Wulf Moon's SUPER SECRETS Workshop & Challenge!

@cweaver Sounds like you've got this, Catherine!

Crystal shared Ryland's website with you, and he's a member of the Wulf Pack. He's on top of all the latest, and I'd be sure to subscribe to his updates if I were you. Another great way to find target markets is to join the search engine The Submission Grinder. You can enter your stories, do searches based on pay, track results, see other writers' results at markets--it's free and it's a wonderful tool. Takes a bit to get used to, but I highly recommend it.

Thanks for reading my writing articles. There's one in every issue of DreamForge Anvil, and one of my stories there as well, as well as many others from members of the Wulf Pack. It's an excellent market you should consider when they open, and I recommend subscribing to support their cause. They are all about publishing hopeful writers--the editor is a WotF winner himself!

Best of success!

Moon

Ryland's blog is awesome. By far the best I've seen.

You can also try plugging your story details into 'The Submission Grinder'. It's a great search engine, and it's free. 

Thank you, Moon and Scott for opening a new world of online resources for me!

I'm trying to follow along with the challenge and report. 🙂

I just finished a children's story. It wasn't 3000 words because of the genre. It was 600 words, which was the upper limit. I submitted it to a reputable contest which could lead to publication and a cash prize. It had a limited vocabulary because it was for 4-7 year-olds, but I was happy with it anyway. 

I feel like writing like that helps me hone my storytelling skills. 

I had a delightful day at planet comic Con this weekend in Kansas City where I happened to meet Jodi Lynn Nye. She she did mention that she is still reading quarter one. You do not need to twitch yet.

Happy Monday, Challenge Beasties! I'm giving you two writing prompts to choose from this Monday, because I can't remember if I used one of these before, and Dead Drop is a good one if I didn't. Here you go, and I think the first would make for a great comedy piece:

"Everything is fine. You have absolutely nothing to worry about." OR

Dead Drop.

Happy writing, you KYDers! We just had several in this Super Secrets Year 4 registered group sell stories we worked on to a pro anthology! More news to come when contracts are signed! Amazing work!!! 

Cheers!

Beastmaster Moon

Have you noticed some SUPER SECRETS have been disappearing? Don't worry, they're not. In fact, they've been purchased, upgraded, and are waiting for you for FREE in every issue of DreamForge Anvil magazine! Check out the latest! May it help your dialogue soar in your next Writers of the Future submission!

"Write Smart Dialogue!" by Wulf Moon. Click HERE.

Posted by: @wulfmoon

Have you noticed some SUPER SECRETS have been disappearing? Don't worry, they're not. In fact, they've been purchased, upgraded, and are waiting for you for FREE in every issue of DreamForge Anvil magazine! Check out the latest! May it help your dialogue soar in your next Writers of the Future submission!

"Write Smart Dialogue!" by Wulf Moon. Click HERE.

I was reading some of my old writing yesterday (written before I found the Super Secrets) and I cringed every time I read ‘he hollered excitedly’ and ‘she cried despondently.’

*shudder*

No wonder those stories never sold. 

WRITE SMART DIALOGUE ASSIGNMENT!

I know, I know, I said this would be a self-directed workshop this year. However, I did not say there would not be exercises. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger! So for all those that are enrolled in this year's challenge (but onlurkers are always encouraged to do this on their own), please read the article in the post above, and then post your answers in this thread to the following questions. You have one week.

1. What is the beauty of said?

2. What are saidisms?

3. Why do saidisms bog down dialogue?

4. So why do beginning writers feel the need to use them?

5. Correct the first Jack and Jill example. Don't post it here, this is just for you to practice on.

6. What are beats?

7. Why can beats be more effective than doing strings of he saids, she saids?

8. What are "As you know, Bobs"?

9. How can we train ourselves to write smart dialogue that sounds realistic and not artificially manufactured? 

10. Please review the last story you wrote. After absorbing these lessons, can you truthfully say you wrote smart dialogue? Great! Advance to go, collect $200 ... from your publisher!

Class dismissed.

Beastmaster Moon

Posted by: @lost_bard

I was reading some of my old writing yesterday (written before I found the Super Secrets) and I cringed every time I read ‘he hollered excitedly’ and ‘she cried despondently.’

*shudder*

No wonder those stories never sold. 

We all did it when we began, David. But if it stuck with us, we now must do away with the traits of a babe and enter the adult world of writing. If we hope to sell. If we hope to win contests like Writers of the Future. Thanks for your bravery in sharing. 

