Dialogue can make or break your short story or novel. No matter how good the plot or subject line, poorly-written dialogue can turn a reader off quicker than anything.

I recently read a draft novel manuscript that had a fascinating premise, a compelling story line, and conflict aplenty. I was, nonetheless, completely turned off because every character in the story sounded exactly alike. They all used the same stilted Shakespearean speech, and sounded as if they were reading from Hamlet. Even a street smart black activist student, who was portrayed as aggressive and racially sensitive, talked as if he was the villain from Othello.

This is not to suggest that the character should have been lampooned, or that his dialogue should have been a parody of ‘Amos and Andy’ or ‘Shaft.’ But, the character would have been more credible and believable if the dialogue had been less formal, with more use of modern slang, instead of the formal speech that was employed. The only slang word this character used in the first chapter, in over a half page of dialogue, was the word ‘ofay,’ which was inserted in a formal sentence, making it stand out like a pimple on prom night; and it was as unwelcome and out of place as a pimple. Reading the passage, which described his encounter with his professor, I had difficulty telling which of them was speaking without looking at the tags, or going back to see who spoke last. This was clearly a case of poor dialogue ruining an otherwise good story.

A more effective technique is to give each character a distinctive voice; either through the words they use, or some other action that belongs to that character and that character alone. Dialogue should be written so that the reader knows immediately which character is speaking.

A good way to learn to write effective dialogue is to eavesdrop on the people around you. Note the quirks that distinguish one speaker from another. For example, teenagers these days seem to put the word ‘like’ indiscriminately in their speech. Here’s an example of a conversation I overheard on the subway one day, “He was like really out of control, and like I just couldn’t get into what he was like saying, you know.” That is an actual line of dialogue that could be used in your story. You have to be careful in most cases not to use what you hear verbatim. People don’t often say what they want to say as succinctly as you need your characters to speak to keep your story moving; but informal expressions in your dialogue will make your characters sound like real people.

If you want your writing to keep people interested, in addition to a strong plot, and an interesting theme, you need characters that people find believable. This means learning to write dialogue that holds a reader’s interest as much as the plot. Dialogue, when well written, can help to identify a character more effectively than paragraphs of description or narrative, and it can help keep your story moving. More importantly, it can keep a reader interested in your story from the opening sentence through to the end.

You can check Charles’ page on RedRoom for commentary on leadership, politics and life in general, as well as information about his books.

This week several members of my critique group had a little fun with a feature at Lulu.com.

The Titlescorer is an interactive feature that purports to analyze a book title in terms of how likely it is to find its way to the bestseller list.

According to the information at the site, a research team analyzed

the title of every novel to have topped the hardback fiction section of the New York Times Bestseller List during the half-century from 1955 to 2004 and then compare[d] them with the titles of a control group of less successful novels by the same authors.

The data is based on about 700 titles. If you type in the titles of some bestsellers you’ll find yourself wondering how the research team arrived at its conclusions. Some blockbusters come up with “a 10.2% chance of being a bestselling title.”

Along with typing the title, you have to choose from a couple of drop-down menus that ask you to specify “grammar type” and indicate part of speech. Depending how you answer, The DaVinci Code can score as high as 35.9% or as low as 10.2%.

I’ll have to admit to having spent more time than I should have playing with it. No matter what combinations I tried, the highest score for any title I was able to come up with was 59.3%. One of my colleagues put in a title that scored 65%.

I wouldn’t be too influenced by the results you get for your title, but playing around with the Titlescorer is as good a way as any to hash out your ideas.

Just don’t play too long. That draft is waiting.

They culminated a weekend of frantic around-the-clock negotiations, as Wall Street bankers huddled in meetings at the behest of Bush administration officials to try to avoid a downward spiral in the markets stemming from a crisis of confidence. (NY Times)

The broader point is that frantic price-lowering will likely continue as long as the economy remains weak and business travel continues to contract. (The Economist)

This used to be a lengthy process involving identifying the copyright holder, finding contact information, writing a detailed letter outlining how you plan to use the quoted material, and then sitting back and waiting. And waiting and waiting. It was a frustrating process, all the more so when the request was denied.

The process is much easier today. More and more publishers are using the Copyright Clearance Center, an online service that eases and speeds the process for writers. By using CCC’s Purchase Permissions feature (under the Authors menu option), you can search for published material and find out exactly what kind of reprint rights are allowed, as well as how much they will cost.

The drawback to CCC’s service is that not all publishers are on board yet. If you need to secure reprint permission from a publisher that does not use CCC, you might try visiting the publisher’s Web site. Often you’ll find reprint permissions instructions there, and sometimes you can even submit your request through the Web site.

Otherwise, you’ll have to do it the old-fashioned way: by writing a letter. In your letter, you must include, at a minimum, the following details:

• Title and author of the publisher’s book
• Imprint or division of the publisher’s book
• ISBN (the International Standard Book Number, located on the copyright page)
• Title of your book or article
• Your publisher’s name
• Format (hardcover, softcover, etc.)
• Territory of distribution for your book or article (U.S., North America, world, etc.)
• Print run (total number of copies to be printed)
• Publication date of your book or article
• Retail price
• Your complete contact information

It’s important to remember that simply requesting reprint permission is no guarantee it will be granted. The copyright holder has the right to say no. However, you’ll greatly increase your chances of a positive response if you follow instructions carefully and be sure to submit all the required information.

Re: is used at the top of letters and emails in order to steer the reader to the single most important topic of the message:

Dear Sir,
Re: Your order of 10/3/09

Re: Your submission For Whom the Bell Tolls

I’ve seen Re: explained as an abbreviation of the words “regarding” or “referencing.”

However, Re is not an abbreviation for anything.Re: means “re.”

Re is an English preposition in use since at least the 18th century. It means “in the matter of, with reference to.”

Like sic, re is a Latin word. It is the ablative form of the Latin noun res meaning “thing” or “affair.” Lawyers use the legal phrase in re when a proceeding is not brought by a person, but has to do with something like probate, or a public project like laying out a highway.

NOTE: Watch out for the definition “in regards to” given at Wiki Answers.
“In regards” is nonstandard English for in regard to.