and then she said...

I love writing dialog. I like hearing my characters' voices in my head and putting them down on paper, along with action. I see the scene happening as I write. I find I rarely use "he said" or "she said"--I tend to use an action. For example:

“Why don’t you just kill her off?” Yvonne grimaced and slurped her tea at my kitchen table. “She’s such a burden.” My precious older sister fingered the flowered saucer rim as if it were in Braille and might give her some further insight. The light in my kitchen flamed her short, auburn hair.

I like using the dialog and tags to reveal something about the character, instead of just "she said." I want my readers to see Yvonne with her short auburn hair, making a face and running her finger around the saucer rim. I want them to see action, not just hear her voice--which is pretty matter-of-fact. Yvonne sees life very simply. What works, works. What doesn't ought to get dumped. And she feels that having an alter-ego author of best-selling books (Claire) is making her sister Anna (the heroine) crazy. Or maybe just crazier.

Of course, there's more dialog to this picture of Yvonne, which reveals Anna's confusion and insecurities. I mean, that's what the whole book is about: insecurities, overcoming, giving up hiding, finding Anna's own identity. I'm finding that almost everything I write these days has something to do with identity. I've probably said that before.

Rats. Now I'm distracted by the fact that I can's figure out how to get this back to single space. I'll never cut and paste into this again. :)