One area I try to improve on in my fiction is hitting the right balance between exposition and dialogue. So I was thrilled to listen to literary agent Jill Marr's suggestions on how to do that during her "Exposition versus Dialogue" presentation at the All Write Now! Conference.
Here are the ten takeaways I plan to focus on from list she discussed:
* Write it down then go back over the telling part and change to show.
* Start as late as
you can in the plot.
* Lock up back story
and let out only when needed.
* Don’t have two
characters talking about what they already know.
* Don’t use quotes
on an entire page.
* Fold exposition in
like eggs into a batter.
* Don’t give up great heaps
of information.
* Dialogue has to ring true.
* Use italics for interior dialogue.
* Don't use he said/she said if it's obvious who is speaking.
How about you: Do you find any of the above suggestions helpful when writing fiction?
