Dialogue Exercises - #4

Happy Thursday, good people of the blogosphere! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend planned. Just two more days to go now. That's two more days of dialogue exercises. If you want to rush the time along, try doing one or more of these today. Before you know it, it'll be Friday! Grab your pens and notebooks and let's get going!

Again, I won't bore you by repeating myself. If you want to check out days one, two, and three, you can find them here:

Dialogue Exercises - #1
Dialogue Exercises - #2
Dialogue Exercises - #3

Remember, each of these exercises require at least two pages of dialogue.

Exercise #10: Remembering your senses when writing dialogue.
Take a place you've visited that's full of activity and bring it to mind. Put two characters in the midst of it all and have them talk about what's going on around them. Use all five senses as you write so your reader gets a good idea what the place is like. Sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. Bring the venue to life on the page. Make one of them blind, if that helps.

Exercise #11: Using dialogue to bring about transformation.
Using the confrontation/response method, create dialogue in which one character gives the other a reason to change. Make it so the protagonist has to look deep within and see something they hadn't before. Your antagonist can be cruel or kind in their observations/opinions, but their words should bring about change.

Exercise #12: Setting tone/voice with dialogue.
Something is in the woods. A mom and daughter are camping, alone. Suddenly, mom feels like they're in danger. Using dialogue, set the tone of the scene. Be true to your characters and really bring forward their fear and Mom's protectiveness over her daughter.

I hope you'll give at least one of these a whirl today. You can't get better if you don't practice! Tomorrow is the last day of dialogue exercises. Next week, I'm going to begin a 10 day series on a very important topic relating to dialogue. Come back every day and see what you find!

Which one of these is your favorite?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Dialogue Exercises - #3

Happy Hump-Day, good people of the blogosphere! I hope the first half of your week has exceeded expectations and the second half looks promising! Today, we continue with our dialogue exercises! Three more tools to add to your belt to help you on your journey to greatness. Remember, over on INDIE Books Gone Wild, I give a writing class that goes through this and so much more! Grab those pens and notebooks and let's get going!

You can find day one here.
And day two here.

Remember, each of these exercises calls for at least two pages of dialogue.

Exercise #7: Writing telephone dialogue.
Take two of your characters and make them interact over the phone. Stay in one POV. Write both sides of the conversation but omit all hellos and goodbyes. Use assumption to infer what the other character is doing while talking. Make it a heated conversation or put something big at stake. Now go back and write it from the other POV.

Exercise #8: Removing all saids from dialogue.
Write a conversation between two of your characters without using the word said. You may only use actions, thoughts, or observations.

Exercise #9: Killing direct addresses in dialogue.
Go through a passage you've written from above and take out all instances of direct address. Make it work through actions instead.

Example:
"John, did you see that UFO just now?" Marsha screamed.
"No, Marsha, I didn't. I was too busy looking at you."
"But, John, we're at an observatory!"
"I know, Marsha. I am observing," said John.

Change to:
"Did you see that UFO just now?" Marsha screamed.
"No, I didn't. I was too busy looking at you." John's face was slack and his eyes bored into her.
She felt her face get hot. "But we're at an observatory!"
"I know. I am observing."

See how much more natural that sounds?

I do hope you take the time to do at least one of the above exercises. Your manuscript will thank you for it later.

Have any of these worked out for you? Are you trying them?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Dialogue Exercises - #2

Happy Tuesday, good people of the blogosphere! Today we continue on our journey through dialogue exercises. If you missed post #1, please go back and take a gander here. If not, grab your pens and notebooks and let's get going!

I'm not going to bore you all to tears with a repeat of what I said yesterday. Let's just dive on into the exercises!

Every exercise below calls for at least two pages of dialogue.

Exercise 4: Using dialogue to set mood.
Just like you can use dialogue to set a scene, you can also use it to set a mood. Stick two of your characters in a setting that will enhance the mood and let them discuss what they're seeing or feeling in the moment. For fun, try using a setting you'd never expect to see in your novel and let the dialogue flow. Focus on emotion and try to set the mood with speech rather than scene.

