Ginger Hanson

No more talking bubble-heads!!!

This is one of those short little 'solve the problem' writing skills book that delivers exactly what it promises. Your critique partner throws your manuscript back into your face scorning 'Bah! Talking bubble heads!' and this little book will help you figure out how to weave bodily action into your dialogue to make it seem more realistic.

Now I gave this book 5-stars because it goes beyond the usual 'go back and add body movement' advice by giving you a brief show more primer on the five senses (plus sixth-sense if you're writing fantasy) and the three styles of learning (audio, visual and kinesthetic) and then suggesting ways you can ADD those five senses and three styles of learning into your dialogue body movements and what people notice as they do all that moving around, and it teaches ways you can do this BEFORE you even write your scene so the bodily movements / senses come out in your first draft. There were a few places this book got a little cerebral, but I left with a definite checklist I'll be filling out beforehand to enhance my writing.

P.S. - Make sure you take advantage of the free handouts the author makes available on her website. They really are quit useful and you'll be using them again. show less

A Yankee commadeers Billie's horse during the civil war in Tennessee. So what does Billie do? Disguised as a boy, she travels to Grayson's home after the war and steals him back! Which starts the back and forth of the horse Destiny. Billie gets him to Texas, and her archrival in Tennessee steals him. So, with Grayson who followed her to Texas, they head off to Tennessee to steal him back again. And so it goes. Nice, plot driven story. It covered too much land to be able to be called one of show more the state challenge books, though. show less

This was a helpful guide about the importance of body language in dialogue. The exercises were very useful, but there wasn't as much in depth talk about facial expressions in dialogue as I hoped for.

This book is a good solution against the talking-heads problem on dialogue. I enjoyed it. Writers can benefit from thinking like settings-designers and prop masters while creating their settings.