Dialogue Tags and Your First Novel

When you first started to write your book (look at you, on the ball!) you found the word "said" to be incredibly boring.  In a decent chain of dialogue, that word can get repeated a million times.  As you wrote your story, I'm sure you ended up going back over the parts you just read, and when you do, you see; no, you feel how repetitive "said" is.  It begins to really dig at you, and so you start to come up with some more exciting modifiers to use instead of the mayonnaise-like "said".  

Let's clarify what a dialogue tag is:

"Hello," Joe said
"What's it to ya?" muttered Henry.

There are two camps on the subject of dialogue tags.  One group of writers will say that dialogue tags should stay simple like "said" or the occasional "asked".  In their opinions (and this is mostly true) the word "said" ends up getting shoved to the back of our reading experience and almost disappears altogether.  Subconsciously it keeps the reader aware of who is speaking, but for the most part they skip right over it.  Think back to the last book you read (assuming it had dialogue); do you remember really reading all of the name tags the writer put in there?  Probably not, and that's why you should keep it simple.  Dialogue tags other than the basics will draw attention to themselves, slowing down the pace (which could kill your story), and may cause the reader to stumble over them.  Remember, you don't even need dialogue tags but every so often.  Look at it like this:

"Okay Joe," mumbled Larry, "it's time to get going."

"But why?" cried Joe.

"Because," grumbled Larry, "work is work and it's time you get to it!"

"Oh man.  Can't I just sleep in for once?" said Joe.

"Dad's gonna kill you if you do it again.  Let's go!" spat Larry.


See how I used "mumbled", "cried", and "grumbled" instead of "said"?  If you want fast dialogue, avoid the use of such tags.  Take a look at this example, this time with the tags cleaned up:


"Okay Joe," said Larry, "it's time to get going."

"But why?" asked Joe.

"Because work is work and it's time you get to it!"

"Oh man.  Can't I just sleep in for once?"

"Dad's gonna kill you if you do it again.  Let's go!"


This second time I only used enough dialogue tags so the reader can identify who is speaking.  Then I remove them altogether so that the conversation can happen quickly.  Notice how much quicker the conversation can occur when you keep it simple and use them sparingly? In an urgent scene, it will help the reader feel a sense of urgency.

The other camp will use the heck out of them when they need to.  If you open a book by Patrick Rothfuss or Joe Abercrombie, you'll see pretty quick they don't belong to any camp exclusively.  In one chapter, you may encounter a slew of intricate dialogue tags/modifiers, and the next it may be quick paced, action-talk.   That's because the use of dialogue tags and modifiers can be genre specific.  Do you know what that means?  Well, my dear friend, it means that fantasy novels and modern day thrillers are written differently.  They adhere to different rules, and don't always have to play the "quick and hard" game for the reader.  Fantasy novels are just as much about the minute details as is they are about the progression of the story via dialogue.  This is not so of modern day thrillers.

Think about your novel.  Think about what genre you are writing.  What specifics do you notice one author using that seems to contradict another?  Trust me, you'll find out a lot about stinkin' "rules" and who gets published (and subsequently who doesn't).

Don't overuse, don't under-use, and let your story dictate what it needs for it to be told.

Be weary of people that say you must stick with camp number 1.  That is poor advice, and will get it written in a corner you won't know how to get out of.  Pay attention to the authors that you enjoy, and why you enjoy them.  And for God's sake, look at how they use dialogue tags!

So how about you?  What's your novel about?  Are you locked into a genre, and if so, do you have a specific camp you feel you have to adhere to?  Let us know about it in the comments below.  As always, like it, love it, share it, follow it.

Writing the Perfect Scene: Show Don't Tell

In my last post I spoke about my first grimy introduction to literary criticism from other writers.  If you didn't read it (shame, shame) then you should probably go back and do that now.  Look, I'll even include a link to it (see how well I treat you?).  In short, criticism sucks, but it will make your writing better.  But that doesn't mean that everything another writer throws your way should be taken like the words of Jesus Himself (remember, there's a lot of unpublished writers who stick to the rules).

I wanted to discuss some of the rules that you're gonna hear in connection to your narrative.  Some of them may be worth paying attention to, or at least keeping in the back of your mind while you are crafting away.  Others might be outright dumb, genre specific, creative writing course style bull crap.  Okay, you're right; I shouldn't call it bull crap ... I insult the feces of the bovine brethren too much. Let's  take a look at one of the "rules" I found most helpful.

Show The Reader, Don't Tell 

This one seems pretty straight forward, right?  I mean, you are writing a novel after all, and the point is for your readers is to see what's inside your head ... right?  This "rule" is somewhat deceitful in it's simplicity, because it is complex to adhere to.  The heart and soul of this rule is to have the dialogue (character interactions) drive the story forward while you show the reader what's going on.  Showing people something is one of the first skills we learn as mortal creatures (like the baby on the right), but it seems to be something we lose the older we get.  Look at this example:

Telling

 John was angry because his wife was leaving him.

Showing

John slammed his fist down on the bare kitchen table.  "Why can't we fix this, Helen?" he said.  "Why won't you just try!"

