Useful post from Dan Alatorre about avoiding Telling and eradicating or at least reducing those crutch words that we love to use so much.
This lesson is invaluable, so read carefully.
Wait, does invaluable mean no value or lots of value? Quick internet search… Okay.
Yeah, there’s gold in today’s lesson.
BODY LANGUAGE = GOOD
CRUTCH WORDS = BAD
Also, a way to find and deal with your crutch words. Didn’t know you had those? You do.
Tag, your manuscript is it!
First, let’s discuss dialogue tags: those little phrases that follow a section of dialogue.
“Run,” he said.
“Why?” she asked.
“There’s a T-Rex coming!” He exclaimed.
“Oh,” she said warily.
Okay?
One of my favorite things to do is to wait until a new author writes “Why?” she asked and then I say, “Lose the tag, we know she asked – the question mark gave it away.”
It’s fun for…
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M J Mallon YA Author and Poet 