The Word Cloud

Hello everyone,

I think the best way to handle this is, is it clear who is speaking/doing etc. If it is not clear, then a name is required. That's what I try to do. Ask someone to read any passage you are struggling with, and ask them if it is clear who is speaking. Our main objective is to make sure the reader gets it. There may be a technical 'rule' for this, but that's the way I would handle it.

If you've only got two people in the scene and they're different sexes, you really don't need to give their names very often, if at all. It gets trickier when there are more, and there isn't a rule, really, just instinct, so it's somewhere where your beta/trusted readers are very useful, to tell you when they got confused, or felt hit over the head with names.

And don't forget the useful rule of thumb that when it comes to identifying lines of dialogue, in a two-hander you should make it clear who's speaking (by either a linked action, or a speech tag) every five lines...

Emma

Every five line aye? .... useful, I'd never thought about a rule of thumb for that, I'll have to look into that in my stories whenever the dialouge gets confusing.

Weens/EmmaD