Okay so it looks like I fell off the planet. Promise - I'm still here. The last four years have been ... hard. There's no other word for it. Everything is fine. I'm fine, but I've been the caregiver of my mom who has Dementia. Between her needs, work, etc I seem to have lost control of my time. I am still writing and am trying hard to get back to my blog.

In case you weren't aware Phaze and HSWF which where under the Mundania Umbrella have closed. I was smart enough to get my titles back before all this happened. I'm happy to say the three books I sold to HSWF have been picked up by Melange Books and are available through their Satin Books imprint. I have even sold a new title to them called Magical Quest due out in 2022

I have also been lucky enough to find a publisher for my Vespian Way series. I'm now with Blushing Books under the name of Bethany Drake. I have five titles out with them right now and am close to submitting two more. There's Desire's Destiny, Desire's Duty and Desire's Promise. Then there is two in my werewolf series, Tears of the Queen and Legend of the Tears. I have just finished the rough draft of the third book in the series and have plans for a fourth one the moment I submit it.

I'll probably still be sporadic here on the blog. Unless I win the lottery and can hire someone to help me I can't avoid it, but know I'm still here still working hard in the background and am hoping to do better at keeping my blog alive.

Barb:)



Sunday, December 2, 2012

Writing Down the Bones: More about tags

So back to the he said she said. These tags help your reader know who's talking.

There are several places you can place your tags - before, in the middle or after dialog.

If you put the tag first:
I see a lot of new writers do this. They start with description, then do dialog, then put a he said or she said at the end as well. You don't need all that. If you have something in the beginning, and it identifies the character speaking, that is all you need.

Here's an example:

Mary sat at the bar, nursing her soda. "I wondered when you'd get here," said Mary.
Her friend sat next to her.

With the part about Mary nursing her drink we already know where she is and what she is doing. If the dialogue is in the same paragraph as the description then as a reader you're going to assume that Mary is the one talking. That extra tag isn't needed.

So lets look at it again:
Mary sat at the bar, nursing her soda. "I wondered when you'd get here."
Her friend sat next to her.

Having the description, or tag, before the dialog will also slow down your action. If you have too many it will make the scene drag. so you need to make sure you have your tags at the right places.

"I wondered when you'd get here." Mary sat at the bar, nursing her drink.
Her friend sat next to her.

Having the dialog first picks up the pace a little more.

Now let's see how this changes again when the dialogue is last.

Mary sat at the bar, nursing her drink.
Her friend sat next to her.
"I wondered when you'd get here," said Mary.

The pace of the scene changes with each of these examples.

Tags are sneaky little devils. They seem to be something simple, but as you can see they are an important part of your story. They give information to your reader, help set the pace, and let us know who's talking.

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