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Part 2: The He Said-She Said Crap

Even the smallest things in a book can either turn on or turn off a reader. And dialogue is one of them.

Dialogue is very important to engage the reader and allow them to feel each character. I use "said" sometimes after a quote, but it's rare.

You could use... "he blasted", "he shot at", "he whispered", "he asked", "he yelled", "he shouted", etc. Make the quote an action where the reader can see the emotion behind the words sometimes.

Small example:

Johnny breezed through a plume of smoke in the tavern, and the fumes squeezed his lungs as he coughed.

"Damn, Terry." Johnny pounded his chest while coughing up spit. "What kind of shit you smoking"

"Man, this that Cali bud. I got this out West from my cousin."

Terry's lips hugged onto the joint, as the wind blowing through the open door pushed the smoke away from Johnny while sending chills across his flesh.

Now, which quote can you picture the most; me writing, "Johnny said", or "Johnny pounded his chest"?

But the trick is to not going overboard when using this technique. Sometimes it's good to say "he said/she said" as long as the reader know you're capable of writing a good dialogue.

The more you write, the better you'll figure out when it's necessary to use action quotes. Switch up this technique so the reader can imagine the scene sometimes.

This has been approved by King Dhakir @ www.kingdhakir.com