We are all used to reading dialogue in novels and short stories. And the conventional wisdom is that dialogue is a cinch to write. After all, we use dialogue every day. We speak with our coworkers, family members, friends and acquaintances. We hear conversations between strangers all the time. Writing dialogue should be no problem. Right?
Wrong! Dialogue in fiction can be quite different from the dialogue conducted in real life. Dialogue used in day-to-day communications consists of incomplete sentences, fillers such as “um” and “er”, and nods and shrugs. In short, our regular conversations sound pretty dull and disjointed if written verbatim as part of a story. As an example, take a little known movie about Charles Colson, one of Nixon’s henchmen who later became a Christian. Based on his book, Born Again, the script used portions of actual excerpts of the infamous Nixon Tapes verbatim for the White House scenes. In contrast to the rest of the movie this segment came across as stilted and artificial. Just to illustrate what I mean, read aloud this excerpt from the actual Nixon Tapes. I bet you’ll come away wondering, what were they saying? Here it is: Nixon: That’s right. Haldeman: thing. Nixon: Right. Haldeman: That the way to handle this now is for us to have Walters call Pat Gray and just say, “Stay the hell out of this… this is ah, business here we don’t want you to go any further on it.” That’s not an unusual development,… Nixon: Um huh. Haldeman: …and, uh, that would take care of it. Nixon: What about Pat Gray, ah, you mean he doesn’t want to? Haldeman: Pat does want to. He doesn’t know how to, and he doesn’t have, he doesn’t have any basis for doing it. Given this, he will then have the basis. He’ll call Mark Felt in, and the two of them …and Mark Felt wants to cooperate because… Nixon: Yeah. Haldeman: he’s ambitious… Nixon: Yeah. So, how is dialogue supposed to be used in your writing? I’ve got a couple of guidelines that can help you write more exciting dialogue:
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Last time I discussed some basics of suspension of disbelief, the willingness of a reader or viewer (in the case of movies or TV shows) to give up realism and logic for the sake of entertainment. Suspension of disbelief is vital to your story. If your reader cannot suspend her disbelief it’s likely that she will stop reading and not pick up your book again. So, in order to create a satisfying read you must master this concept.
This time I want to continue the discussion by reviewing four ideas I found that will help you aid your audience in suspending their disbelief and keep them reading. The four ideas are as follows: 1. One way to maintain your audience’s suspension of disbelief is to keep the story as realistic as possible. This doesn’t mean writing your novel as if you’re creating a nonfiction work. But, by using authentic dialogue, settings, and descriptions you place your audience in a world they can likely relate to and feel at home enough that they will willing go along for the ride as you guide them along your fictional tour. Examples of this would be to use authentic dialogue in a detective story or in a thriller. Here is a snippet of dialogue from my novel, The Peril Protocol, a medical thriller, that uses authentic medical terminology: “Geez, Bryan. You’re gonna let this girl die. Write this down: Assist control, tidal volume of 300 cc’s, respiratory rate 25 per minute, flow rate 60 liters per minute, FiO2 of 100% and PEEP of 15.” These are ventilator settings. It’s not important that you know what this means, but it sounds authentic and thus helps the audience suspend their disbelief. But, what about sci-fi and fantasy stories? That brings me to number two. 2. In outrageous stories such as science fiction and fantasy tales it is important to have internal consistency in the created world. This means world-building. You have to create the history, geography, and ecology of your made up world. Maps are sometimes helpful. In addition you will need to create a culture or cultures with all the laws and traditions necessary for believable civilizations. Also, you’ll need to have rules for things like magic or space travel. It’s a lot of work, but having a world in which your reader will willingly suspend his disbelief to dwell within for a few hours will be your reward. 3. Technology is rapidly advancing these days. I recall having one of those early generation cell phones. They were nearly brick size clunky devices. Now, cell phones are thinner than pencils, fit into shirt pockets, and have the power of many laptop computers. You can use technology like this in your story lines. Ideas that a few years ago would sound like science fiction are now “ripped from the headlines”. Things like bullets that can be shot around corners, computers in eyeglasses, and surveillance cameras on every street corner are all either being researched or on the cusp of mass production. Although, they may not be in common use, they are still fair game for use in your story. And, since most people have read about and are fascinated by such devices, they won’t mind being plunged into a world in which they are part of the plot. 4. Thanks to some pioneering writers you have a wealth of subgenres that, a few years ago, would have seemed fantastic and too outrageous for publication. These have now come to be considered the norm for today and audiences have no difficulty suspending their disbelief in reading them. I’m talking about things like superhero stories, mostly found in graphic novels