Q: You talk about meaningful action behind dialogue. How do I get my story to flow? Dialogue comes naturally for me. But how do I make meaningful action seem natural?

The Doc says: Every day my husband comes home from work and we sit in the kitchen and talk. During that time, I clean the sink, I chop vegetables, I check over homework, maybe feed the dog, sometimes he’ll set the table. Our conversation, behind the words, is about family, and life. You can tell that I care about family by my actions.

Likewise, your characters will have things that are important to them, meaningful actions that define who they are and what is important to them. These are the things happening behind the words. Ask: What is a part of my character’s everyday world, and how can I use that to display his character, his values, even his goals? What is in your character’s work world, or his home life that defines him?

Try this: To give your character something to do that is essential to his life find out what is at the top of his/her to-do list today. Then, intersperse dialogue in between the life action. For flow, think: A couple lines of dialogue, then one line of meaningful action. Maybe an internal thought or a body action. Keep that flow going and see how your scene rolls along.

Tomorrow we’ll talk about finding that key moment in the scene that you can use as symbolism and that will make the scene go from ho-hum to WOW. See you tomorrow!

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