Dialog

Today I want to talk about my favorite part of any story or game or movie/tv show. Dialog can make or destroy a story. Dialog can make a character come alive or fall flat. In my book review blog dialog makes its way into my review every time. I think that dialog is the single more important part of character development. The reason I believe this is because what makes a character memorable? Is it the way they dress? Unless everything is on the clothes in a story then no. Is it the way that they solve the murder? Even Mr. Monk was not known for that. No it is the way that the character talked with the world around them.

All of the characters that I love best have unique voices. All of Jane Austen's character can be identified by just their word choice. Now I know that word choice is another blog but that is word choice in the descriptive parts of the story not the character voice. The character can say things that the writer would never say or do in the writing itself. For example character's can and do use contractions. That is fine, follow the character's voice, no matter where it goes. But as the writer do not, and I repeat DO NOT, use contractions in the non-dialog parts of the story. It does not work, it never will. I have read stories where the author has used contractions in a paragraph and I have stopped reading. It pulled me out of the story so fast that my head was spinning from the blood rush.

Now about word choice in character voices. 9 time out of 10 I do not argue with what the author has the character saying or how they say it. But the one time I do this one. When the character uses words that they would not know or use because of their character. But that I mean this- I was reading a steampunk novel not the best one I have ever read but it had potential. Now I had some problems with the plot but nothing too bad so I was going along reading the story until this happened. 'Then you made yummy sounds.' Can you hear my mental wheels locking up? I am not kidding. My head came up, my mouth was open and my mind was just stuck. The problems I have with that word choice are these- The character was a very formal person who did not use any form contractions, the society is very heavily based on Victorian society so the word was not something said, and it was the only thing like that in the whole book. The author did this again and again both in dialog and in descriptive paragraphs.

So be careful about what you say in your writing because you can make or break the whole story by it. Thanks for reading and see you next week.

Setting

So because I have decided to try and be a good blogger who talks about the important things in writing. I will try to cover all the things that everyone sees as important but I will explain why I think they are important. All the parts of the story are important. I say the parts of the story are character, plot, setting, point-of-view, and theme. I know that some say conflict are but I see that something that is born from the five I have listed. I am going to try and explain why I think they are important. If I am really good I will give examples.

Because I am not picky I wanted to start with setting. I googled the definition of Setting in a story and this is what I got.
Setting, quite simply, is the story’s time and place. While setting includes simple attributes such as climate or wall décor, it can also include complex dimensions such as the historical moment the story occupies or its social context. Because particular places and times have their own personality or emotional essence (such as the stark feel of a desert or the grim, wary resolve in the United States after the September 11th attacks), setting is also one of the primary ways that a fiction writer establishes mood. Typically, short stories occur in limited locations and time frames, such as the two rooms involved in Kate Chopin’s "The Story of an Hour," whereas novels may involve many different settings in widely varying landscapes. Even in short stories, however, readers should become sensitive to subtle shifts in setting. For example, when the grieving Mrs. Mallard retires alone to her room, with "new spring life" visible out the window, this detail about the setting helps reveal a turn in the plot. Setting is often developed with narrative description, but it may also be shown with action, dialogue, or a character’s thoughts.

I have to say that I like it. I think that it short and true. Setting is very important in all writing but genre writing setting becomes more. Imagine, if you will, Poe with the fog, the crows, or the darkness coming from all around. Now he is just like so many of his peers; nothing special. But when he made setting important to the telling of his tales then we have fiction gold. Setting is something that writers and readers use to inform about the story before we even begin. By that I mean when I am in the mood for something like hard sci-fi knowing that before I pick up the book. For the writer knowing that you are writing a urban fantasy is something that should be done long before the book is in the hands of the reader. I say that with the knowledge that most writers do think about those things but not all. An sad truth is not every writer sits down and thinks about their story. Now I am not saying know every little thing about your story before you start writing. But having a good idea about where the story is happening is something that you should know. It is very useful to both of us. I may add to this later but for now I am done. If you want to talk with me about this please leave a comment. I would love to talk with others about what is important about Setting. Write you next week!

 

Most important element

What is the most important part of a story? That is something that all my of classes, writing friends, and fellow readers talk about. I have heard and been a part of many; I do not see that changing any time soon. I think that is something that is personal to each of us. I have reasons for thinking that and I am going to list them before I talk about what I think is the most important. From person to person everyone likes different things. Some people love thick plots with many twists. Others love characters but they have to have something interesting going on around them. I have heard my fellow readers talk about how great a character was but that the story did not go anywhere. Next theme is a big draw to some readers. I see all these and the other parts of the story as important to me character is the most important.