and the movies. Also zombies are very popular and novelists have found unique ways of featuring them in their works. Who would have thought that Abraham Lincoln and Jane Austin would work as characters in zombie novels? Another popular subgenre is the Fifty Shades of Grey type relationship stories. This has tapped into a type of fantasy romance that women seem to enjoy. You can stretch your writing muscles and continue to have your readers suspend their disbelief by using the above ideas. You read a review of a new novel and the reviewer says, “I had trouble suspending my disbelief.” What is he talking about? What is suspension of disbelief? One dictionary definition states it’s “a willingness to suspend one's critical faculties and believe the unbelievable; sacrifice of realism and logic for the sake of enjoyment.” Since, by definition, all fiction is nothing more than made up stories, in order to enjoy the work, your audience must disregard the fact that what you’re telling them is not reality. They have to read the novel or watch the movie as if they were receiving the information from a reliable news source. When your audience suspends their disbelief of a well written story there is a win-win situation. You win because people will want to read more of your work and your audience wins by being thoroughly entertained. There is a basic rule for maintaining the audience’s suspension of disbelief. Violate it and you risk losing your audience. They put your book down in the middle of chapter four and never pick it up again. The basic rule is this: be consistent. Be consistent in writing your characters’ actions and behavior and be consistent in unraveling your plot. If you describe your heroine as having green eyes in the opening chapter then in chapter ten you cannot say, “Her brown eyes flashed with anger.” Do this and your book may go immediately to the used book bin. Or, if your fantasy hero is able to fly by wearing a magic ring and you have him soaring above the clouds after he’s left the ring on his kitchen table your story goes down hill from there. If you maintain consistency in your work you can create some really bizarre plots and, as long as the writing is good, your audience will go along. One example of this is found in early American folk stories, the so-called “tall tales”. In one, John Henry, an African-American railroad steel driver (a worker who hammered a steel drill into rock to create holes for explosives), competed against a steam-powered driver and won only to die of heart failure. In another tall tale Paul Bunyan, a giant lumberjack, is able to clear acres of forest in record time with the aid of his pet, Babe the Blue Ox. Although these stories strain credulity, they are regularly taught in literature classes as examples of American folklore and continue to entertain generation after generation. They remain a staple of storytelling because, despite their fantastic claims, they are well told, reveal a great deal about the American spirit, inspire us, and are consistent in their telling. Another example of a work that stretches the audience’s suspension of disbelief is a stage play, Our Town by Thornton Wilder. It is one of my favorites. The play tells the story of the citizens of Grover’s Corners, a fictional New Hampshire town. There is no set or props. The actors have to use gestures to indicate actions such as preparing breakfast in an imaginary kitchen throughout the play. After a few minutes of watching this strange performance you forget that there is no setting and the actors handle no props and you settle in for a totally engrossing show. You disbelief is totally suspended. Write a consistent and enthralling story and your audience will be sure to suspend their disbelief. And you will have a novel or short story worthy of reading over and over. Next time I’ll discuss four things you can do in your writing to help your audience suspend their disbelief. Last time I introduced point of view (POV), the perspective from which you are writing. It can be from the perspective of a single character as in first person or third person limited. Or, it can be from different perspectives as in third person omniscient and enter the thoughts and feelings of a variety characters over the course of a chapter or section. Either way, there are certain rules or guidelines, if you wish, to follow in writing from different points of view. My previous blog touched on this, but lets look at some do’s and don’ts as to how we write in the more popular POV’s in more detail. As mentioned previously, the first person POV allows for greater intimacy. You can explore your narrating character in as much detail as you’d like. After all, he or she is the one telling the story and can reveal as much or as little of themselves as you, the writer wants. Also, because it is first person, the narrating character can be unreliable. He or she can embellish their story, withhold information, or even outright lie. This makes for a more interesting narrative in many cases. But, be careful. Generally, you should plant clues throughout the narrative that the narrator is unreliable. Making the person so evil or so erratic that your audience knows something is up can do this. Or, in a mystery you may plant actual clues along the way to contradict the narrator’s account. Otherwise, you risk confusing and ultimately losing your audience. Here is an example of an unreliable first person narrator from Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho: “I had all the characteristics of a human