You Have A Small Superpower. Whenever You Tap Someone On The Shoulder, They Always Look Over That Shoulder,

You have a small superpower. Whenever you tap someone on the shoulder, they always look over that shoulder, without fail. At first, you just used this for harmless pranks. Then, you realized you can kill people by tapping both of their shoulders.

Writing Tip: Don’t Be Afraid of Mixing Dialogue and Action

So I’ve been reading a lot of amateur writing lately, and I’ve noticed what seems to be a common problem: dialogue. 

Tell me if this looks familiar. You start writing a conversation, only to look down and realize it reads like: 

“I’m talking now,” he said. 

“Yes, I noticed,” she said. 

“I have nothing much to add to this conversation,” the third person said. 

And it grates on your ears. So much ‘said.’ It looks awful! It sounds repetitive. So, naturally, you try to shake it up a bit: 

“Is this any better?” He inquired. 

“I’m not sure,” she mused. 

“I definitely think so!” that other guy roared. 

This is not an improvement. This is worse. 

Now your dialogue is just as disjointed as it was before, but you have the added problem of a bunch of distracting dialogue verbs that can have an unintentionally comedic effect. 

So here’s how you avoid it: You mix up the dialogue with description. 

“Isn’t this better?” He asked, leaning forward in his seat. “Don’t you feel like we’re more grounded in reality?” 

She nodded, looking down at her freshly manicured nails. “I don’t feel like a talking head anymore.” 

“Right!” That annoying third guy added. “And now you can get some characterization crammed into the dialogue!” 

The rules of dialogue punctuation are as follows: 

Each speaker gets his/her own paragraph - when the speaker changes, you start a new paragraph. 

Within the speaker’s own paragraph, you can include action, interior thoughts, description, etc. 

You can interrupt dialogue in the middle to put in a “said” tag, and then write more dialogue from that same speaker. 

You can put the “said” tag at the beginning or end of the sentence. 

Once you’ve established which characters are talking, you don’t need a “said” tag every time they speak. 

Some more examples: 

“If you’re writing an incomplete thought,” he said, “you put a comma, then the quote mark, then the dialogue tag.” 

“If the sentence ends, you put in a period.” She pointed at the previous sentence. “See? Complete sentences.” 

“You can also replace the dialogue tag with action.” Extra guy yawned. “When you do, you use a period instead of a comma.”

So what do you do with this newfound power? I’m glad you asked. 

You can provide description of the character and their surroundings in order to orient them in time and space while talking. 

You can reveal characterization through body language and other nonverbal cues that will add more dimension to your dialogue. 

You can add interior thoughts for your POV character between lines of dialogue - especially helpful when they’re not saying quite what they mean. 

You can control pacing. Lines of dialogue interrupted by descriptions convey a slower-paced conversation. Lines delivered with just a “said” tag, or with no dialogue tag at all, convey a more rapid-fire conversation. 

For example: 

“We’ve been talking about dialogue for a while,” he said, shifting in his seat as though uncomfortable with sitting still. 

“We sure have,” she agreed. She rose from her chair, stretching. “Shall we go, then?” 

“I think we should.” 

“Great. Let’s get out of here.” 

By controlling the pacing, you can establish mood and help guide your reader along to understanding what it is that you’re doing. 

I hope this helps you write better dialogue! If you have questions, don’t hesitate to drop me an ask :)

my FAVORITE tropes compiled thanks to some suggestions from others

a character gets a sick burn and doesn’t realize it immediately, at some point later there’s just “HEY WAIT A MINUTE”

the double take. this one’s an oldie but a goodie

the injured character makes the killing shot that saves everyone else in a dangerous situation

a character who isn’t speaking is doing something weird in the background, it’s subtle and never acknowledged it’s just there for those who notice it (pulling another character out of something they got stuck in, making a huge sandwich, etc)

the beleaguered assistant inches away from smacking their boss

“quick act natural”

in that vein, the leader character was just in a shouting match with someone and when they come back the rest of the team scrambles to look like they weren’t listening at the door

never forget: “he’s standing right behind me isn’t he”

Are there any works in the post-apocalyptic genre with post-apocalyptic librarians? People who worked in the public library and after the Bad Thing decide to stay and keep the library clean, safe and available for anyone who needs it. People can’t remove books from the premises anymore, because they’re too precious, but you can stay as long as you want and read them or copy them out–the librarians encourage making copies, so that the information can circulate beyond the physical boundaries of the library. 

After a while it becomes an unspoken reality of the post apocalyptic society that you Just Don’t fuck with the library. You don’t fight there, you don’t steal from it, you don’t allow harm to come to librarians when they have to leave the building for supplies. 

People donate food and books and paper with no expectation of reciprocity, because the librarians don’t ask for anything when you need a place to hide or information or, fuck, to read a schlocky crime novel because you need to escape reality in some purple prose. 

