Okay Dearies, Style Maven's Snarky Cousin is back after an extended time away. I do hope everyone had a simply marvelous good time while I was gone, writing those wonderful words of gold. I've abandoned my own words of gold to pop in to remind you darling new writers about a few basic elements of craft. In writing a book, it's not enough to put words on a computer screen and hit publish. Really it's not. It can have the most disastrous effect on readers. There was a time when one took classes - creative writing classes - in which we darling new writers learned important craft elements. One of which is the proper use of dialogue. For instance, if you have two longtime friends sharing a bit of bubbly and some juicy gossip, you totally spoil the moment with awkward exposition. What? You don't know what awkward exposition is? OMG, as the young people might say. Let me bring you in out of the cold. Your two lovely characters are chatting away when they start...

Standard dialogue tags are said and asked . The mind skips over them, so they are invisible. "It is hotly debated whether you should ever use colorful or adverb tags," she muttered. "Some editors don't mind a few creative tags." "Some may allow adverb tags," she said skeptically. "Adverb tags are generally frowned upon." " Break this rule at your own peril," she said mischievously. Your dialogue should look like one of these examples. Note the correct formatting. Commas, periods, and question marks should fall within the quotation marks. A comma separates the dialogue from the standard tag. A period separates the dialogue from an action tag. The same formatting for the standard tag applies to a creative tag or action tags. No tag : "I see." Standard tag in the front : Sherlock said, "I see." Standard tag in the middle : "I see," Sherlock said. "I have been misinformed." ...