: Re: Examples of dialog beats and bookism I was wondering if there is a list of ideas on how to add beats to dialog. For example: "Listen to me!", John said excitedly. "We can sell all these

@Michele605

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You're using too many beats, especially in your second example. You don't need to describe every minute change of tone while a character is speaking. It breaks up the flow too much. There's absolutely nothing wrong with:

"Listen to me!", said John. "We can sell all these coins now and get rich today. Let me take care of it for you, okay? I can make you rich, Sarah, just trust me! I have made many people rich in the past. I know how this is done."

Once you remove the beats, the short, rapid-fire sentences do a good enough job of conveying his excitement that you don't need to tell the reader he's excited.

Generally, you only want to use a beat if there is an actual pause in what the character's saying. That's what "beat" means, at least in scriptwriting terms: a pause. If the character is just speaking continuously, don't have them adjusting their glasses or shuffling in their chair or anything else that's not actually plot-relevant; it just interrupts the flow.

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