Beastmaster Moon

Posted by: @wulfmoon

WRITE SMART DIALOGUE ASSIGNMENT!

1. What is the beauty of said? It’s invisible to the reader
2. What are saidisms? Dialogue tags that replace said with descriptive verbs and adverbs
3. Why do saidisms bog down dialogue? Fills a story with extraneous detail, slows pacing
4. So why do beginning writers feel the need to use them? New writers think they need to spice up their dialogue and don’t trust the reader to interpret context from what is said
5. Correct the first Jack and Jill example. Don't post it here, this is just for you to practice on. Done
6. What are beats? An action before or after the dialogue that identifies the speaker
7. Why can beats be more effective than doing strings of he saids, she saids? Adds motion to the dialogue, conveys character, and provides setting detail without lengthy exposition
8. What are "As you know, Bobs"? When characters state information the other already knows; a sign of an infodump
9. How can we train ourselves to write smart dialogue that sounds realistic and not artificially manufactured? Go dropping eaves... Listen to people talking, eavesdrop on conversations
10. Please review the last story you wrote. After absorbing these lessons, can you truthfully say you wrote smart dialogue? Great! Advance to go, collect $200 ... from your publisher! Yes!

@jennyperrycarr  Good work here, Jenny. You may proceed to Go. ?

1. What is the beauty of said? The reader doesn't notice it. 

2. What are saidisms? Verbs and adjectives that replace said as a dialogue tag. 

3. Why do saidisms bog down dialogue? They restate the emotions of the dialogue after the text has already expressed it. 

4. So why do beginning writers feel the need to use them? They don't trust the reader to get the emotions conveyed by the text. 

5. Correct the first Jack and Jill example. Don't post it here, this is just for you to practice on. Did it.

6. What are beats? An action that happens before or after a dialogue that identifies the speaker by name.

7. Why can beats be more effective than doing strings of he saids, she said? They break up the dialogue by showing actions taken during the scene. So momentum continues even though the characters are speaking. 

8. What are "As you know, Bobs"? A conversation where the writer info dumps a lot of information unnecessarily and in an obvious way in a conversation.

9. How can we train ourselves to write smart dialogue that sounds realistic and not artificially manufactured? Listen to people talking and make sure your character's word choice matches their background. 

10. Please review the last story you wrote. After absorbing these lessons, can you truthfully say you wrote smart dialogue? Great! Advance to go, collect $200 ... from your publisher! Luckily I reviewed a story and I found a couple of saidisms that leaked in there. Now I can fix them before they go out. 

Posted by: @jarrodkwilliams

8. What are "As you know, Bobs"? A conversation where the writer info dumps a lot of information unnecessarily and in an obvious way in a conversation.

Great answers in your assignment as well, Jarrod. You also caught the additional point in #9: making sure word choice matches the characters' backgrounds. So important!

I'll clarify #8. "As you know, Bobs" and conversational infodumps are close cousins, but not quite the same. "As you know, Bobs" are actually dialogue statements where two characters already know the facts but state them anyway for the exclusive benefit of the reader. Since the characters talking already know the details or are already experts in their field, the writer has them say, 'As you know' to cover it. But they'd never state such info between them in real life, so it's a gimmick writers should avoid. An editor will call you out on it. Actually, they most likely won't. They don't have the time. They'll just send the story back.

Great work checking your manuscript and catching a few saidisms that slipped through. They can add up and lower the status of your story in a jiffy. Glad this Super Secrets assignment helped! You may advance to GO. You may collect $200 . . . from your publisher!

Posted by: @wulfmoon

WRITE SMART DIALOGUE ASSIGNMENT!

I've intentionally not read what the others wrote yet, so here goes:

1. What is the beauty of said?

--Said is invisible, like punctuation. The reader glosses over it while absorbing the dialogue tag, providing clarity to the writing without bogging it down.

2. What are saidisms?

--Those wonderfully descriptive verbs that say how somebody said something. He gushed, exclaimed, shouted, or murmured. The occasional saidism is okay, but its like salt in cooking. If you scatter that stuff everywhere, it's unpalatable. Just a pinch in just the right place provides maximum effect.

3. Why do saidisms bog down dialogue?

--Because unlike said, saidisms are not invisible. The reader has to read and interpret the coding on each saidism, which slows the reading down.