I have thought that for years. I was about nine when I was talking to some classmates about why I did not like a book we had to read for class. Everyone else liked it because it had a flashy ploy but I was bored because I did not care about the characters. When I said that my classmates looked at me like I was crazy. Now I am not trying to say that I am some super-reader who from a young age just knew what good or not. I think that is because my mother reads, read to me and asked me about my reading from a young age. I think that she taught me to think about why I liked or disliked something in a book. Back to my opinion on character, because that is what it is my opinion, think about the last Dan Brown you read( if you have read anything by him). Now I read Dan Brown but I am not reading him for Robert Langdon. I know that Langdon is going to discover who the bad guy is, that all puzzles will be revealed and understood by the reader, and that he will have a new girlfriend per book. I read Brown because the puzzles are interesting but when the last puzzle is solved I am done with the book. I take it back to the library and move on.

But I have a few authors who write character pieces. By character pieces I mean stories that do not really go anywhere because the plot is secondary to the character development. Now I know that does not sound fun to read but they really are. For example Carrie Vaughn's "After the Golden Age". It is about the world after the superheroes and villains are past their prime. The daughter of (basically) Superman and Wonder Woman is looking who she is. Everything about herself has been defined by who her parents are. The plot is slow moving but the way that the main character changes over it is just awesome. I think that Dialog is part of character so when dialog is done right it is just wonderful because with dialog you can tell so much about the character just from the way that they say or mis-say a word.

So in my opinion character is the most important element of a story. Thanks for reading and see you next week.

Dragon*Con report

So this past week-end I made my yearly pilgrimage to Atlanta aka Geek-Mecca. There I dress-up, I talk to authors and I find out what is coming out in the next year. I go to all the publishers panels so I now have a pretty good idea about what I am going to be buying for this next year. But the most amazing parts of the Con are talking with my authors. Like every other reader in the world I love my authors. They help me make it from day to day, so when I can sit in the same room as them and talk about their works, hear from new books that are coming out, and just in general bask in the glow of cool.

So my first author I saw on Friday was Kevin J Anderson. Now I have met Mr. Anderson five years ago at Dragon*Con. He has been one of my authors for many years before that but after meeting him, he became even more so. He is a good reader, he likes his fans, and he is willing to answer questions about up coming books and the like. While over the past two years because of Facebook he and I have talked a lot. Now I realize that 'a lot' to me is really nothing to him but he is nice. So we talk about books, publishers and just about everything to do with writing. Last year when he read the first two chapters of his book 'Death Warmed Over' I was there. When he talked about it on Facebook, I responded. Well long story short he gave me a ARC copy of it over the summer. Super cool and the book is hilarious. You should read it for yourself and see. So when my spouse and I get some time on Friday to go to the vendors for about an hour we head to Mr. Anderson's table to get some books. He sees me, comes around the table and hugs me. In public. Like I'm someone he likes. My face was so red. It was and is very flattering and awesome. Then when we went to his reading, as per normal, he hugged me again. I still blush just remembering it. So Mr. Anderson is awesome and nice and one of my authors.

The other author I met this past week-end was Robin Hobb. She was on a writing panel and when the panel ended I walked to tell her how much I enjoyed her novels over the years. She, my spouse and I end up having a 20 minute conversation, where she gave writing advice and we helped her with Dragon*Con. Because if you have not been to Dragon*Con then you will get so lost in it all. Dragon*Con is over five hotels and has about 60,000 people on average. So she was a little lost but nothing serious and we told her where to find what she was looking for. Her reading was good too but she only had one chapter to read so the last 30 minutes of the panel was Q&A. Not bad for her first Dragon*Con. I really hope that she comes again next year.

The publishers panels of course were great but the best coming soon panel really is the YA Lit. That is because the panelist give a hand-out with all titles, the publishers, when and if it is a series the other names of the books to everyone there. It is run by four librarians from the Atlanta area and is always great. There are some really good stuff coming out this year just to warn you. Dragon*Con was wonderful and I wish that I could go to it again this week-end but I'll live for the next year until that most magical time of the year comes again. Thanks for reading and see you next week!

Outlines

Hey people who read this. In this week's post I would like to talk about Outlines, how they are used, when I use them and when I throw them out the window.

Many of my favorite authors use some pretty intense outlines for their books. For example one of my sci-fi authors has about a fifty page chapter outline for each of his books. Outlines are just a way to help you keep control of what you are writing. It is something that I learned in undergrad but it was not talked about until I got to my upper level classes. But I learned to write outlines in middle school. My mind is like a steel trap so when I get an idea I do not let it go. Which means I can be very committed to something but the downside is that I forget things. Like other homework or friends or anything but what I am doing. So outlines for papers or stories is a great way for me to have some control over my brain and its rabbit-trails.

When I toss them out of the window is when my characters decide to do something different. That is why I try to keep my outlines to about three to four lines. That way I have some idea about where I want my story to go but my characters have some freedom to go where they want to go. I know that my characters are in my head but my head is a strange place to be. I should know I live in it. So I have learned to let my writings flow from they start to where they end up. I have started simple stories but then have spend four paragraphs having the character think about how her shoes reflected her social status. My teacher for that class really liked those paragraphs, she said that they made my main character feel more real. Later in the came class for my big last story I started out not liking one of the side characters but in the end she had changed so much that I really liked her. I was not alone that in that change, it was the thing that helped me get a good grade, traveling with her to see where the road would lead.

