Dialogue, Dialogue

If you're like me, you spent the past Thanksgiving weekend talking. Maybe you had relatives over for dinner, or you got to spend extra time with your friends.

In our stories, talking is called dialogue, of course. I always like when I come across dialogue in a story, because it's interesting to see how characters will respond to each other. 

Dialogue serves three roles in a story. 

1) Dialogue gives your readers information.

"How long have you lived here?" Jason asked. 
Bob groaned. "Five long years." 


2) Dialogue reveals something about your characters' personalities and how they speak.

Jennifer and her grandmother stared at the Grand Canyon.
"Cool," said Jennifer.
"Wondrous," said her grandmother.


3) Dialogue moves your story forward.

"What happened?" Leon said.
Angie grabbed her friend's hand. "Come on. This place is going to explode!"

For a fun, silly exercise, write a dialogue between:

• A sports car and an SUV racing for the same parking spot.
• A shoe and a toe.
• A chair and the person about to sit in it.
• A toaster and a piece of bread.
• A snowman and the girl who wants to knock it down. 

Have a good time talking and "dialoguing!" 

A Thanksgiving List for Our Characters

This Thursday is Thanksgiving, a day when it's fun to eat pumpkin pie and give thanks. I have a long list of things I'm grateful for, including my writing friends. 

But we're not the only ones who can be grateful. What about our fictional characters? 

If you're writing about a character who celebrates Thanksgiving, imagine this person writing down 5 things he or she is grateful for. 

It makes you think about your character, doesn't it?

The young adult novel I'm currently working on takes place in 1967. The main character, 14-year-old Francie, is a budding photographer whose life is changing in a lot of ways.

I think Francie would put these things on her Thanksgiving "grateful list." 

1. The new Sgt. Pepper album by the Beatles. 

2. My best friend, Toni, most days. 

3. Mom and Dad, most days.

4. Matt, when he stands tall so he doesn't look shorter than me. 

5. My camera with a full roll of film. 

What about your character? Make a "grateful list" for him or her (or it). Then check the list again in a few months. How would the list change?

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your fictional characters!

Setting: Houseboats

If you're like most of us, you live in an apartment, a house, a trailer home, a dorm, a cottage, a condo, or some other kind of building that stands on land. 

Not many of us are lucky enough to live on a houseboat. I took these photos in Seattle, where there are several communities of people who live on the water.

Even if we can't live on a houseboat, we can choose it as a setting.

What are the sights, sounds, and smells your character would experience living on the water?


What kinds of people or animals would live there?

• How about a cat named Admiral?

• A girl whose mother is a tugboat captain?

• A boy who's afraid of water?

• A dog who dreams about having a big yard?

• A retired pirate?

Try setting a story on a houseboat. If you're lucky, you actually live on one. For the rest of us, we can create a story where a house surrounded by water gives our readers an unusual setting. 

Happy houseboating! 

Show, Don't Tell

"Show, don't tell" is one of those pieces of advice writers hear often. But what does it mean?

"Telling" is summarizing the action for the reader:

He was nervous. She was angry. The shark was scary.  

The reader doesn't experience the action directly because it's filtered through you, the writer.

"Showing" is writing the action directly as your character experiences it. 

His hands got clammy. She clenched her fists. He stopped breathing as the shark circled. 

The reader experiences the action directly, too. 

Sometimes we need "telling," to keep the story moving. But in most cases, "showing" will make your character's actions or feelings more vivid.

Try rewriting these examples of "telling":

Bob was happy.
The girl was serious.
The cake was stale.
The room smelled bad.


Here are my rewrites. How about you? 

Bob's grin covered his whole face.
The girl stared at him with unsmiling eyes. 
The dry cake crumbs stuck in his throat. 
When he opened the door, an odor hit him. 


Try "showing" instead of "telling" when you want your readers to feel exactly what your character is feeling. Sometimes it's okay to "show-off!"

Turkey Tot and Talking Animals

Yesterday I went to a fun event at Eagle Harbor Books on Bainbridge Island. I got to help celebrate the publication of Turkey Tot, a new picture book written by George Shannon and illustrated by Jennifer K. Mann.


The afternoon was extra special because George and Jennifer are my friends, and because Turkey Tot is Jennifer's first book. Yay!

Jennifer is also my A+++ critique partner, along with the fabulous Dawn Simon. The three of us form a troika (you can look that one up), meeting every other week to read each other's rough drafts. 

We find ways to make our writing stronger, and sometimes Jen brings her illustration sketches. That's super fun! 

Turkey Tot tells the story of four friends: Chick, Pig, Hen, and Turkey Tot, who's "been different since the day he hatched." 

Turkey Tot is determined to get those blackberries the four friends can't reach, and you know what? It turns out that being different might be just the excellent thing they need.

The dialogue in Turkey Tot features talking animals, of course. They sound exactly how I imagine Chick, Pig, Hen, and Turkey Tot would talk if I came across them in the barnyard.

Have you written a story with talking animals? Give it a try. Pick two of your favorite animals and let them star in your story. Your dialogue can be silly or serious, clever or crafty.

As Turkey Tot would say--well, check out the funny, wonderful Turkey Tot and you'll see! 

Writing Scary Halloween Stories

What's more fun on Halloween than telling scary stories? Okay, trick-or-treating and eating candy may be more fun, but telling scary stories is right up there.

Maybe it's the dark nights, or the wind creaking through the branches, or the lit-up Jack-o-Lanterns with their weird grins, but Halloween is the perfect time to get down and scary with our writing. 

Do you need story ideas? How about these?

• A story with a graveyard, a high-pitched voice, and a violet light.

• A story with the title, "The Frightful Christmas." (Sometimes it's fun to mix holidays.)

• A story about a girl who has a Halloween party where all the guests arrive looking like her.

• A story with this first line: "One day, Bob's cat stole his Halloween costume."

• A story about a town where every day is October 31st.

• A story with the title, "The Ghastly Ghoul of ______." (Fill in your street or town's name.)

After you write your story, don't forget to share it with your family and friends on a spooky night! 

Keeping a Writer's Journal

Call it a journal, a notebook, or whatever. It's a place to play with your writing.

A writer's journal is a place to experiment and explore. To loosen up. To write down random thoughts, story ideas, and observations. 


A journal is just for yourself. It's private, so you don't need to share unless you want to. Because it's private, you can write down whatever you want. 

It doesn't have to be fancy. It can be a spiral notebook, or a small tablet. (I mean the paper kind.) Or it can be a journal with hard covers. Just so you can carry it around with you. If it's small, put it in your pocket. If it's bigger, tuck it in your backpack. 

Why paper? Because it's super portable, it's cheap, and many writers feel there's a connection between our brain and our hand when we write with a pencil or pen. 

If you've never used a journal before, here are some ideas to get started.

• Keep a list of silly words.

• Interview yourself for a blog.

• Write a letter to yourself 20 years in the future. 

• Rewrite "The Three Bears" as "The Three Pieces of Broccoli."

• Write a poem about your pajamas.

• Create a comic strip about your neighbors.

• Interview a 3-year-old.

• Ask your grandparents about the day they were born and write down their story. 

Have fun playing in your journal. And don't forget to write down the date. You may discover an old journal and find a new idea. When you do, it'll be handy to know when you got it.