4. So why do beginning writers feel the need to use them?

--We feel the need to explain everything, and saidisms can be beautiful and descriptive. For beginning writers who haven't figured out how to write individual character voice, this is a way of telling the reader how something was said. However, a more skilled writer can show a reader that something was yelled or whispered or gushed simply by the way it is written and through the use of beats (discussed below). Then the saidisms become 99% unnecessary.

5. Correct the first Jack and Jill example. Don't post it here, this is just for you to practice on.

--Done!

6. What are beats?

--A beat is a method of showing who is talking by describing an action prior to or within the dialogue, which then removes the need for a dialogue tag. e.g.:

Frank drew back the revolver's hammer with a click. "Walk away, Charlie."

"You won't shoot me."

"I won't kill you. There's a difference."

--With a single beat I identified both speakers and didn't require said or saidisms. So long as I maintain individual voice (Frank grim and determined, Charlie disbelieving and wheedling), I could continue this dialogue string for quite a few more lines without requiring a dialogue tag.

7. Why can beats be more effective than doing strings of he saids, she saids?

--Dialogue beats streamline the text while providing the opportunity to show what's happening around the dialogue - and can give opportunity for internal and external emotional beats (Charlie arched an eyebrow (disbelief), Frank's gut churned (anxiety)).

8. What are "As you know, Bobs"?

--'As you know, Bobs' (also known as 'maid and butler dialogue') is an old stage technique of having the characters discuss something that they know but the reader doesn't. It comes across as contrived because it's not a conversation they would normally have. If the author needs to provide baseline knowledge, they can:

a. Have dialogue between an expert and a novice (or one with the knowledge and one without). The expert describes the technical aspect that the author needs to convey and it sounds natural to have the novice asking questions.

b. Simply outline the required knowledge in a line or two when it's natural for the protagonist to be thinking about it. Beware of making this an info dump. If it becomes an info dump, the author may need to break it up across paragraphs/sections when it's again natural for the protagonist to be thinking about it.

9. How can we train ourselves to write smart dialogue that sounds realistic and not artificially manufactured? 

--Listen to how people actually talk. Make note of personalities in conversations and how people interact based on authority levels, ages, background, etc. While I try to have a destination for the dialogue, I always ask myself how that particular character would react to what was just said (this comes back to character voice). Don't be afraid to edit the dialogue afterwards if it doesn't feel right, or if its overburdened with saidisms.

10. Please review the last story you wrote. After absorbing these lessons, can you truthfully say you wrote smart dialogue?

--Done! Waiting on my $200.

1. What is the beauty of said? It's a simple verb. It's so commonly used it blends in with the rest of the story instead of calling attention to itself. 

2. What are saidisms? Other tags used in place of said to describe how something is essentially said. Usually adverbs. 

3. Why do saidisms bog down dialogue? They call attention to themselves even though they are likely unimportant for the actual plot, story, or character development. Kind of like increasing quantity of diversity but diminishing its quality. 

4. So why do beginning writers feel the need to use them? They don't trust readers to otherwise understand the emotional response they're trying to get across. 

5. Correct the first Jack and Jill example. Don't post it here, this is just for you to practice on. Oops! almost posted. Dunzo. 

6. What are beats? It's a way to avoid using even said by attributing an action to a character before they speak so it's clear who is speaking. 

7. Why can beats be more effective than doing strings of he saids, she saids? It cuts down on repetition and gets to the action/plot of the story faster.

8. What are "As you know, Bobs"? A lazy way to try to inform readers of important information by having characters recall it to each other.

I have a question kind of tangential to these actually. Is there a name for dialogue where one character doesn't know something and some wise person/sage needs to explain the rules to them? It's not maid butler since one character doesn't know it but I also often feel like it's a lazy way to get information across to a reader. 

9. How can we train ourselves to write smart dialogue that sounds realistic and not artificially manufactured?  Yes! Listen to real conversations happening around us. 

10. Please review the last story you wrote. After absorbing these lessons, can you truthfully say you wrote smart dialogue? Great! Advance to go, collect $200 ... from your publisher! So the last story yes but if I go back far enough before I started studying the craft of writing. Oh my, I did one exercise where I purposely used as many saidisms as I could. 

1. What is the beauty of said? It's invisible and doesn't intrude on your story.

2. What are saidisms? A tag designed to define how someone spoke instead of writing dialogue with words that leave no doubt.

