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Beginning authors tend to overuse “said bookisms,” which are any word used to replace the word “said.”  For example, in the sentence “I’m ready!” he declared, declared is a said-bookism.

The danger is that using more than a few said-bookisms per page will probably make the dialogue feel melodramatic and stilted (“I’m hungry,” he uttered). Some common said-bookisms are wrong because they aren’t actually a way to speak.  For example, “I knew you’d come back,” she smiled lazily conflates two actions: the speaking and the smiling.   No, she didn’t smile those words.  It would be clearer and more publisher-friendly to either change the phrase to “she said with a smile” or give the two actions their own sentences.

Additionally, animal-sounds are typically very annoying.  It doesn’t take much of him clucking and her purring to sound absolutely ridiculous.

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If your characters are comfortable, chances are that the story isn’t doing anything interesting. “Could you pass me a crumpet, dearie?” Far too many manuscripts get bogged down in characters chatting. Scenes that focus on chatting are typically boring and pointless. Fortunately, you can easily fix these scenes by adding discomfort and conflict. What if the two conversants hated each other but couldn’t avoid talking? What if John and Margaret had utterly failed on a joint project at work and they could only keep their job by moving past what had gone wrong? Or what if John were obnoxiously, madly in love with Margaret? Suddenly the scene has potential. Dramatic possibilities abound.

Here’s a webcomic to help remind you to keep things uncomfortable.

I found these two articles on writing male speech and female speech quite useful.

This article will help you write tight and effective dialogue, courtesy of Shut Up, He Explained.

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How to Improve Your Characters

1. How to Name Characters (Superheroes and Otherwise)
2. How to Develop Interesting Characters– Easily!
3. List of Character Attributes
4. Writing Male Characters
5. Please Avoid Modeling Your Characters on Your Friends
6. Don’t Make Your Villains Unnecessarily Evil
7. NEW: Why Secret Origins Usually Fail (”Leia’s my sister!?!”)
8. NEW: How to Use Characters with Mental Disorders

These Characters Usually Kill Manuscripts

1. Children
2. Mentors
3. Mary Sues (for definition, hold cursor here)
4. Part-Time Dragons (for definition, hold cursor here)
5. Homo Superiors (for definition, hold cursor here)
6. NEW: Immortals

How to Improve Your Titles

1. 10 Words that Will Probably Ruin Your Title
2. 10 Common Mistakes of Novel Titles
3. How to Write Titles That Sell (Novels and Chapters)
4. Your Title is Bad, But You Can Fix It (Part 1)
5. Your Title is Bad, But You Can Fix It (Part 2)
6. Your Title is Bad, But You Can Fix It (Part 3)
7. Your Title is Bad… (Part 4)
8. Your Title is Bad… (Part 5)
9. Your Title is Bad… (Part 6)
10. Your Title is Bad… (Part 7)
11. Your Title is Bad… (Part 8)
12. Your Title is Bad… (Part 9)

Structuring Your Story

1. How to Write Strong Introductions (Novels)
2. The Five Worst Novel Introductions
3. Don’t Wait to Introduce Your Main Character
4. NEW: Make Your Story Interesting with Urgent Goals
5. NEW:  Common Problems with First-Person Narration
6. NEW: Common Problems with Third-Person Narration
7. Your Introduction Should Not Read Like an Atlas
   
8. Organizing Your Plot: Five Kinds of Central Plots
9. Story Structure
10. Don’t Let Your Characters Walk Away from the Story

How to Avoid Common Writing Mistakes

1. 5 Common Mistakes of First-Time Authors (Part 1)
2. 5 Common Mistakes of First-Time Authors (Part 2)
3. 5 Common Mistakes of First-Time Authors (Part 3)
4. 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 4)
5. 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 5)
6. 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 6)
7. 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 7)
8. 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 8)
9. 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 9)
10. 5 Common Mistakes… (Part 10)

Dialogue

1. Avoid These Common Dialogue Mistakes
2. Don’t Use Bad Accents
3. Keep Your Dialogue Tight

Other Writing Mechanics

1. How to Write Gripping Scenes
2. Write Concisely!
3. Eliminate Gimmicks in Your Writing
4. Don’t Abuse “There’s”
5. 9 Words That Should Never Start a Sentence
6. A Few Notes on Punctuation
7. NEW:  Make Your Story Intriguing, Not Cryptic

Editing and Refining Your Work

1. 100 Questions to Test Your Story
2. Style Checklist
3. How to Make the Most of Beta Reviews
   
4. How to Evaluate Your Writing with Google Analytics

Website Design

1. How to Format WordPress Text for Your Website
2. Organizing Your Site
3. NEW: You Can Do Better Than Archives
   
4. SOON: Picking a WordPress Theme

Marketing

1. How to Design Strong Header Art
2. Promotional Events that Work

Social Commentary in Fiction

1. So You Want to be an Opinionated Author
   
2. Writing About Racism
3. How Valid is Diversity Criticism?