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Focusing on their careers but making time for each other.

Starting a family or community project together.

How to Use the Quiz:

Track Progress:Use the quiz to map out the progression of your characters’ relationship, identifying key turning points and emotional milestones.

Character Insights:Analyze how each character’s answers reflect their personality, fears, and desires, providing deeper insight into their motivations and how they view the relationship.

Plot Development:Let the quiz inspire scenes, conflicts, and resolutions in your story, ensuring the romantic subplot is intertwined with the main narrative in a meaningful way.

Because you’re answering from the viewpoint ofbothmain characters, this exercise is especially interesting and useful in helping you craft a love story that resonates with readers and adds depth to your narrative.

8. Let’s Talk About Dialogue

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Let’s Talk About Dialogue

Dialogue in literatureis basically the written conversation between two or more characters. It’s a vital part of storytelling, bringing characters to life and moving the plot forward. It can reveal their personalities, relationships, and the dynamics between them.

Dialogue also helps to show rather than tell, allowing readers to infer what’s happening without explicit description. Dialogue can be a powerful tool to unravel clues, build tension, and develop a mystery. Plus, it’s great for pacing, adding realism, and giving readers a break from narrative and description. It’s like letting your characters speak directly to the reader, making the story more engaging and dynamic.

Most authors believe that dialogue is their particular strength. But remember Pareto’s Principle? Dialogue cannot be EVERY author’s strength. So, let’s refresh ourselves on what makes for good dialogue by considering the elements that make dialogue stand out, especially in the mystery and crime genres where every word can be a clue:

1. Authenticity

Dialogue should sound real. Think about how people speak in real life, including pauses, beats, and the occasionalahs,ers, andums. HOWEVER, use restraint. Dialogue isnotreal-life conversation. It must be smarter, sharper, more entertaining, and move the story along. It cannot ramble pointlessly. It must never bore the reader.

2. Character Voice

Each character should have a distinct way of speaking that reflects their background, personality, and current mood. This helps readers distinguish between characters and adds depth to them. HOWEVER, don’t get carried away with accents and affectations. Think about the challenges you’re presenting to the narrator of your audiobooks. Above all, the cozy mystery must be readable.

3. Advancing the Plot

Good dialogue moves the story forward, revealing plot points, secrets, and conflicts. Especially in mystery writing, dialogue can drop hints and red herrings, keeping the reader engaged. No quibbles here. That is absolutely a must for dialogue.

4. Revealing Information

Beyond plot, dialogue can reveal character motives, relationships, and changes in dynamics. It’s a subtle tool for exposition, letting you avoid heavy-handed narration and awkward info dumps. HOWEVER, avoid clumsy and unrealistic conversations that real people would never have, like, “As you know, since we’ve both lived here and owned small businesses on this island for twenty years…”

5. Conciseness

Each line of dialogue should serve a purpose, whether it’s developing character, advancing the plot, or adding tension. While I’m not saying that author voice isn’t important in the cozy mystery, cozies have their own clean, straightforward style. Again, it’s quality versus quantity of detail. You don’t need a lot of literary pirouettes in the cozy. A breezy, conversational tone will serve you well. Trim any dialogue that doesn’t add value.

6. Subtext

Often, what’s not said is just as important as what is. Good dialogue can have layers of meaning, with characters speaking around issues or through metaphors, adding richness to their interactions. Subtext is where characters say one thing but mean another. For example, when a character answers with that loaded wordfine. Or where a character’s actions and expressions don’t line up with what they’re saying. Body language can be a kind of subtext.

Subtext can add layers of complexity, revealing hidden motives, emotions, and truths, making it a powerful tool in your storytelling arsenal, especially in emotional scenes or when weaving clues into your mysteries.

7. Conflict and Tension

Dialogue should often reflect or build conflict, creating tension that propels the story forward. This is crucial in mystery and crime fiction, where dialogue can escalate the stakes or reveal conflicts.

8. Natural Flow

The back-and-forth of dialogue should feel natural and dynamic, mimicking real conversation’s rhythm. This keeps readers engaged and makes the characters’ interactions more believable.