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