Personal example for this week’s tip.

When your characters speak, use the attribution “said.” A kind agent who asked to read my manuscript told me I had a character who “uttered” when she should have “said.”

The agent was right. “Said” becomes invisible in your story, but “uttered” or anything else calls attention to itself. You want the attention on your dialog because you’re going to write zingy, snappy dialog for all your characters.

Couple other quick notes germane to this topic.

• Stay away from adverbs to modify the verb “said.” If you need an adverb, it’s likely your dialog wasn’t strong enough, so fix that instead.
• When you have two characters in a scene, omit attributions once you’ve established the speaker.
• Instead of a dialog tag, use an action beat. Like this: Trent checked his watch. “Better get moving.” This keeps your writing fresh, and it helps your reader visualize the scene.

Keep writing … especially dialog.