I am trying to disciple myself and use outlines in my future writing. It helps me feel grounded to more than just the whims of my brain and the voices that I hear in it. Outlines are a good way to get more than just from A to B. They are way to control the actions that happen on the journey, outlines help you get a good idea about where B is, and they help characters be more than just talking voices in your head. Outlines can give you personal information about the characters but I will talk about that next week. I am going to Dragon*Con this week-end and so I will not have my next writing blog up until Wednesday of next week. Thanks for reading and see you then!

Plotter or pantser?

I have learned a new word. A couple of weeks ago in one my writer groups I heard the word pantser for the first time. I did not know what that meant but I do now. A pantser is someone who writes by the sit of their pants. I did not know there was a word for that. I just thought is was crazy or something. So I thought that in this week's post I would write about both of them and how I use or not use them.

I love to plan. I love writing out plans. I love when a plan comes together (haha!). I love to write my outlines and chapter outlines and to have a very clear idea about where I am going and how I am going to get there. That said I do not do that has often as I should. Right now the story I trying to write other than the chapter I am working on right now I do not have an outline. So to some extent I feel lost. I am not sure where the story is going, I have a general idea about how I am going to get to the second book but I am not really sure. The second book is the first one I started writing. I know weird but in my defense I did not know that I was writing more than just one story. I thought that I had one little story but I don't. I have one story that wants to be told in three parts. So back to the lost feeling. I now am writing outlines for the chapters as I come to them. Meaning before I start chapter nine I wrote about a three line outcome for this chapter. These are things that I would like to happen in the story. Now my characters sometimes like to do what I think they should not always. Sometimes they like to have fight where I was expecting just a little campfire scene. You know something with some talking and little heart to heart from character to another. Nothing too big but the story is a life onto itself. That is when being a pantser comes into help.

The first novel I finished I had no outlines, no characters that I just had to write about, nothing like that. All I had was a five line short short from a flash fiction course that I thought that I could work with. Here is the short-

At the head of the bus was a man, at least she thought is was a man, but under all those robes she could not tell. The man had knocked the conductor out and he was bleeding terribly.  Georgie realized that no one was going to stop him or do anything. That is no one but her. She knew that unless she stopped him they were all going to die.

That is what I based my first novel from. Not much but it bloomed into something that I am never going to let anyone read. Ever. It is a first novel and so it  needs to be hidden away in some dark corner, never to be seen or read again. I was a pantser for it. I think that is part of the problem. I had no idea where I was going or how I was going to get there. But my first novel taught me many things and the most important one is this. I can write a novel. I can do this. It is not an impossible dream like I thought is was for far too many years. If only I had been a pantser ten years ago I could have written ten of the novels that are floating around in my head right now. But I was too scared too. I was afraid of failure and I was afraid of success. I was afraid of trying to make a dream into my reality. It was easier to have the dream than to try and make into something more. But I have now. That sad, little novel do that for me. Being a pantser for NaNoWriMo did this for me. So it does not matter whether you are a plotter or a pantser but be what will help you get your dreams out of your head into your reality!

See you next week.

Writing for this month

So I'm doing Camp NaNoWriMo for August and I have to say that I am doing better this time than in June. That probably has to do with my current joblessness and classlessness. I literally have nothing to do but read and write. Which would be awesome if I didn't have things like bills. Money is so over-rated. I have almost 20,000 words written and I am aiming for 100,000. This will be the first book in a trilogy. After I finish book one I am going to start book two. Now book two has advantages because it was the one I was writing before I realized that my one little fantasy book is really three little fantasy books.

I know that many writers would love to have the problem of writing three books and I am doing it. It is just that I was not expecting it. All my planning, because I did about year of planning, before I started my little story. I wrote a chapbook, I had people read what I wrote and give me their honest opinion, by that I mean I had my classmates in writing courses read and talk about it, I talked about to God. I am not kidding, I would stand in the shower and be like 'God this is crazy right? I mean writers don't make a living writing' and on and on like that. God is very patient and totally a saint. So I finally sat down and started writing. 64,000 words in I realized that my characters were leading me on. They wanted more than one little shot at the page. They wanted more like three. Then the world where they live was like 'Hey you! Yeah you, writer person! You can write like two more stories in here!'

After I finish the first trilogy then I am going to write a hard sci-fi story. I really want to write that one because the characters are like  bursting out at me. My fantasy characters are happy at the moment and are more like 'Take your time dude but DO NOT PUT US TO THE SIDE!'. Yes they yell at me. At least they're nice when I'm writing them. They mostly go where I think but sometimes they do pull a fast one on me and they wake up hanging upside down from the inn with no money and no idea how they got there. Have to keep them in line somehow. Also after I finish the trilogy I am going to be getting it edited first my partner, who can understand what I am trying to say when I am too sleepy to move my mouth (He's amazing), and then a friend who is an editor after that I if I have A. a job so that B. I have money, I am going to be sending it to a professional line editor. Well that is it for this week. See you next and thanks for reading!