3. Why do saidisms bog down dialogue? Because 1. they tend to restate the obvious. If you've written something stupid enough that a character snorts, you've probably indicated the stupidity in the dialogue. 2. because it's like a referree getting between the pitcher's mound and home plate and shouting, "The pitcher grunted as he threw the ball!" and "Babe gasped as he swung!" Take out the tags and let the words speak.

4. So why do beginning writers feel the need to use them? They don't trust the reader, which really means they don't trust their own writing. Sometimes they might be showing off. After all, we love displaying how erudite we are through our verbage. LOL Mostly I think it's a trust issue.

6. What are beats? A method of tagging dialogue through action.

7. Why can beats be more effective than doing strings of he saids, she saids? Because they are showing the characters doing things that SHOULD define the characters. This gets rid of talking head syndrome because we can see them, but it also is a getting to know you moment no author should ignore.

8. What are "As you know, Bobs"? Also called Maid and Butler dialogue. They're dialogue said to fill the reader in on something the characters already know. The maid would know her mistress arrives from London that night. The whole staff, including the butler, knows. So they'd never discuss that arrival with one another with dialogue like, "You do know Madame arrives by 8 this evening? She will require a nightcap, as usual."

9. How can we train ourselves to write smart dialogue that sounds realistic and not artificially manufactured? 1. Trust your instincts as a reader and writer. If something sounds super emotional, cheesy or overwrought, it is. Not probably. It is too emotional, cheesy or overwrought. 2. Listen to how people talk and TAKE NOTES. I once visited a Hancock's fabric with my mom. I don't sew. I drooled with boredom until a teen complained two aisles away. I could see every expression. Hear every word, and it was gold. She said gems I will never be able to put into a character's mouth because she'd seen me watching and I didn't want it obvious I wrote down what she said. Take notes. Still kicking myself.

10. Please review the last story you wrote. After absorbing these lessons, can you truthfully say you wrote smart dialogue? Great! Advance to go, collect $200 ... from your publisher! Ooof. Off I go to reexamine my Q2!

I'm not sure I can add much more than others have for this exercise, but my answers are pasted below.

1. What is the beauty of said?

Unobtrusive and practically invisible. Helps the reader follow who is speaking. The reader is free to figure out emotions behind the words by other cues in the narrative, dialogue, and mannerisms of the character in question. Plus the internal thoughts of the main POV character and how he or she perceives the other characters words and intentions behind the words.

2. What are saidisms?

Using descriptive verbs or adverbs other than said or adjectives to describe how the speaker is saying the thing they are saying. A common mistake made by new authors, feeling the need to tell the reader how to interpret the feelings of the characters behind the words they are saying. It can distract the reader and is a cheap trick and lazy way to convey emotion. Even polished, professional, and well-read bestselling authors sometimes use saidisms. But as they say, know the rules before you break the rules. Give the reader an experience. Don’t tell them how to experience a scene.

3. Why do saidisms bog down dialogue?

Instead of paying attention to the actual words in the dialogue exchange, the reader is bogged down by being told how the character speaking feels and how it is that they are speaking. Perhaps a reader doesn’t mind a fine sprinkling of saidisms spread out far from each other just to get into the exchange, but replacing saidisms with the verb said will make for a cleaner and leaner reading experience.

4. So why do beginning writers feel the need to use them?

Reason 1 would be that they are following the examples of other authors they have read when they were young and inexperienced readers. Reason 2 is that they aren’t providing a polished immersive experience for their readers by getting into the skin and walking around in the POV character enough. Perhaps they mean to change saidisms later when employing an edit to add more sensory details to immerse their reader in their story. Perhaps they are just practicing writing and haven’t really got beyond story starts. I have a notebook filled with story beginnings and characters I drew of stories that never made it much past chapter one. I think saidisms are a potential failure of the writer to really imagine the world of the characters and the actual characters. Instead the characters are like paper dolls and the settings are like a green screen that is mostly blank.

5. Correct the first Jack and Jill example. Don't post it here, this is just for you to practice on.

done

6. What are beats?

Beats show character action in a scene. Instead of dialogue and dialogue tag it’s dialogue and an action done by the character behind the words: e.g. “I’ll show you.” Jack grabbed up the pail and started up the hill in an angry rush. His face flushed with frustration, and he nearly tripped several times because he wasn’t watching where he stepped.

7. Why can beats be more effective than doing strings of he saids, she saids?

Beats provide character actions which carry the story forward, can add tension to the scene, and show emotional context to the reader more than a dialogue tag.

