{"id":8500,"date":"2019-09-26T01:00:05","date_gmt":"2019-09-26T08:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/?p=8500"},"modified":"2019-09-24T15:17:39","modified_gmt":"2019-09-24T22:17:39","slug":"fad-feeling-action-dialogue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/fad-feeling-action-dialogue\/","title":{"rendered":"FAD: Feeling-Action-Dialogue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Nancy Julien Kopp<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s guest blogger is Nancy Julien Kopp. Her blog, Writer Granny\u2019s World<\/a> features tips and treats about writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her brilliant August 20, 2019 post<\/a> (excerpt below) focused on how to use action with dialogue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fingers flying across keyboard, Marlene types, \u201cOn with the show, Nancy.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to show action when writing dialogue. <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I see writers putting action after dialogue. That’s backwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Examples of action with dialogue.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

A.  “Stop that!” Sally slapped his hand from\nher arm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

B.  Sally slapped his hand from her arm. “Stop\nthat!” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

C. “Stop that!” Sally said. Sally slapped his hand\nfrom her arm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which is the best? The worst? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think B is best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And C is the worst. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In B, we see the action, then hear the words that go with\nit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In A, would Sally say the words, then slap his hand away?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note from Marlene:<\/strong> This would be a \u201cdelayed reaction.\u201d \u00a0Sally says \u201cStop that.\u201d THEN slaps his hand away. In real life, of course, it would happen at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although it\u2019s hard to show action and dialogue that happens\nsimultaneously, I think B does that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to Nancy\u2019s post:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Your mind sees the action in Example B, then absorbs the\nwords. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And C? Adding the tag is unnecessary as the action tells you\nwho is speaking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another example but this time adding feeling (or thought)\nprior to the action and dialogue. It’s called the FAD Principle. Feeling-Action-Dialogue<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSusan knew Mary would take the biggest piece of cake. She\nstepped between her friend and the table full of cake slices. \u2018I’ll take\nthis one.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feeling-Action-Dialogue:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSusan knew Mary would take the biggest piece of cake. (Feeling\/thought)\nShe stepped between her friend and the table full of cake slices. (Action)\n\u2018I’ll take this one.\u2019\u201d (Dialogue)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing<\/a>\u00a0 features the FAD principle: Action should be shown first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems more logical that Susan would step in front of the\ntable before she speaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if you don’t have the Feeling part in the dialogue,\njust the Action and Dialogue, put the action first, then the spoken words. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why? For clarity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Develop the habit of using the action prior to the dialogue.\nWe aren’t always going to have the Feeling included, but if you do, remember\nFAD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feeling-Action-Dialogue<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s guest blogger is Nancy Julien Kopp. Her blog, Writer Granny\u2019s World features tips and treats about writing. Her brilliant August 20, 2019 post (excerpt below) focused on how to use action with dialogue. Fingers flying across keyboard, Marlene types, \u201cOn with the show, Nancy.” How to show action when writing dialogue. I see writers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[104],"tags":[1140,1232,1190],"class_list":["post-8500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-bloggers","tag-nancy-julien-kopp","tag-tips-about-writing","tag-writing-freely-just-write-writing-prompts-the-write-spot-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43Dj8-2d6","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8500"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8513,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8500\/revisions\/8513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}