"Because," Helen said with her back towards him, "you'll never change."


See the difference in the (poor) example above?  Telling the reader simply states a fact.  It's boring, uninteresting, and leaves nothing for the reader to imagine.  Showing the reader changes everything.  You don't have to spell it out for the reader; they are clever creatures, and can get that John is angry with his wife ... if you write it well enough.

 "What about back story?" you may ask.  "How will the reader know what's going on unless I give them three pages of backstory before the opening scene?"

Good question, my dear Watson!  Very astute observation, my friend (I thought about saying "boy" here, and then "girl" ... my androgynous desires won out with "friend").  This is where you will hear the phrase drip feed.  Think of it just as it sounds.  You don't want to dump a butt load of information on the reader all at once like a dense chunk of Leftover casserole (now that's not casserole that was left over from dinner last night.  I mean Leftover Casserole, as in that dish that Mom makes every Friday that includes all the leftovers from the week before).  Rather, give the reader (through context and well planned dialogue) small, delicious, nutrient-packed crumbs as you go along.  This will help add drama to your narratives, and create the page-turning desire you want your reader to have with your work.

Take a look at the example of John and his wife.  I could have said, "John's wife was leaving him because John was stubborn and violent.  After several beatings she was sick of the abuse."  Even though it's one line, there's a lot of information that can be shown to the reader rather than explained, especially if the story's focal point is why she left her husband. In the showing example, information is slowly given to the reader through context and dialogue.  The reader can get that Helen is leaving John, that John is angry about it, and that John is (in Helen's opinion) stubborn.  A clever reader (and they always are) will get that John is violent (i.e. banging the table).  Nothing should be said in your story that isn't important (is this a rule?), and if it's worth mentioning, then it's worth showing (holy Moses!  More rules!  What have I become?!)

Finally, telling your reader what's happening, or has happened in the story, is basically calling them dumb.  You unknowingly believe that the reader will not be able to draw the connections together on their own, and so you must tell them up front.  This is a lie of the adversary, the devil, to get you to write crappy stories!  Alright, the devil might not be responsible for your misstep here, but then again ... maybe (shifty eyes).

This "rule" happens to be one that I think will really elevate your work.  Maybe you're not like me, and you figured this one out pretty early.  If so, then good for you.  We're proud of you!  But for the rest of us, this is going to be something we'll have to really work hard to remember.  And you probably won't catch it the first time through.  This is one of those things you'll catch in the dreaded editing stage of your novel (good luck with that).

So what do you think?  Is this a "rule" of writing good narrative, or are there instances where spoon feeding your reader is exactly what you need to do?  Let us know in the comments below.  If you've found this information useful, like it, love it, share it, and share some more!  Don't forget to follow and subscribe!

Criticism & Your First Novel

Criticism sucks.  There I said it.

It's not fun, it doesn't feel good, and it's not going to be easy.  David Mitchell, Black Swan Green, said, 

"If you show someone something you've written, you give them a sharpened stake, lie down in your coffin, and say, 'When you're ready'." 

 If you haven't taken this critical (deplorable) step in your quest to become (que superhero overtones) the Greatest Writer in the Universe, pay close attention to this quote ... it's true, and, just like the death of Dracula, you'll feel the torture of every negative word they speak (or write).  Beware, my friends, this road you've chosen to embark upon is one filled with the flayed skin of writers, and the continual, mutalation of their souls.  Criticism to the writer is it's own kind of hell.  Beware!  You must have the skin of a German Panzer to withstand what must be endured.

And it must be endured, too.  If you don't let anyone read your work before you attempt to publish, be it self publishing or through a traditional publishing house, you will be doing yourself and your novel a great disservice.  It doesn't matter how many times you have re-written your story.  It doesn't matter if you edited the holy crap out of it and found it flawless.  Someone, somewhere will find something that needs to change within your work.  

It's Okay.

You know why it's okay?  Because people (other than mom, God love her) can pick out those places in your narrative that are flimsy and weak.  If your dialogue is too boring to keep someone reading, you need to know about it.  They (your critics) will find information dumps where you thought you had none, and stupid, dumb, inconsistencies that you know shouldn't be there.  In short, taking those criticisms will make your writing stronger, better, more efficient, and just freakin' awesome (like the 6 million dollar man).

 But at what cost?  Is there a cost (shifty eyes) ... yes.  There may be a cost involved.

The Problem With Criticism

So let's say you've already spent countless hours researching for your novel.  Now you've gotten twenty, fulfilling chapters pumped out, and have decided that you want others to take a look at it.  You're sold on your work.  You love your work.  It's your baby.  You spoon fed it it's first few days ... changed it's dirty diapers, burped the little farts out of it.  I bet you remember the day when the chapters started to fly from your fingers, too.  Wasn't that a wonderful day?  Writing became quick and furious for you, and you watched your baby grow.

Now you're letting other people hold that baby, and they don't quite think so much of it as you do.  You thought it was damn near flawless, little to no blemish.  But the critics?  Oh man, they've all but dissected it, chewed it up, spat it out, and became a little green because it just didn't settle too well (I've now moved from the baby metaphor to food ... do not eat babies, please ... unless they are scrambled with cheese and from a chicken).  