8. What are "As you know, Bobs"?

Anytime the writer tells background of a plot point through dialogue of characters that already know the background having lived through it. It’s a cheap device to move the story along without placing background in a long, cumbersome, narrative paragraph. If one character explains to another the whys or hows or whats the character listening has to be a. naïve and b. need the information in order to survive the next plot point. But if both characters have the same experience, it’s unrealistic that one would ask the other to explain something both know well. If there’s such a dialogue exchange, it means the writer needs to figure out a way to convey the information to the reader in the narrative instead. Also, don’t be afraid to trust the reader knows more and doesn’t need this information dump in the first place.

9. How can we train ourselves to write smart dialogue that sounds realistic and not artificially manufactured? 

It can be a real challenge to have each character speak in a unique way that indicates his or her education, social economic statis, age, etc. I would say that this is an area I need to work on in my own writing. When “auditioning” characters for a story, this is part of what is important to figure out when drawing character sketches. Paying attention to natural dialogue can be helpful, but dialogue in a story will wind up being cleaner than actual dialogue which would have more ums, ahs, repeated phrases, etc. Also, dialects can flavor dialogue, but spelling dialect words exactly can make it tough for a reader. I remember picking up Uncle Remus tales in elementary school and not being able to get past the first page because I had no idea what Uncle Remus was saying. I just couldn’t get the actual words from the way the author spelled out his talk. When writing dialect, I understand that using a sprinkling of select words to identify a speaker can go a long way and not bog down the reader. Anyway, I’m still working on this in my writing.

10. Please review the last story you wrote. After absorbing these lessons, can you truthfully say you wrote smart dialogue? Great! Advance to go, collect $200 ... from your publisher!

Done, and yes for a super short story I wrote: No saids or saidisms or adjectives. I used a combination of action beats and ping-pong dialogue. The story is super short, though. Less than a thousand words. In a longer work I used “said” 22 times, “asked” 6 times, used 4 “saidisms” (e.g. grumped), and no adverbs for a story that is 6,600 words long. I should trim down “saidisms” the next time I edit a story for submission.

Posted by: @lost_bard

6. What are beats?

--A beat is a method of showing who is talking by describing an action prior to or within the dialogue, which then removes the need for a dialogue tag. e.g.:

Frank drew back the revolver's hammer with a click. "Walk away, Charlie."

"You won't shoot me."

"I won't kill you. There's a difference."

--With a single beat I identified both speakers and didn't require said or saidisms. So long as I maintain individual voice (Frank grim and determined, Charlie disbelieving and wheedling), I could continue this dialogue string for quite a few more lines without requiring a dialogue tag.

Excellent answers here, Lost Bard! Loved your example on how to use beats. Fun and well done! 

As for your $200, you and I both know you’re about to collect it from your publisher. ? Your second respectable sale, this one at pro level! All since you joined the Super Secrets Workshop! Smart practice does yield rewards. You’re living proof! Keep up the great work!

Beastmaster Moon

Posted by: @scribblesatdusk

I have a question kind of tangential to these actually. Is there a name for dialogue where one character doesn't know something and some wise person/sage needs to explain the rules to them? It's not maid butler since one character doesn't know it but I also often feel like it's a lazy way to get information across to a reader. 

Great answers as well, Scribbles! Good question above. I’ve never heard of a term for it, so I’ll make my own in the upcoming books. It’s a close cousin to As You Know Bob, but slightly different as the person talked to by the expert actually doesn’t know. If one is not judicious, it can become a dialogue infodump for the purpose of transferring expert knowledge to the reader. I’d dub this trick The Ignorant Layperson. It’s a way to provide a proxy for the reader so the writer can talk directly to them, without talking directly to them, which would create what’s known as Authorial Intrusion.

An excellent example of this is the reporter being filled in by a scientist in Isaac Asimov’s classic, “Nightfall.” Does the tool work? Yes, or the story would not be a classic. Would the technique sail so well today? Depends on how much you use it, and how natural or unnatural the conversation sounds.   It’s used in detective and court room drama stories frequently to explain procedures to clients, in effect filling in the reader on information they may not know, but is essential to the plot.

The Ignorant Layperson. 

You may advance to GO. ?

Posted by: @wulfmoon

1. What is the beauty of said?

It doesn't distract your reader from the story.

2. What are saidisms?

Modifying words or phrases used instead of "said" to try to bludgeon the reader into understanding the emotions you're trying to impart.

3. Why do saidisms bog down dialogue?

They distract the reader from the dialogue.