being—flesh, blood, skin, hair—but my depersonalization was so intense, had gone so deep, that my normal ability to feel compassion had been eradicated, the victim of a slow, purposeful erasure. I was simply imitating reality, a rough resemblance of a human being, with only a dim corner of my mind functioning.” He sounds very intriguing, but who would want to trust the veracity of a character like this? What the reliable first person narrator cannot do is know certain things in the story. For example, suppose your story revolves around a bank robbery and your narrator tells the audience that he knows who robbed a bank. Unless you show the narrator talking with one of the robbers or actually being at the scene while the robbery was taking place then you’ve committed a big “no, no”. Otherwise, how would your narrator know the information? What happens then is your audience no longer suspends their disbelief (a subject I’ll tackle next time) and your story tailspins into the earth. In the third person limited POV there is a similar process going on. You’re allowed to enter the thoughts and feelings of one character at a time. It may be one character for the entire story or a variety of characters throughout. Generally, if you want to tell the story from the perspective of several viewpoint characters you allow one character per chapter or section (that part of a chapter separated by a break such as “***”). That way your audience knows which character is the limited POV character for that part of your story. Here is an example of the third person limited POV from Catch-22 by Joseph Heller told from the character Yossarian’s POV: There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle. "That's some catch, that Catch-22," he observed. "It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.” If you want a good primer on how this can work, just browse G. R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones. Each chapter, written in the third person, is entitled with the name of the viewpoint character. Read the book and you’ll see that each chapter is told through the thoughts and feelings of that particular “title” character. One thing to avoid with the third person viewpoint is what’s called head hopping. This is the tendency to change viewpoint characters within a chapter or section without warning. The result can be confusing and down right maddening for your audience. You have to give your readers a chance to settle in and get to know one character before going to another. Follow these guidelines. They will help you avoid costly mistakes in whichever point of view you choose. What’s a POV or point of view? In writing it is the story’s perspective. In other words, it’s who’s narrating. The POV is important to how you want to tell your story. One type of POV can provide a greater intimacy in your narration, while another type of POV may engender greater excitement and thrills in your narration. There are three basic types of POV that parallel the three basic persons of personal pronouns: I, you, and he, she or it, or better known as first person, second person, and third person. Lets look at each in turn:
Next time I’ll review the details of various do’s and don’ts for writing different points of view. You’re writing the final scene of your great sports novel. The underdog football team is in the fight of their lives and behind by a six points. The protagonist, the running back, gets the ball with two seconds left on the clock. You write, “He got the ball from the quarterback and ran through the hole for the winning touchdown with zero seconds on the clock.” OK, the underdog wins. But, your closing sentence is a bit anticlimactic. Perhaps a better closing sentence would be, “He got the ball from the quarterback, stumbled through the hole and stretched getting the nose of the ball across the goal line with zero seconds on the clock.” In the first sentence the biggest action is “ran”. In the second, the back “stumbled” and “stretched”. Those two verbs conjure up more specific action than the weak “ran” and, as a result, gives the sentence a greater immediacy, thus adding more excitement to the ending of the story. In the above example “stumbled” and “stretched” are strong verbs. So, what’s a strong verb? A strong verb describes the action in a specific manner evoking a clarity and conciseness to the sentence. Notice four attributes of strong verbs: descriptive, specific, evocative and conciseness. One source I found divided weak verbs into linking verbs and vague verbs. Linking verbs are the “is, are, was, were, be, being” verbs. They don’t really reveal any specific action. Vague verbs operate just as the name implies. They talk about action but don’t deliver the specifics. For example “run” can mean saunter, sprint, dash, gallop, etc. What kind of running was actually performed? Using strong verbs means there are some things to avoid:
Google “strong verbs” and you’ll find articles with a listing of strong verbs. Print out one the lists and keep it near your computer. Let it remind you that there are verbs much more powerful than the vanilla ran, said, did, came, is, etc. Use the alternative strong verb and watch your writing soar. If you write thrillers or action/adventure novels you have to write action scenes. They are part and parcel of the genres. Jack Ryan and Jack Reacher have never sat in a rocking chair waxing eloquent. They are men of action and that means action scenes. There are guidelines for writing action scenes or at least suggestions that seem to work. In my writing I’ve found six points that help keep my action scenes on track. They are:
After viewing The Lord of the Rings movies I read the books. And I noticed one interesting difference. Unlike in the movies, the battle scenes in Tolkien’s books were short and to the point. No drawn out descriptions, no long speeches, no lazy verbs. He used an economy of words that served the purpose of advancing the story. Take a page from Tolkien’s books and make those action scenes short and sweet. I’ve been blogging about loglines for the past two weeks, now. And, it occurred to me that there’s another type of “line” that I ought to mention. And that is the tagline. It’s another device derived from the movies and should not be confused with the logline. OK, you say, just what is a tagline and what’s the difference between it and a logline? A tagline is, according to Merriam-Webster, a reiterated phrase identified with an individual, group, or product. In business, its called a slogan and is designed to promote a given product or service. What do you think of when you hear, “I’m lovin’ it” or “Just do it”? If McDonalds and Nike don’t instantly come to mind you’ve probably been living on Mars for the past fifty years. Of course, the logline is a very brief synopsis of the story designed to whet your appetite for the movie or novel. In movies the tagline plays the same role as a product’s slogan. It is a catchy phrase designed to evoke some exciting or poignant aspect of the movie. I’ve read that the most famous movie tagline of all is, “In space no one can hear you scream.” It’s from Alien. Movie taglines are used in a variety of venues: the movie poster you see in theaters, on DVD cases, and spoken and/or displayed in trailers. Taglines can be gleaned from a variety of sources:
Like movies, novels can have taglines also. A tagline can be a great selling tool. You can place your tagline on the cover of your novel. You can tweet it. You can even print it on business cards along with an image of the book cover and your contact information. Here are a few examples found on the covers of novels I chose at random from my adult daughter’s library:
Try creating a tagline for your novel. It’s a great tool. And, if it happens to become one of those iconic phrases that finds itself on everybody’s tongue, you could wind up with a bestseller on your hands. I have a confession to make. There have been times, while sitting in the dark watching the credits roll at the end of the feature film, I’ve secretly thought, Wow, the trailers were better. Yep, that’s right. I admit it. I love movie trailers. Those, one to two minute packages of excitement designed to whet your appetite for the real thing really get my juices flowing. I gotta see that movie when it comes out, flashes through my brain with the steady succession of trailers playing out on the screen just before the main feature. That same excitement can work for you by creating a logline for your novel. Movies, obviously, are a visual medium so scenes accompany loglines for movies. But, your novel must evoke those same scenes in your reader’s mind by crafting your best blend of words. Of course you can create trailers for your novels with sound, music, and action. But, words, I think, have a more enduring quality. So, what makes up a good logline? In researching this blog I’ve found articles with between 3 and 10 bullet points of what’s needed. I narrowed it down to four essential ingredients. My four components for the logline are:
Try creating a logline for your own novel. Over time you’ll find some useful applications for it. And, it just might help your sales. Imagine it’s the late 1930’s, the heyday of the old movie studio system. You’re a young screenwriter sitting in the opulent office of the producer, hoping to get your story green lighted. His desk is piled with scripts and stacks of scripts litter the floor. Overweight, in a pinstripe suit, he sits back in his executive chair smoking a cigar. His fat round face is pinched in an expression of irritation. “OK, kid, you got three minutes?” You swallow, open your mouth, and realize your mind has just gone blank. “Well, uh,…” you begin, “I got a script about, a, uh…” He shakes his head, points his cigar at your nose, and shouts, “Get out kid. Come back with you have a logline.” As you slink out of his office you wonder, What’s a logline? A Google of the word yields this definition for logline: “[It] is a one (or occasionally two) sentence description that boils the script down to its essential dramatic narrative in as succinct a manner as possible.” You’ve probably seen or heard loglines for many movies, for example (taken from the IMDB):
James Scott Bell in his book, The Art of War for Writers, states that, if you’re anxious to start on a new project, you should begin with a logline. He thinks that, “…a potent logline is a must.” You should consider creating the logline right after researching and outlining your novel, but before the actual writing. Obviously, the logline is not something written in stone. It should be revised as you go along just as you revise your manuscript. I created the following logline for my new novel, The Peril Protocol: “Dr. Hope Allerd has the ideal job as a fellow under the renowned Dr. Francis Peril, until a tabloid report appears claiming her beloved mentor is the most horrific serial killer since Jack the Ripper.” Loglines are not only useful in helping maintain focus while you write. Other uses include:
Next time I’ll discuss creating a logline. |
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