Writing good dialogue

5 July 2011

Writing good dialogue is something that can be learned. You don’t have to have a natural talent for it; although I suppose the latter would help.

You might like to know that I used to struggle – a lot! – with dialogue in the past. In fact, I used to be so afraid of it, I tried to cut all dialogue at all by placing my characters in places where they wouldn't have to interact with others. Until I learned the “trick” and found out writing dialogue is really one of the easiest parts of writing.

The “trick” is - of course - to listen to people as they talk. Listen, listen, listen. How do different people say different things?

Some are highly sophisticated and use big words. Others are the silent types, and won't use two words if one would suffice. Then you've got the foul-mouthed ones. And the explosive types. The nervous "blabbers". You get the picture.

Once you figured out how people talk, you can apply that knowledge to your story.

Also, note that people don’t usually talk in long, grammatically correct sentences. They stammer and stutter, start out saying one thing, then change their mind and end up saying something different – and mess up the grammatical structure of their sentence as they do so. Some use double negatives. (I’ve never seen nothing like that.) Some say me when they should have said my. They say should of, could of, would of… Use these abominations to your advantage. They can help you create different voices for different characters.

Finally, even if your characters are highly educated people, with IQ's well over 200, you cannot allow them to be too high and lofty in their speech, or you will run the risk of losing your readers. Remember the average IQ is still 100. You've got to make your characters talk in such a way that everyone - not just the educated - will understand what they are talking about. Unless... unless you've got a character you want to alienate from your readers. (But then you'd better make sure you've got a good reason for wanting to do that.)

I'm back

3 July 2011

My blogging vacation took longer than I expected, but I'm back again - I think.

Lots of things happened over the past year, and unfortunately I hacen't been writing a lot. However, after having moaned a bit about the need to edit my novel, I finally decided to actually do it, so that's what I've been doing over the last few months.

It's been an uphill struggle, and I found myself rewriting page after page of crappy writing, but I've got the first five chapters of my novel edited now. Just 22 more to go, which at this rate will take me only a couple of years.

But wait... the summer holidays are almost here. Can you guess what I'll be doing this summer?

Editing Blues

24 February 2011

It’s a lousy job, but every writer has to do it: editing.

I used to have a couple of house elves – years ago, in one of my alternate universes – who were supposed to take care of the editing for me. Not that they ever got anything done. Not to my satisfaction anyway.

Lazy buggers, that’s what they were. Used to sleep – after finishing my bottles of Baileys, of course – in their hidey-hole under the stairs. But you know, it was nice to be able to cling to the idea that someone else was responsible for that part of my job. Not anymore, though.

They ran out on me. Left without a word. Not even a little note to say “thanks for putting up with our antics for all those years,” or, “thanks for all the Baileys.” Nope. Nothing. They upped and went. Just like that. Left me to do my own editing and you know what?

I hate it.

Summer Holidays

8 July 2010

The summer holidays arrived sooner than I expected.

The warm sunshine changed our world, and as an unschooling Mum, I find myself going on field trips (more than usual) with my family, enjoying lots of time away from the computer.

This means I won't be updating my blog as often during the summer months. I may pop in and post the odd message, but don't count on it.

I intend to be back to my usual two or three posts a week in September.

Writing a homeschool transcript

27 June 2010

With the summer holidays approaching, last week has been a busy week.

I'm not only a writer, but also a home educating parent, so this is the time of year when I have to create some kind of overview of what our children have learnt during this academic year. As we're unschoolers, and I'm not exactly good at record keeping, I really, really hate this job.

Thankfully, I've got my Homeschool Blog, and lots of photos to help jog my memory. I store my children's worksheets in files, so I can find them back when I need them. Also, instead of getting books from the library and running the risk of having to pay high fines for not returning them in time, we just buy all the books we need.

I'm now nearly done creating my 11-year old daughter's transcript, and discovered that, although we felt like she'd been playing most of the time, she'd actually done an impressive amount of learning.

She read 25 novels, watched films of Classics and Modern Classics (on TV, DVD and at the cinema), learned some amazing things about dinosaurs and prehistoric times, performed several science experiments, and lots more.

Now, there are some subjects we still need to wrap up for this year, but now that I've got this great overview of what she already achieved, it's easy to see which gaps still have to be filled within the next couple of weeks.

I still have to write my 16 year old daughter's transcript, and how I wish a had a house elf to do that job for me!

Eats, Shoots & Leaves

24 June 2010

Are you one of those writers that are forever struggling with their punctuation? Or are you a real stickler, and blessed - or should that be cursed - with the seventh sense?

It doesn't matter which of the two you are - or even if you find yourself balancing somewhere in between those two extremes - if you are serious about writing, Lynne Truss's book Eats, Shoots & Leaves is a must-have for your personal library.

Presenting itself as The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, this is the funniest book about punctuation I ever laid my greedy little hands on. It doesn't spell out the rules, but shows you with numerous examples that punctuation really does matter, even if it is only occasionally a matter of life and death.

My 11-year old, who used to be a reluctant reader until quite recently, voluntarily picked it up the other day, and surprised me by reading page after page of this little treasure, and asking me questions about the things she didn't understand. And after maybe half an hour of absorbing new knowledge, she surprised me even more by saying, "Mum, you know, it's really quite cosy, sitting on the couch together, reading."

Need I say more?

Essays & Cartoons

8 June 2010

Is your child easy to love, but hard to parent? DRT Press is seeking personal essays written by parents of children with ADD, ADHD and/or other mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders for a book about the experience of parenting children with such conditions, for publication (expected) in Spring 2011.

In addition to essays, DRT Press is now seeking comic strips which illustrate the same topics. Comics will be printed in black and white only; no color. Because creating comics requires a specific skill set, contributions will be accepted from persons who are not parents and caregivers of challenging children, as well as those who are, as long as the work captures the parenting experience.

The deadline for submissions has been extended through June 2010.

For more information, please visit the DRT Press website.