This is K.M. Wyland.

and you are listening to the 425th episode of the Helping Writers Become Authors Podcast.

Final content edits are finished on my superhero historical wayfare, which means I'm

diving into proofreading now. I've talked before about my secret weapon for catching

typos, but it works so fantastically that it's worth mentioning again. I find that I'm able to catch 99% of my typos by loading my manuscript on my Kindle,

having it read aloud to me, and reading along with it. I'm not sure if this feature is available on more

recent generations. I use an old touchpad Kindle with the read-allowed feature.

But you can also get Adobe Reader to read aloud.

It's perfect for making sure you pay attention to each word that's there

instead of what your brain wants to trick you into thinking is there.

It's also a great way to check every line in the formatted e-book version of the book.

And now I hope you enjoyed this week's podcast.

What should your character talk about? Dialogue is the best part of stories. Yes, even better

than de-Kensian narratorial diatribes about crooked politics.

But it's tough to write scintillating dialogue

when you find yourself asking that fundamental question,

what should my characters talk about?

As writers were familiar with the rant about show,

don't tell.

We're supposed to bring our stories to life

so vividly readers can see it all happening and forget they're being told a story.

But the truth is all our best efforts at showing are really just a magic trick.

...