{"id":3128,"date":"2008-06-24T20:14:00","date_gmt":"2008-06-24T20:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.calla.com\/wordpress2\/marshas-5-word-rule-for-dialogue\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T02:56:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T02:56:57","slug":"marshas-5-word-rule-for-dialogue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.calla.com\/wordpress\/marshas-5-word-rule-for-dialogue\/","title":{"rendered":"Marsha’s 5 word rule for dialogue"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Polly Ryon Middle School<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a writer, I have found that one of the best ways of getting good feedback on works-in-progress is to join a critique group. I run a free\u00a0 online crit group here<\/a>. The group I run is hidden from public view and to get in, one must ask for permission.<\/p>\n

In our online crit group, we all give and get feedback on our works-in-progress. I find that doing crits teaches the critter as much as the crittee.<\/p>\n

One of the things that I have noticed after over a decade of critting and being critted is that dialogue is often used as a crutch in early drafts. I have come up with a self-editing technique that I like to call Marsha’s 5 word rule for dialogue<\/b><\/i>. Here goes:<\/p>\n

\u00a0Anytime a character says more than five words at a time, look carefully at what you’re trying to accomplish with the dialogue. Often, you’re using dialogue as:<\/i><\/p>\n

— an information dump
\n— backstory
\n— scene avoidance
\n— saying something instead of showing it
\n— saying something you’ve already just shown<\/p>\n

Long dialogue always slows the story down. Pare whenever possible and when necessary replace with a scene. Alternately, pare out that dialogue altogether and save that information for later on in the story. Doing so can add suspense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a writer, I have found that one of the best ways of getting good feedback on works-in-progress is to join a critique group. I run a free\u00a0 online crit group here. The group I run is hidden from public view and to get in, one must ask for permission. In our online crit group, … Continue reading “Marsha’s 5 word rule for dialogue”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,324],"tags":[179],"class_list":["post-3128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-writing-tips","tag-writing-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calla.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calla.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calla.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calla.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calla.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3128"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.calla.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10629,"href":"https:\/\/www.calla.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3128\/revisions\/10629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calla.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calla.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calla.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}