Revealing New Information Through Dialogue

Effective dialogue can help a novel tremendously.  One technique to strengthen the dialogue of your story is revealing new information to the reader and to the characters through dialogue.  Think about it.  How do we generally learn new information that will impact our lives?  We are TOLD through a friend, family member or associate whether in person, over the phone or (especially in business and legal matters) in a letter or email.  So learning how to throw a zinger into a dialogue scene can really pull the reader in.

Example

Jane: I can't believe mom is really gone.

Jim:  We're going to have to move on, Jane.

Jane:  Jim, it's only been a year.  How can you just let go?  She was our mother for God's sake!

Now so far, this has plenty of conflict.  The death of the mother and obviously the different reactions by the two siblings.  How can we tone this up with a zinger?

Jim: Jane, she chose to leave us.  The car wreck did not kill her.  She took a bottle of sleeping pills right after she crashed.  She was just looking for an excuse.

Jane:  What?  Are you drunk?  You can't mean it.


Now things have gotten more interesting.  Jim has obviously known that their mother committed suicide whereas Jane did not.  Now things will be different entirely.  Will she even mourn her mother in the same way now that she knows she chose to take her own life and therefore chose to leave her and Jim? 

This is just one example of how a revealing bit of information in the dialogue of your novel or story can amp things up and change the characters for the rest of the story.  Jim might not change much other than possibly regretting telling his sister, but Jane will never look at her mother's death the same way again.  This technique is just one of many in the area of dialogue.  Used properly it can really turn up the story's volume in a single line.

Best wishes,

Anthony David Mitchell

Remember When...or where...or why...or WHO

Novels are composed of events, plots and lots of little facts and misconception shakers that it is hard to determine what sells a story.  But when we tell stories about life what is the key ingredient?  When the story takes place?  Where the story takes place?  While both of these factors can help a story, they only true element we remember are actions.  And actions are produced by what?  The characters.

Let's sat your favorite novel is A Christmas Carol.  Now let's look at the time period.  Early Victorian era Britain where Christmas practices were immensely popular.  Also Dickens' references to the protagonist Ebeneezer Scrooge's childhood offer a glimpse into the hard working conditions of the times.  Surely these images are memorable. 

Where the story takes place?  Of course the gloomy snow covered background of England add a gloomy feel on the night when the ghosts come about.  An eerie, haunting presence.  This certainly helps create a vision in the mind's eye.

But would any of it imprint any memory on any reader with Ebeneezer Scrooge himself?  Not a chance.  Scrooge's own bullish actions toward others early in the novel show us what a nasty man he has come to be.  However his actions toward the end reveal that the monster was made one over the years with no real intention of harm toward anybody.  I am sure most of us can relate.  Life has many distractions that pull us each in directions we never intended to go toward or seek out.  Yet hey.  It happens.  And so Scrooge may be a bitter old miser at first that we can see but the beauty of the novel is that we see how all this came to be and then we are treated to his magnificent transformation into the generous soul at the end. 

So in the end, novels and stories are about characters.  They are what we truly cannot forget.  And how often does a question start out with "Remember when..." and not be followed in the next word with a person?  Remember when Joe fell off the tractor?  Remember when mom burnt the birthday cake?  In fiction as in real life, it is all about the characters.

Best of luck

Anthony David Mitchell

Re-TELL IT to SELL IT

The man walked into the room.

Are you hooked?

Me neither.

The man stormed into the den.

Interested yet?

Nope?

Try this.

The moon-faced creep crashed into the lawyer's den wielding his foot long blade with malice.

Well I am intrigued.  What is this creep doing in a lawyer's den swinging a large knife?  What will happen next?  Lots of good questions and an opening line with potentially chaotic results.  Good conflict and tension buried inside the words.  We also know this man is a "moon-faced creep" which leads me to think the lawyer is most likely dirty since the man is motivated enough to attack him and that they have probably dealt with each other before.  Lots of imagination from just one line and that is what it takes.

The more you re-tell your story, the more solid it becomes.  And it all starts with the first line.  You don't have long to impress a publisher or agent.  If that first line doesn't shine, the only thing the potential agent/publisher's mind is working toward is the next submission right after they email you the same mundane rejection letter they have probably already emailed ten times throughout the day.  in order to sell a story, you need to tell it again and again.  Only a solid story will sell. 

