…c/o Jane Graves, that really worked for me. She told me to use it if it resonated (my new favorite word) and it certainly did.
After reading the prologue of the current WIP, she commented that I didn’t have a solid through-line to the scene and that she wasn’t feeling the escalation of action and dialogue…what you’ve ended up with here is his internal dialogue telling the whole story rather than the external conflict between the characters driving the internal thoughts. And then she showed me exactly what she meant – which was probably, for me, the best trick I’d ever learned: She pulled out only the dialogue (no tags) and listed it on a separate page. When I read it, I saw exactly what she meant – I had one character answer the other character in his head, making the dialogue appear to make sense to me since I’d written it. When I reread the dialogue, I saw where I had to beef it up in order to make the conversation happen outside the character’s head. It was so simple and it didn’t take much to fix but it strengthened the entire scene. (Of course – the husband read the exact same scene a week before and said – I like it, but it just feels off somehow, like a little something’s missing. But don’t tell him he was right because the balance of power would tip around here, and I can’t have that.)
And I’ve found this works in any WIP. I highlighted the dialogue in a recent scene to make sure I’d balanced it, made sure the characters actually answered each other’s questions. It was a little bit of magic for me. Reminds me a little of what Emma’s talking about today.
Any tips/tricks that you use that just make lightbulbs go on?
Steph T.
New York Times Bestselling author Stephanie Tyler writes what she loves to read — romantic suspense novels starring military heroes and paranormal romance novels novels starring warrior heroes, all complete with happy endings. Her alter-ego is 
Oh, this makes such perfect sense. I think I may be guilty of it, too. I’ll have to go through my earliest chapters and see if I need to add more dialogue.
I know there are several times when my characters ignore each other, but that’s usually because they’re contrary. 😀
It’s such a difficult thing to find balance between internalization and dialogue, though, isn’t it?
Oh, that’s a great idea! I’ll have to try that. :thumbsup:
Emma – I find it so hard to balance it, because I have my characters using a lot of one-liner internals, so it all seems like it’s balanced.
*waves hi to Michelle* …anything to make the writing easier:wink:
I have no tips or tricks. I NEED tips and tricks. :frazzled:
You can also write the dialogue first, especially if you’re playing with subtext. I use drama as a guide for this — there’s a scene in The Crucible by Miller where Proctor and his wife are having a conversation and it sounds very ordinary (you have no internals, of course), but knowing Proctor has had an affair . . . lends the words a whole new meaning. So if I’m trying to really work that subtext (make it resonate, ;-)) then I do the dialogue first, make sure I have the possible double meanings in there, then add the internals, narrative, etc. around it.
That’s a great tip! Thanks for sharing!
I LURVE Jane!!! she came and spoke at a recent chapter meeting!!! Really made me think hard about my wip and taking characters out of “ordinary places” which might not apply when dealing with secret solider type guys LOL :smoke:
I have no tips but I tend to write a lot of dialogue then go back and fill in with scene setting and internalization. Scene setting=big weakness :yuck: along with those sense things
I see the light!!
Yahoo!
Great tip. Thanks for sharing.
Loved this, great tip!
*waves to Sasha, Olga & Jill* Glad to share the info!!
Cece – Jane is such a doll…I like the whole out of the ordinary thing too (wonder if Jake will?) And I suck at settings.
Linda – that’s a great example of subtext – I always forget subtext…
LOL at Amy – I’ll pass along any I find. Anything to make life easier…:wink: