I am a messy person. This has been evident since … well, since as long as I can remember. I have gotten into multiple arguments (read: screaming matches) over the years over my inability to do the dishes, vacuum the carpet, refill the water jug, etc. I have accepted this about myself, although my living companions still live in hope that I will one day reform and become a cleaning goddess. This will never happen, but I try to encourage them by occasionally cleaning the bathroom so they don’t give up on me entirely. I haven’t been thrown out of a house/apartment yet, so I’d say my plan has been largely successful thus far.

Anyway, today’s topic is on writing spaces. I was inspired to write this post because I’ve been feeling very aimless recently when I sit down to work at my desk. And then the reason behind my…

About writing believable dialogue, Steve Martin famously said in his essay Writing is Easy: “Many very fine writers are intimidated when they have to write the way people really talk. Actually it’s quite easy. Simply lower your IQ by fifty and start typing!”

Truer words have ne’er been spoken! Writing dialogue shouldn’t be that hard. After all, it’s how we speak, or rather how your characters would speak, if they were really (yes, I know they are real in your own mind; I’m talking about to the rest of us). But the fact is, it is hard. Making dialogue sound credible, like it was spoken by actual three-dimensional people who have a hard time deciding what to wear each morning is crucial. It’s pivotal to keeping readers interested and turning pages.

In that vain, here are 25 things you didn’t know about dialogue from novelist Chuck Wendig.