from most important to least important, the most important would obviously be the dialogue. I mean, it does come first in the sentence and without it, Daven and asked are completely unnecessary. But when you come to what's the second most important, this is where things get tricky. What's more important: that a question is being asked by Daven, or that Daven is the one asking the question? That's why I say the second example sounds like Daven is interrupting because since his name comes before the verb, the focus is more on him than the fact he asked a question. That makes sense to me.

Moving on, there was one other thing I wanted to cover and that was when a dialogue tag precedes the dialogue.

Daven asked, "Should I go, too?"

And the question is, is this scenario any different from the ones above? Because here it seems like the emphasis, the most important aspect to this bit of dialogue, is that Daven asked this question. That's all well and good, but when I came across a bit like this in my writing, it didn't sound right to me, and I'm not too sure why. I think it had something to with the fact that I decided to change the order of the sentence because every bit of dialogue before that had had the same order. It was dialogue, then dialogue tag, if it was needed. So, I mixed it up changing it to dialogue tag then dialogue. And I think that's why it didn't feel right--because it wasn't necessary.

Another issue with it is that since the emphasis is placed on the character and not the line of dialogue, it seems to suggest that there's something important about the fact that the character said this, like it's an interruption, important to the plot, or it signifies that Daven hasn't spoken in a while, as if we need to be reminded he's there. And I think that was what really bothered me about it--the character who started off the sentence didn't need to remind the audience he was there as there were only four characters in the scene and he last spoke not too long ago.

So, what can we conclude?

1. When it comes to dialogue tags, don't be redundant,

"Don't do it!" he shouted.
"What is that?" she asked.

2. It's almost acceptable to do that when a new character enters, but it's better if there's some sort of action to accompany their dialogue (remember: show, don't tell),

"Do you like it?"
Ralph threw it at the wall where it shattered. "No! I don't like it!"

3. The order of a line of dialogue and dialogue tag all depends on what is more important: the dialogue itself or the character who said it.

"Therefore, we're going to need a sheep," said Jeremy.

Sarah spoke up, "Only I can do it."

So, hopefully that gives you all a little bit of insight into using dialogue tags. If you think I'm way of base or that I missed something, feel free to tell me in the comments below. But, if you think this helped you, please consider joining my mailing list here so you can keep getting helpful tips like this. Everyone who signs up will get my How to Outline Your Novel cheat sheet. And if you really like what I'm banging on about, please consider becoming my patron on Patreon.

Keep writing my friends.

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