Then they will rattle off all of these "rules" of writing that you've unknowingly broken.  "Poor thing," they say, "you obviously didn't know ... why would you have written such [insert negative term referring to your writing] if you had known?"  They mention your use of adverbs, and then your dialogue tags ... oh God, what have I done?  I've used "mumbled" instead of "said"!

You've discovered there are all these rules that you should've been paying attention to, and that perfect little baby looks a little more like an Orc (Balruk, runny bowels, he is now called) than a human.  Your heart it broken; you've been torn down, and you don't think you have the courage to pick yourself back up again (one dude even said your work sucked so much that he couldn't read it all).  Perhaps, like me, you contemplated throwing it all away (if I'm that bad, why should I be a writer in the first place?).  

Your work is worth it, that's why.  All those tears, all that hatred and self-loathing ... worth it.

Because you've got a damn good book, and you freakin' know it.  Take the criticisms that are helpful.  Employ the ones that really make your work to shine.  Take the painful criticisms and learn from them.  But don't get bogged down by them.  Make sure you keep pushing forward, ever progressing to that lofty goal of being a working writer (and all the things that means to you).  

I felt like life had ended.  While writing my novel, He the Hallowed, I fell into something like I've described above.  For a day or so I thought I needed to really follow all these rules people kept throwing at me.  Was I really that bad of a writer?  Had I not paid attention to the books I read as research?  I picked up a couple of best sellers from my private library (book shelf) and flipped through them.  

Do you know what I found?

Authors who disobeyed the almighty "rules", that's what.  So be careful that you don't listen to every word that your constructive critics suggest.  What they say, no matter how they say it, doesn't make them unaltered laws that you have to follow.  I'll leave you with another quote to simmer on until next time:

"In theory it was, around now, Literature.  Susan hated Literature.  She'd much prefer to read a good book." -Terry Pratchett, Soul of Music

Okay, one more:

"If critics say your work stinks it's because they want it to stink and they make it stink by scaring you into conformity with their comfortable little standards.  Standards so low that they can no longer be considered "dangerous" but set in place in their compartmental understandings." - Jack Kerouac 

For more quotes on novels and criticisms, check this out (all of the above quotes were derived from goodreads).  Sharing this stuff encourages me to write it.  If you feel encouraged by what I write, please follow me and sp-sp-sp-spread the word!

What do you think of criticism?  Have you ran into other writers that preach "rules" like a Southern Baptist on the sinner's prayer?  Let us know about it in the comments below.

Your First Novel and the Spark of Inspiration

Here's the pitch:  writing your first novel is full of pain, anguish, loneliness, and gut wrenching moments of everlasting terror. You put your fragile heart on the line, just to have it served back to you on a cold platter with a scribbled little note on it that says, "I got dysentery form this".  What's worse?  You've not even let anyone read you precious work yet!  We writers really are our worst critics...but should that stop our brilliance from shining upon the face of every man, woman and child on God's green Earth?

No.  Well hell...I don't know.  Maybe...Nah, I'm pretty sure we shouldn't.

We were made to write.  We can feel it resonating in our bones.  The voices of our characters echo in our heads, begging to find immortality through the blessed telling of...the narrative.  A thing spoken of in reverent mutterings, and only by those that know of it's mysterious knowledge.  Okay, okay...maybe it's not that holy, but to a writer, each of our stories are sacred things.

I'm reminded of a story  I once heard about one of my favorite authors, J.R.R. Tolkien.  "In a whole there lived a hobbit," was the bizarre first line that sparked the inspiration for the ancient, super detailed world we've all come to love (come on, you and I both know you wanted to be Legolas...no?  at least tell me you wanted to shout "You...shall not...pass!").

Inspiration comes to us all in many different ways.  Maybe for you it came when you were talking to your Papa about the old days, or perhaps you thought of some incredible character born from the imagination of your inner child.  Perhaps it was both.  My inspiration was a culmination of three things:

1.  The desire to communicate an intrinsic truth

2.   An article about some crazy Russian theologian/scientist talking about the cure for death

3.  Mountains...beautiful, smoky, misty mountains.

I wanted to write a story of a world that involved tainted, sinful humans becoming immortal creatures bound by no moral, religious or survivalistic (not a word, I know) motives.  The intrinsic truth I feel needs to be told is that of selfishness and how this is mankind's most self destructive survival mode.  "I'll get mine," and "you gotta take care of number one," are cautionary statements that whisper of this underlying epidemic.  The article, of course, was just plain cool.  The guy spoke about how death was a genetic trait that could eventually be "turned off" using gene splicing therapy.  Neat stuff.

And finally, the inspiration derived from the natural world around us.  I'll talk more on that next time, however.

In the meantime, tell us what your inspiration is!  What was that spark that set you on your journey?  Was it a phrase?  A word?  A tree or (like me) a mountain?  Perhaps it was something more ethereal and spiritual...Let us know in the comments below.

Remember to check around often for updated content, new blogs on the process, and some good ol' fashioned adventuring!