Best wishes,

Anthony David Mitchell

Fitting In With Purple Socks

To many fiction writers, writing the story they want to tell is all that matters...until it comes time to submit.  Getting published is like accepting the real world after being totally idealistic for a hundred years.  Your work may be good or even great but it does not fit the publisher or agent you're pitching to.  What a terrible feeling after all the work!  Well there is a way around this.  From my success as a short story writer I can tell you that you have to learn to be the kid who fits into the group while wearing purple socks.  You are original and you are different but not so different that you look like a total oddball.  Like say, if you were to walk in naked, that would be drastic.  instead you are yourself and an individual but you can still hang around.  I have had the most success on a website where I read every story in their crime section.  After reading them all, I churned out a story and just knew by whatever way, that it would get published.  And it did.  And the next one did.  And now I have five on there.  The key is that I know what they want and I deliver.  I remain original but still fall within their guidelines well enough to get published over and over.  So take a close look at the website or publisher that you are looking to do business with and conform to what they actually want while remaining original.  Trust me.  This is very doable. 

My short stories can be viewed here.

http://www.short-story.me/crime-stories.html

Best of luck in your writing,

Anthony David Mitchell

Experience is Key

If you were looking to apply for a teaching job with no experience, but found yourself up against a rival applicant who possessed twenty years experience in public and private sectors, well obviously, you could predict how the outcome would go.  Now think about this in closer terms.  Let's suppose you're applying to teach in a private school with ten years public school experience while another applicant has five years worth of public school experience along with five years worth of private school teaching experience.  You guessed it.  You came up short again.  Like any profession writers are often rewarded based off of experience.  So what's the best thing we can do as writers?  Vary up your work.  I predominantly write crime stories where the law is involved very little.  Why?  I like placing my characters in tense situations where safety is not guaranteed.  I like raising suspense on people who have little or no protection.  Plus involving the law is only interesting if you get all CSI with things.  Not really my thing.  Science and criminal justice are interesting.  Sure.  But I really prefer to look more at character rather than scientific research or more or less writing a police procedural.  I've read those.  They typically bore me to tears.  But nonetheless despite typically writing these types of stories, I have also tried my hand at a western short story as well as involving the law a few times, too.  Why?  It's simple.  Experience builds on what we can draw from.  If I decided to write a Western novel, it's much easier to approach the project with experience in writing in that genre.  No matter what your preferred writing style and subjects are, it is always good to venture out.  I realized I have not often focused on physical strains in many of my stories like the characters having to go without food, medicine and vital essentials.  I also realized I have not written many stories about a character on the run and desperate to survive or even just get away from a pursuit.  Often times, I place characters in tighter surroundings, but hey.  It does not mean I won't try new things.  Even within a series like the James Bond or Jack Reacher series novels, the writer puts them through new innovative challenges.  Otherwise what would be the point?  So in order to further your writing, think about all the work you have written thus far and try to find something you have not covered or experimented with.  This can be done with novels, but I prefer to step outside of my box in short stories first.  It is far easier to be experimental with a shorter work.  Then incorporating these new skills and experience into a novel is far easier, because you already have some material to draw from.  This does not mean you have to write stories completely different from what you typically write.  No.  You have your preferences and stick with them!  It took me years just to find my genre and I'm not going anywhere.  But at the same time, play around with what you've done and seek to expand your experience.  It will definitely show up in your writing when your manuscript goes up against several others in the publishers slush pile.  The editors have good eyes and they will know when a true story teller is submitting and when they are just dealing with another, limited amateur.

Re-write, Re-tell.