Exercise 5: Adding dialogue to action scenes.
Pull up an action scene you've written where there's little to no dialogue. Read it a couple of times and think about your character as you do. Recall their personality, habits, and opinions. Add no less than sixteen lines of dialogue that convey a few of those habits and opinions. Let their personality shine as you write.

Exercise 6: Increase the suspense with dialogue.
Every character has opinions. Write a scene in which two characters are going head-to-head over action items they believe will garner the desired resolution of the journey. Make it heated but use it to move your story along. Create conflict over something one deems appropriate and the other says will get everyone killed. Decide on an outcome.

Again, I hope you put at least one of these in your pocket and give it a try today. Come on back tomorrow for three more!

What exercises do you use to improve your written dialogue skills?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Dialogue Exercises - #1

Happy Monday, good people of the blogosphere! This week we'll be delving into dialogue. I'll give you a total of fifteen exercises (three per day) you can do to make your dialogue stronger. Nothing ruins a great story quite like stilted dialogue, unnatural sounding dialogue, no dialogue at all, or overabundance of conversation. So, grab your pens and notebooks and let's get going!

There are so many different ways to use dialogue to improve story flow. These exercises will help you overcome some of the things that stilt a story. Again, this series is part of the writing class I give over on INDIE Books Gone Wild.

Every exercise below calls for at least two pages of dialogue.

Exercise 1: Using dialogue to reveal setting.
Take two characters you've used in a past novel and throw them into a scene together. Only using dialogue, reveal to the reader what setting the characters are in. I'm asking you to use two characters you've written before so you have an idea of the types of things they'll notice. You may want to throw in a conflict here and have them argue about where they are. As another option, perhaps it's a place neither have been before and they're exclaiming over things they see. Remember, be gradual. No information dumps. What would they say?

Exercise 2: Using dialogue to reveal or convey feelings.
Write a conflict scene between two characters you've written that love one another. Do it from one person's POV then switch. Betrayed to betrayer. Feel what they're feeling and use it.

Exercise 3: Weaving dialogue, action, and narrative together.
Using one of the reveal scenes from above, go back and add action to the scene. Put in little facial clues or gestures to show the reader more. Try adding a narrator to the scene. Where would they comment on what's going on? Now cut 1/4 of the dialogue and let the action be the revealing element. Read for flow.

There are a number of things you can use dialogue to do. Rather than giving your reader a couple of paragraphs about the setting, give them lines where the character reacts to what he/she is seeing. Avoid the information dump.

I hope you enjoyed this post and did at least one of the exercises. Come on back tomorrow for more!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Healing Plot Wounds

Happy FRIDAY, good people of the blogosphere! What a week! Here comes the the weekend, though. I hope you all have wonderful plans. Today, we're gonna talk about some common plot wounds and how you can heal them. So, grab your pens and notebooks and let's get going!

Problem 1: Your flashback is all mucked up.
Make sure you need it. Remember, a flashback will disrupt the flow of the story and pull the reader into the past for some reveal. It should never be an information dump, but a high-energy scene. If you keep your flashbacks short, all the better. Try working the information into dialogue instead. That way, the story keeps moving forward, but your readers get the information you've deemed necessary.

Problem 2: Your scene has no two-punch.
You know that height of the scene where exciting things happen? Find it in your story and highlight it. See how much you can dump before it happens so there's less drag getting there. You'll likely find a lot of the wordy things before the action can be removed and it still work. Then, give it a two-punch. You know, that little something extra. Some emotion or reaction as the action occurs.

Problem 3: You're holding back your characters because they're off plot.
Suddenly, your characters are trying to go left but you force them to turn right. That wasn't what you had in mind and no-way no-how are you letting them go there. This will hinder your story. Try opening a new document and let the character go the way you think they would. Have a conversation, run a scene in your movie-projector mind, or type a quick scene out where your character faces something out of the ordinary. Don't force them to react a certain way. Let the character decide. Then, return to your story and let them play it out the way they want to. It works. As a bonus, the outcome might surprise you. I didn't intend the twist in The Bird, the characters did that on their own.

