In the first post of this writing series I covered (albeit lightly) the topics of genre, protagonist, plot and some length guidelines. I’d like to continue on today with a little discussion about dialogue and foreshadowing. Both of these techniques are critical to master for any novelist. Some folks are lucky and their skills are natural in these areas, most of the rest of us need to work on it a bit.
Dialogue
Good dialogue moves a story along. It provides rich character detail. It entertains. It makes us laugh or cry.
Bad dialogue gets you thinking that maybe Bradbury had it right with Fahrenheit 451.
One of the best (and most quoted) pieces of writing advice is to show – not tell. Dialogue allows us to do this. Think about this: Picture someone in your internet community who you follow. You read their blog and tweet with them on a regular basis. Do you know them? Do you have a picture in your mind of who they are, their traits, their qualities? Did you learn these things by the person telling you or did they show you through their writing and their actions? Their blog posts and their tweets are their “dialogue” with the world. Dialogue is your opportunity to let the world learn about your characters. See how important it is?
Here’s a great big, fat tip: Minimize your dialogue tags. In other words, “He shouted angrily” sucks. Don’t do it. Use words to demonstrate the feelings. Said works best. Remember that.
I just got through slugging my way through a book by Stuart Woods in which almost the entire novel was written using dialogue. If it wasn’t for the fact that the dialogue rang hollow and was a bit stilted, it would have been a great way to move things forward.
Final tip: Go find one of your fav books. Read through it to see how the author handled the dialogue. Learn what you can from it, emulate it.
Foreshadow
A foreshadow is nothing more than a hint or a tease about something that may happen in the future. It’s a great technique to build suspense. Some folks make it more complicated than it needs to be so don’t get all jacked up about it, okay?
A foreshadow can be in your face, blatant and impossible to miss. In that case, it creates some suspense that we keep in the back of our mind awating the fruition of events. We want to see how the author is going to wrap that little thing up.
Other times, the foreshadowing is much more subtle. In fact, we may not even realize that the technique was used until we reach an “Ahh, that’s why so-and-so said or did such-and-such!” towards the end of the story.
It’s easy to practice foreshadowing. Take something you’ve written and work a little tease into the beginning of the piece, pointing to a future event. See how it changes the flavor and flow of the story.
Just like dialogue, some will have the foreshadowing gene and others will have to work the technique a bit.
Final tip: Pick a novel that you love and know by heart. Do a quick re-read of the book and highlight any of the passages or sentences that you believe are foreshadowing. How did the author phrase it? Where did they place them? Pay attention to these attributes and you will see patterns emerge that you can use in your own writing.
Oh, and be careful. If you foreshadow something early on, you had better address it at some point or your readers will hunt you down and beat you like the dog you are.
Sorry folks. Too wordy on this post so point of view will be tackled in part three of this series, along with chapter length.
George,
Your comments on dialogue reminded me of my first draft of my first novel. I had finished about half the manuscript when I let a writer friend read it. She pointed out that I didn’t have a word of dialogue in the entire story! I wrote everything in narrative: Joe told Sue that … Sue explained to Joe that …
I started writing dialogue from that point forward but didn’t edit what I’d already written. When I finished the first draft, my mother (who was a reader but not a writer) said, “I don’t know what it was, but the second half of the book was a lot better than the first.”
Whether this series is too basic or not depends on what stage the writer is at. It’s certainly not too basic for beginning writers. I didn’t even know a book needed dialogue, much less how to write it.
Lillie Ammann´s last blog ..Guest Post: 9 Ways to Promote Your Book Using Social Media by Beth Morrow
i’m a stuart wood fan, i’m reading one of his books now, hot mahogany, and normally his books are written very well, but the last few books all read the same with him. maybe his editor was asleep.
i think i rather have the dialogue rather than a writing describing too much detail.
Natural´s last blog ..I am conductor, hear me cook
Hi Natural,
I agree. Dialogue can really scoot a story along. I know when I’m making a purchase decision on a book, if I open it and see page after page of solid paragraph I’m apt to choose something different!
Cheers
George
i meant a writer describing too much detail
Natural´s last blog ..I am conductor, hear me cook
Lillie,
It’s great to see your thoughtful comments here. I appreciate the contributions.
That’s a great story about dialogue. I bet you chuckle a little each time you think of it!
George
Good stuff, especially about writing dialogue. It’s an ear thing, like trying to teach someone to carry a tune. Can’t be taught, really — but it can be practiced — it must be experienced. If one listens closely, one begins to get the idea.
My two favorite dialogue tips:
1) Avoid anything that’s “one the nose.” What’s that? An example:
One charater says to another, “Hey, good morning!” (Note: that’s already boring.) And the other answers, “Just fine, thank you, and you?” That’s on the nose. Predictable, boring, useless. It adds nothing to character… except that the character is boring.
The other is to develop your dialogue ear in the real world. The first time I read a line of dialogue that said, “Hey, I’m just sayin’…” I got it. That’s how people talk. There are no rules of grammar in dialogue, or rules of anything else. Just like in real life. Anything goes.
Writers are told all the time to read and learn. But when it comes to dialogue, the better advice is to listen and learn.
Larry´s last blog ..The Ugly Truth About Writer’s Block and the Beautiful Way to Kick It
Hi Larry,
Thanks for coming by and contributing.
When I write dialogue, I can hear the conversation in my head and I try to put it down to paper exactly that way. I’ll use a lot of sentence fragments and lots of apostrophe’s because that is the way people talk.
Cheers!
George
Like your first commenter, my natural inclincation is to write everything in narrative in my initial draft. I have to keep booting myself to remember there’s got to be dialogue too! And once I get into that frame of mind it’s a lot easier to make the scene start coming alive. Thanks for this – no writing tip is ever too simple, we all forget the basics in the thick of the action. I do and I’ve been writing professionally for years!
dirtywhitecandy´s last blog ..Nail Your Novel – dirtywhitecandy shows you how!
Hey Candy,
Thanks for dropping by. I need to be in a certain mode to write particular segments or kinds of writing too. I know that for myself, the basics help me remember to keep things focused.
Cheers!
George