As a writer of two novels and over forty short stories (4 of them published so far), I know what it's like to sit at the old laptop and crank out a yarn for others to read.  And I know that what I like is the writing part.  The re-writing is well, okay.  But the true thrills come from that first draft where I have no idea what is going to happen nor what my characters are going to do.  I create a mess for them and then see if they can get out of the mess or if the mess will bog them down.  Kind of sadistic, but hey.  That's writing.  What I am not crazy about is the re-write.  But I have to say it is the only way to ensure your story or novel will be as good as it can be.  Remember, the reader is expecting to be entertained.  That doesn't happen with shoddy second-rate work that you scribbled down one time and tossed at them.  They want the stories to crackle with action and wit.  The bottom line is a story can never be expected to be great or even that good in many cases, without being told more than once.  Think about stories written long ago.  Better yet think about stories that were not written at all, but handed down verbally from one generation to the next.  We live in a pretty cool time where most people can read, but it wasn't always like that.  So I think the best way to make sure your story is just the way you want it to be is to not only re-write, but re-tell the story.  Get a tape recorder and record yourself telling the story.  And then see if there is anything you would change.  Often times when we read something we may just skip over it even if it doesn't sound quite right.  Reading it out loud, we will definitely feel that ear-pricking sensation when our mind tells us that that last sentence or word or phrase just did not quite fit.  And of course there are other considerations.  Maybe the characters talk too much alike.  If all or most characters sound alike and look alike, you have a pretty boring cast.  You can even go into different voices when you tell the story even if you don't think you're that good at it.  The point is that you will be in that character's voice and in particular, in that character's head.  This will make your story much stronger since you will know your characters much better.  I have found this method works well for me and don't worry.  I do most of this alone.  I get embarrassed just like the next guy.  Find a quiet place and then let your characters come to life.  Re-telling a story is just as important as any other aspect of crating solid fiction.  The more it is told, the stronger it will become.  Just don't go crazy into the world of endless re-writing.  Don't change the entire plot or anything like that.  Stick with what works, toss out what doesn't and replace it.  Fill in the cement where it needs to be applied.  Either way, when it comes to your writing, repetition will make it stronger.  And hey.  We're lucky as writers.  Imagine how many times poor old Johnny Cash had to sing "Folsom Prison Blues."  Great song, but dang.  That had to get old after about the hundredth time, but you can bet your last dollar he performed it way more than a hundred times.  So just look at it this way.  as the writer there's only so many times you will have to repeat your story, but for the audience's sake and for the sake of your career, learn to love the re-write.

Too close to the Hero

I would like to take a moment to express my opinion on the modern day fictional heroes and a big mistake many writers have been making in recent years.  When I think of heroes I think of three words.  Larger Than Life.  However I believe a lot of fiction writers are getting away from that concept.  Take the recent Dark Knight trilogy.  Now I love the series.  Don't get me wrong.  Heath Ledger's Joker was unbelievable!  Plus the stories for all three were solid.  The action and momentum never slowed down.  I believe the villains and most characters were written well and given ample time on the screen.  However one character was not treated quite right in my opinion.  That would be the hero- Batman himself.  Notice how the Joker appears out of nowhere and then puts Batman through hell the entire movie up until being shipped off to Arkam Asylum or so we think.  No origin.  No long explanations about who the Joker is or where he really came from.  The snippets he gives of his past are clearly lies, but we are entertained since his lies just come off as funny.  He is the most interesting character of the series because there is an awe of mystery there.  Bane, Two-Face, Catwoman, Raz-al-Ghul and Scarecrow are all solid, but they do not stand a chance against the aura of the maniac in the purple suit.  Now just think if they had done this with Batman.  Skip Batman Begins and go straight into The Dark Knight.  No explanation about our hero or why he does what he does.  Isn't a guy running around dressed like a bat fighting crime interesting enough all on its own?  Just like a guy in clown makeup and a purple suit causing mayhem.  We don't need a reason.  Just give us the show.  I point to The Man with No Name in Clint Eastwood's spaghetti Westerns.  How much do we know about him?  Hell.  We don't even know his name!  But it works.  He strolls into town and we follow the action without bogging this guy down with backstory.  Just let him go and watch the chaos develop!  Then there's the original James Bond series.  We know very little of 007 as well.  And because of this he is far more interesting than even the intriguing series of villains he encounters because a mysterious good guy is always a winner.  Throw him into trouble and watch him take down the bad guys.  Now to me, that is much more appealing than many modern day heroes who might as well be thrown onto the psychiatrist's sofa!  It's like the late great James Gondolfini said while playing Tony Soprano.  "What ever happened to Gary Cooper?"  What indeed, Tony?  What, indeed?