Nano Tip #1: Dialog Spine

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Welcome to Nano Tips, a month-long festival of writing tips from me and Justine. We'll be posting daily, me on the odd-numbered days of November, and Justine on the even-numbered days. This is, of course, all in celebration of NaNoWriMo. (And I think you know what that is.)

So here's my first tip: The Dialog Spine.

Many writers use the so-called "dialog spine" as a way of mapping out a scene. As a sort of "zero draft," they write just dialog, with no setting, action, or even attribution. It's a...