Dialogue
Posted: October 28th, 2009 under blog post.
So, I've been reading through my writing books. You know, because of the whole suddenly hating my writing style thing. I'm on Self-Editing for Fiction Writers right now.
One of its chapters started like this:
That chapter had some good points, though. Like dialogue tags. If you're writing good dialogue, you shouldn't need the adverbs. For instance: "Screw you" he said, angrily. is totally redundant. Even: "Screw you!" he exclaimed. is kind of unnecessary. I mean, unless it's something they wouldn't get from the dialogue and context, it's basically just patronizing your reader.
And I get that. Unfortunately, what I tend to do instead is gestures. So there's a lot of nodding and shrugging and smiling and sighing. So much so that you can scan down the page and read something like, "He shrugged. She nodded. He sighed. She shrugged. He groaned. She sighed." I mean, there's dialogue and--if I'm feeling ambitious--some narration, but every paragraph starts with something like that.
I need to start adding "beats" instead: tailored action that has my characters interacting with their environment instead of just standing there talking to each other. For instance, from the book:
Speaking of, I wrote 15,000 words in the last two days. Just to warm up. It's been a while since I've really sat down and worked at a novel, so I figured I ought to get back into the habit. Also, work was slow. Not so much, anymore though. For November, I'll be aiming for 2,000 words on a weekday and 2,500 on weekends. I figure that'll give me a little buffer if I want to take Thanksgiving off. Or if my novel turns out to be waaay over 50k. Like last year. And pretty much any other time I've written a novel.
Tags: NaNoWriMo, writing
One of its chapters started like this:
If you're like most writers, you probably find that writing dialogue takes more thought than writing narration or action. Your characters come alive--or fail to--when they speak, and it's no easy matter to put just the right words in their mouths.Problem is, I'm not like "most writers." Not according to that book, at least. I actually do pretty well with dialogue. As long as I have a good picture of the characters in my head, I could write dialogue all day. It's pretty much all the stuff around the dialogue that I have problems with.
That chapter had some good points, though. Like dialogue tags. If you're writing good dialogue, you shouldn't need the adverbs. For instance: "Screw you" he said, angrily. is totally redundant. Even: "Screw you!" he exclaimed. is kind of unnecessary. I mean, unless it's something they wouldn't get from the dialogue and context, it's basically just patronizing your reader.
And I get that. Unfortunately, what I tend to do instead is gestures. So there's a lot of nodding and shrugging and smiling and sighing. So much so that you can scan down the page and read something like, "He shrugged. She nodded. He sighed. She shrugged. He groaned. She sighed." I mean, there's dialogue and--if I'm feeling ambitious--some narration, but every paragraph starts with something like that.
I need to start adding "beats" instead: tailored action that has my characters interacting with their environment instead of just standing there talking to each other. For instance, from the book:
"I'd never thought of that before." Roger walked over to the fridge and helped himself to a soda. "But I suppose a good coat of shellac really would work just as well, wouldn't it?"Of course, that's exactly what I tend not to do when I'm writing fast. But I figure I might as well use NaNo to practice. If I can get into the habit, it'll really improve my writing. So, I'll just do that then. Seems like I took a lot of words to say that, but whatever, I'm gearing up for NaNo, after all.
Speaking of, I wrote 15,000 words in the last two days. Just to warm up. It's been a while since I've really sat down and worked at a novel, so I figured I ought to get back into the habit. Also, work was slow. Not so much, anymore though. For November, I'll be aiming for 2,000 words on a weekday and 2,500 on weekends. I figure that'll give me a little buffer if I want to take Thanksgiving off. Or if my novel turns out to be waaay over 50k. Like last year. And pretty much any other time I've written a novel.