Post the second

National Novel Writing Month, followed quickly by the use of dialogue tags.

Well I said I'd talk about National Novel Writing Month this week, and I will, albeit briefly. NaNoWriMo, is an opportunity for people who have always wanted to write a novel, or have never finished a novel to get a little bit of a push in the right direction. You pledge to finish a 50,000 word novel with in the month of November. Of course there's only one more week so don't forget to sign up next year.
Now on to a a subject that's near and dear to my heart. Dialogue tags. In the year or so I've been working in Fiction writing classes problems with dialogue are probably the number one thing that comes up again and again. (Not to mention dailogue grammar but we'll get there later).
Tags are tricky because you want the reader to know what your character is feeling while they're talking. But as Anne M. Marble points out in her blog it's easy to over use fancy dialogue tags. Most readers will ignore said since they're so use to saying it, but of course thats boring. However if you continually use, hissed, lauged, screamed, ect it will be to distracting. So what now?
An excellent option is instead of using tags like this use narration. For instance you could say:
"I'll kill you!" screamed Charles.
However, this is still rather dry. Instead you could say:
"I'll kill you!" Charles brandished a knife at her.
Using actions instead of Dialogue tags can bring the reader more deeply into the narrative, and are simply more interesting to read then simple dialogue tags.

First Post

The interesting thing about being a writer is getting advice on being a writer. In all the years I've been a writer, I've read books, essays, blurbs, etc about being a writer and no two people agree. Some say you should write every day, other says when you can. Write about what you know, write whatever comes to you. The advice is endless.
So what I'll be doing here is filtering. Going through online "writer's blogs" and presenting the information here as easily as I can.
To begin with (for all the people who want to be published) is an article by Chris Webb Executive Editor for John Wiley and Sons, entitled "Five Ways to get me to quickly reject your book proposal." http://ckwebb.com/publishing/5-ways-to-get-me-to-quickly-reject-your-book-proposal/
Honestly, what it boils down to is be professional. There's nothing better for you to than to be professional. It doesn't matter if your book is about living in the woods and growing pot, the people you are trying to sell your book to are business men (and women).
Next time: National Novel Writing Month (Maybe)
-Max