Theme of The Week is a single element you critique in your assigned book. This way if paired with a member more than once, you get to give feedback on something different.

This week, we will give feedback on Dialogue.

❝Dialogue, in fiction, is a verbal exchange between two or more characters. If there is only one character talking aloud, it is a monologue.

Identifiers:

"This breakfast is making me sick," George said.

The George said is the identifier. Said is the most writers use because reader familiarity with said prevents it from drawing attention to itself. Although other verbs such as ask, shout, or reply are acceptable, some identifiers get in the reader's way. For example:

"Hello," he croaked nervously, "my name's Horace."
"What's yours?" he asked with as much aplomb as he could muster. another example is: "My name is Peg, what's yours?" I asked. "My name is William, but my friends call me Will," said Will.

Stephen King, in his book , expresses his belief that said is the best identifier to use. King recommends reading a novel by , who he claims has mastered the art of well-written dialogue.

Substitutes are known as said-bookisms. For example, in the sentence "What do you mean?" he smiled., the word smiled is a said-bookism.❞ ــ Wikipedia.

What to look for in Dialogue?

- Did the words from the mouths of the people in the story seem consistent with their personalities?

- Was there too much or not enough dialogue, in your opinion?

- Did any character tend to talk in long monologues?

- Were you able to sense the conflict, attitudes, and intentions of each character in their dialogue without the author telling you of these directly?

- Did the dialogue seem easy to speak? Can you 'hear' it? If it sounds unusual, you might suggest that the writer try reading it aloud.

- Does the dialogue seem TOO MUCH like normal speech, with too many incomplete sentences, pauses, restarts, profanity, cliches, etc. that it was distracting?

- Did the author use dialect that was too heavy, making it difficult to read?

- Does each character have their own speech rhythm, accent (if necessary), vocabulary, and even length of sentences?

- In an exchange of conversation, can you easily tell who is speaking if you didn't have their names or gender attached to their sentences?

P.S. Questions borrowed from: http://www.crayne.com/howcrit.html