Problem 4: Mind-system shutdown.
Overload. Your mind shuts off, your imagination takes a break, or a head cloud invades. How do you turn it back on? Writers don't have switches on the side of their heads. If this happens, try one of these tricks: Act out a scene. Don't imagine it, get your booty out of your chair and act it out. Take a walk and have a conversation with your protagonist. No, I'm not kidding. Sometimes, this is just what you need to understand their vision and/or motive. Maybe those crazies on the street, walking along, mumbling to themselves, are actually writers trying to get back in touch, eh? Write down what your novel means to you. What's the underlying message?

These are just a few of the problems we all run in to. I hope the suggestions above help in some small way.

What do you do when problems smack you between the eyes?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Slimming Down

Happy Thursday, good people of the blogosphere! I can't believe I missed my hump-day post, but working too much is never something I complain about. Today, we're talking about slimming down an overweight novel. These are just a few things you can do to cut out the drag. Remember, a good editor will tell you when it isn't working and give you suggestions on how to fix it. Grab your pens and notebooks and let's get going, shall we?

When you're writing a novel, you generally have three acts. The first is to introduce the doorway and the challenge/opposition. By the time you get to the third, you're ready to bring things to a head and give your novel an ending. What a lot of writers struggle with is the journey, the middle, the part where you are heading toward the end. Sometimes, it ends up with no excitement. On Tuesday, I gave you ways to add to your skinny tale. Now we're gonna talk about ways to slim it down if it's too heavy.

1. Cut out the boring. If you find the story lacking tension, take some of the scenes out. These can be reaction scenes, dialogue, or scenes lacking conflict. If your editor might lose interest, cut it down or cut it out.
2. Take away a subplot. You can absorb a subplot into the main plot to strengthen it, or combine two subplots into one to make things more interesting for the reader.
3. Kill someone off. That's right, kill them. Maybe they're stealing the spotlight from the main character or maybe you just decide their motives aren't for the purpose of good. As an alternative, you can combine two secondary characters and make them into one strong character.

If you craft act two well, you have the opening for a killer ending. You can put your protagonist through hell only to have them be rewarded for their struggles. Or, you can always have your protagonist fail. Some of those endings make a so-so book one that's remembered.

What exercises do you use to trim the fat?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Beating Middle of the Book Blahs

Happy Tuesday, good people of the blogosphere! Today we're talking about middle of the book blahs and how to overcome them. So grab your pens and notebooks and let's get going, shall we?

Again, this is another section of the class offered over on IBGW.

We've all been there. That point where the character is dragging along on their journey toward triumph or failure of their ultimate goal. It's the dreaded middle of the book. After the doorway and before the culmination and reveal of all that's interesting. But how do you overcome the blahs? How do you keep your story from plodding along like a draught horse rather than bringing excitement like the thoroughbreds running in the Kentucky Derby?

A few things you can do:

1. Add a subplot. This should be done rarely and with care. Your subplot can be brought to a head just before your main plot, but don't let it take over and don't do it too often. A well-known subplot for many readers is the one in the Hunger Games series. I know I reference it often, but it uses many literary devices (and does it well).
2. Introduce a new character. From out of the wild, here they come, that new character you may have mentioned before but decides to take on a new role. Or, you may not have mentioned this character. Perhaps they only show up in the middle of the book to bring another facet to the action. They need to make the protagonist's life a little bit harder.
3. Find the glue between the antagonist and the protagonist and make it stronger. Make it matter. Show the reader why these two are in direct opposition by a little reveal of the past.

Now, those are just a couple of suggestions. The options are endless because it's your imagination. Dig deeply and don't allow your reader to go to sleep.

Join me tomorrow and we'll go over how to trim the fat from the middle of a book.

What devices do you use to add drama to the middle of your novel?

On another note, if you'd like a new book to read, Taken Before her very Eyes by Wade Faubert, the one I reviewed back in February is free through midnight tonight! See the review here.

Get it on Amazon US.
Get it on Amazon UK.

Enjoy!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo