I’ve been reading a lot lately. That’s always good. But every once in a while I’ll come across a book or manuscript that does one thing so well, so often, or so poorly that it makes me go a little nuts. Read more »

I still remember learning how to use quotations in high school English.  Only use quotations, my teacher said, if the quote says something you can’t say better in your own words.  I guess I’ve carried that with me all these years, because I’ve always tried to use paraphrasing, at least in researchy, academicky papers.  But having recently started writing narrative essays, I find myself still holding back on the dialogue, parceling it out only to underline something I’m getting at elsewhere.  The less dialogue I use, the more people pay attention to it.  So what conversations I choose to transcribe have to be doing a lot of work, not in the way of planting information here and there, but rather of growing, building on, an emotional center.

 I’ve talked about “making shit up” in another post.  Read more »

He said, she said, they said, we said….. Does the word said, drive you crazy? Are you forever searching for other words for said. Do you think your favourite characters need other ways of speaking? Other words for said seems to give most writers a problem.

It’s perhaps your dream or fantasy to write a story. Maybe you have a book in your head, but ‘said’ gets in the way.

Stories are what drive authors forward, words drive them wild, but said drives them mad.

That’s from this website, which lists 500 and some alternatives for “said.” And this reminds me of a project two of my classmates did in fourth grade at Sunnyside Elementary School. Emily and Sarah compiled a list of alternatives and asked the class for contributions. I must’ve written forty or fifty, partly because I was a bit ahead of the game at that age, but mostly because I’d had a crush on Sarah for two years already at that point, and it would be another five before I gave up on it. The point is that lots of people think it’s necessary to use something (anything!) other than said, even teachers, who describe lesson plans for coming up with “creative alternatives” for that dull, dreary word. Read more »