List of Negative Character Traits

A: abusive, accident-prone, addicted, afraid to take risks, affected, affected by peer pressure, afraid of change, afraid to take risks, aggressive, aloof, anal retentive, annoying, anti-social, anxious, argumentative, arrogant, artless, attention seeker, authoritarian, avaricious, awkward

B: backstabbing, badgering, barks orders, base, belligerent, belittling, blames everyone else, boorish, boring, bossy, bovine, brags, brutal, bully, bumbling

C: callous, catty, caustic, chauvinistic, cheap, cheats, cheerless, childish, clumsy, cocky, cold, cold-hearted, combative, competitive, complacent, complainer, conceited, confrontational, confused, conniving, controlling, corrects others constantly, corrupt, covetous, coward, critical, cruel, cynic

D:  deceitful, defeating, delusional, demanding, denial, deranged, destructive, directed by externals, directionless, disagreeable, discourteous, dishonest, disorganized, disrespectful, dissatisfied, distant, does everything by the book, does what is convenient, doesn’t listen, doesn’t think things through, dogmatic, dominating, domineering, doubtful, dour, downer, draconian, drags people down, drama queen, drinker, drugs, dull, dysfunctional

E: easily aggravated, easily fooled, easily offended, easily threatened, egoist, embarrassing, emotionless, envious, erratic, evasive, exacting, excessive, exhibitionistic, extravagant

F: facetious, faded, false, false bravado, fanatical, fawning, fearful, feels superior to others, fickle, fidgety, finicky, finishes sentences for others, flippant, follower, foolish, forgetful, frantic, fraudulent, furtive, fussy

G: gives up easily, glares often, glib, gold-digging, goody-goody, gossiper, greedy, grim, grumpy, guarded,  gullible

H: harasses, hard, harsh, hateful, heartless, high-handed, hogs spotlight, holier-than-thou, hostile, hot-tempered, humorous, hyper

I: ignorant, ill-behaved, ill-bred, ill-will, immature, immodest, impatient, imperious, impolite, impractical, impulsive, inactive, inarticulate, inconsiderate, inconsistent, indecisive, indifferent, indulgent, inefficient, infantile, inflexible, inhibited, insane, insecure, insensitive, insincere, inspires guilt, interrupts, irresponsible, intimidator, intolerant, irresponsible, irritable, isolated

J: jealous, jittery, judgmental

K: kept-back, killjoy, know-it-all

L: lacking conscious, lack of effort, lack of self-confidence, lack of stamina, lazy, liar, life stinks attitude, lonely, low energy, lordly, loud, low drive, low self-esteem

M: macho, mad, makes fun of people, makes others uneasy, malicious, manipulative, martyr attitude, materialistic, mean, meek, melodramatic, merciless, messianic, messy, misanthropic, miserable, miserly, mistrusting, monosyllabic, moody, mopey, morbid

N: nagging, naïve, narcissistic, narrow-minded, naughty, needling, negative, negligent, never happy unless miserable, non engaging, noisy, nosy

O: oblivious, obnoxious, one-dimensional, opinionated, ostentatious, outrageous, outspoken, overbearing, overly emotional/excitable, overly flirtatious, overly polite, overly proper, overly sensitive, overly serious, over wrought

P: panicky, paranoid, passive, pathetic, pessimist, petty, petulant, phony, pigheaded, pitiful, plotting, pompous, poor judgment, posturing, power-hungry, predatory, predictable, prejudiced, pretentious, prim, prissy, procrastinate, promiscuous, proud, prudish, puritanica

Q: quarrelsome, quixotic, quitter, quick tempered

R: racist, radical, random, rash, rebellious, recalcitrant, reckless, rejects change, reluctant, remote, repressed, repulsive, reserved, rigid, rude, ruled by peer pressure, rules with an iron fist, ruthless

S: sanctimonious, sarcastic, sardonic, scathing, scatterbrained, schemer, scornful, second-guessing, secretive, sees bad in everything, self-centered, self-conscious, selfish, self-righteous, self-satisfied, self-serving, severe, sexist, shallow, shameless, shifty, short-sighted, show off, shy, short-fused, slanderer, sloppy, slovenly, small goals, smug, sneaky, snobby, social approval required, sociopathic, soft, somber, sophomoric behavior, speaks in monotone, spendthrift, spiteful, squeamish, static, stalker, starchy, stick-in-the-mud, stingy, stoic, stony-faced, stubborn, stuck up, sullen, suspicious, swaggering

T:  taciturn, tacky, taker, take over, talker, talks over people, tattletale, temper, temperamental, terse, thinks everyone is stupid, thin-skinned, thoughtless, timid, tiresome, touchy, trivial, troubled, two-faced, typical

U: unable to relax, unappreciative, uncaring, uncompassionate, uncommitted, uncommunicative, uncooperative, uncouth, uncreative, undemonstrative, undependable, undisciplined, unethical, unexpressive, unfeeling, unfocused, unforgiving, unfriendly, ungrateful, unhappy, unhelpful, unkempt, unimaginative, unmotivated, underhanded, unorganized, unpolished, unprincipled, unproductive, unrealistic, unreceptive, unreliable, unresourceful, unresponsive, unrestrained, unruly, unscrupulous, unsmiling, unsophisticated, unsure, unsympathetic, uptight, untrustworthy, user

V: vacant, vague, vain, vengeful, venomous, vindictive, violent, visionless, volatile, vulgar

W: wary, wasteful, weak, wears drab clothes, weird, weary, wet blanket, whimsical, whines, willful, wily, wise-assed, wishy-washy, withdrawn, womanizing, worrier, wretched

X: N/A

Y: yellow-bellied

Z:  zealot

[x]

Your grandmother just died and your family is going through some old boxes of hers. You find an old silver-backed hand mirror and discover you have no reflection in it.