4. So why do beginning writers feel the need to use them?

They are not confident that their dialogue will be interesting or really communicate what the characters are feeling.

5. Correct the first Jack and Jill example. Don't post it here, this is just for you to practice on.

okay

6. What are beats?

They are short statements of action that the speaking character is taking while talking, placed next to the dialogue.

7. Why can beats be more effective than doing strings of he saids, she saids?

They logically move the story along in a natural way.

8. What are "As you know, Bobs"?

This is when characters talk about things they already know because they think the reader won't know them. This is essentially "breaking the fourth wall," and can really only ever effectively be done in comedy.

9. How can we train ourselves to write smart dialogue that sounds realistic and not artificially manufactured? 

Listen to people talking.

10. Please review the last story you wrote. After absorbing these lessons, can you truthfully say you wrote smart dialogue? Great! Advance to go, collect $200 ... from your publisher!

I think I must be old, because I say, "...said Jack."

 

Checking in for April. I did the an ache I remember KYD. Honestly so grateful for that prompt as it got me to write something I've been meaning to do ever since the war with Ukraine started but I didn't know how to put into words before. Wrote a 3k story that I then had to cut down and it got accepted to be published somewhere TBA! Wrote another story that'll probably go up to 3k in 2 days time.  

@scribblesatdusk That's awesome, Yelena! Congrats!!

@scribblesatdusk This is fantastic!

@wulfmoon I keep reading this as "sadisms." Lol

Reporting for April. It's been a magical month:

1. Wrote 4(!) fresh stories (900, 5700, 2700 and 4800) 3 of which have been fully edited and submitted to professional markets (including LTUE)

2. 3xKYDs

3. Submitted to 10+ markets.

Bracing myself for the rain of rejections.  

Posted by: @scribblesatdusk

Checking in for April. I did the an ache I remember KYD. Honestly so grateful for that prompt as it got me to write something I've been meaning to do ever since the war with Ukraine started but I didn't know how to put into words before. Wrote a 3k story that I then had to cut down and it got accepted to be published somewhere TBA! Wrote another story that'll probably go up to 3k in 2 days time.  

Glad the prompt helped, Scribbles! Sounds like that will be a powerful story!

 
I’m very proud of your wonderful results after joining the Forum and my Super Secrets workshop. You told me your first pro sale happened after applying the Super Secrets to your writing. Now you’ve been published in Nature and a pro anthology soon to be announced! Well done, challenge beastie! Practice makes perfect, but smart practice will always get you there faster, as you and many others have proved in this workshop. 

Keep up the great work!

Beastmaster Moon

Posted by: @linardos

Reporting for April. It's been a magical month:

1. Wrote 4(!) fresh stories (900, 5700, 2700 and 4800) 3 of which have been fully edited and submitted to professional markets (including LTUE)

2. 3xKYDs

3. Submitted to 10+ markets.

Bracing myself for the rain of rejections.  

Great report, Akis! That’s a lot of writing for one month, while working on your PhD, no less! And not even in your mother tongue! Here’s to many positive results coming back from your strenuous efforts. 

All the beast!

Beastmaster Moon

Posted by: @empressed

8. What are "As you know, Bobs"? Also called Maid and Butler dialogue. They're dialogue said to fill the reader in on something the characters already know. The maid would know her mistress arrives from London that night. The whole staff, including the butler, knows. So they'd never discuss that arrival with one another with dialogue like, "You do know Madame arrives by 8 this evening? She will require a nightcap, as usual."

I’m impressed, empressed! ? Great answers. I especially enjoyed your illustration of the maid and butler talking. You’ve got it! 

It’s a good idea to carry a small reporter style notebook around with us to capture snippets of conversation and interesting ideas. I know Nina Hoffman would do this, at least back in my Wordos days. She talked about one of her best conversation snippets captured in her notebook. 

“To eat the heart, one must engage completely.”

That came from her editor taking her out to eat artichokes, and teaching her how to do it. She immediately wrote the line down so she wouldn’t forget it. Sounds like that youth you were listening to had some great dialogue bits for you if you could have captured it. Maybe after next time by running out to your car and jotting notes. 

Excellent answers! You may advance to GO. Collect $200 … from your publisher! Or $500, or $750, or $1,000 from Writers of the Future! ?

Posted by: @linardos

Bracing myself for the rain of rejections.

Ain't that the truth, Akis. The more submissions, the more rejections! BUT ...

as our writing improves, it will also mean more sales.