DIALOGUE MECHANICS

• And if your dialogue isn't well-written--if it needs the explanation to convey the emotion--then the explanation really won't help. Say you'd written: "I find that difficult to accept," she said in astonishment. Here the explanation does let your readers know that your character is astonished. But you don't want them to know the fact, you want them to feel the emotion. You want your readers to be as astonished as she is, and the only way to do that is to have her say something your readers can imagine themselves saying when they're astonished. (pg. 84-85)
• We're all in favor of choosing exactly the right verb for the action, but when you're writing speaker attributions the right verb is always nearly "said." The reason those well-intentioned attempts at variety don't work is that verbs other than "said" tend to draw attention away from the dialogue. They jump out at the reader, make the reader aware, if only for a second, of the mechanics of writing. They draw attention to your technique, and a technique that distracts the reader is never a good idea. You want your readers to pay attention to your dialogue, not the means by which you get it to them. (pg. 89)
• But the very best thing you can do for dialogue is never, ever to explain it. (pg. 94)

INTERIOR MONOLOGUE

• So what's the right amount of interior monologue? Sorry, you're on your own with that one. The balance you hit depends on what your characters are feeling, how important their feelings are to the story at that point, how you want the scene to flow, and, especially how evident their feelings are in other ways. But if you're aware of what interior monologue can accomplish, you're on your way to finding the balance that works for you. (pg. 122)