Detailed Dialogue

In my Why Good Writing Matters series, I covered dialogue as a whole. Now I'd like to go more in-depth with dialogue and give suggestions for sprucing it up and making it natural and easy to follow. Just as variation in  prose shapes good writing, so does variation in characters' speech. Sentence length and style, topics of conversation, and vocabulary/language are the main areas where dialogue can be enhanced. That dialogue can then be used to accent the surrounding prose.

Dialogue as Prose
One of the great things about dialogue is that it can be used for manipulating the reader and building plot. For instance, if you have a scene where you are unraveling delicate information, incorporating backstory, introducing new conflicts, or a combination of these, one option is to explain the actions of the events through characters' conversations. Take this scene from Catching Fire (Book 2 of The Hunger Games trilogy):

             She [Madge] saw my reflection behind her and smiled. "Look at you. Like you came right off the streets of the Capitol."
            I [Katniss] stepped in closer. My fingers touched the mockingjay. "Even my pin now. Mockingjays are all the rage in the Capitol, thanks to you. Are you sure you don't want it back?" I asked.
            "Don't be silly, it was a gift," said Madge. She tied back her hair in a festive gold ribbon.
            "Where did you get it, anyway?" I asked.
            "It was my aunt's," she said. "But I think it's been in the family a long time."
            "It's a funny choice, a mockingjay," I said. "I mean, because of what happened in the rebellion. With the jabberyjays backfiring on the Capitol and all."

Notice all of the context surrounding this short stretch of dialogue. There is mention of a place called the Capitol, and it is clear by Madge's comment that Katniss looks out of place. By the next few sentences, one can ascertain the Capitol is a place of influence. A small amount of backstory regarding the pin is then mentioned, and the subsequent dialogue serves as an introduction for more history on the symbol and the place called the Capitol. It is clear from their conversation the symbol has become somewhat taboo and holds a dark past directly tied to the Capitol. All of this information is revealed to the reader through simple conversation, and the style allows the author to control how much of the information the reader absorbs in this scene.

Although this wasn't true for the above excerpt, sentences in dialogue don't always have to be completed and can actually be very useful in building suspense and tension. Take this short exchange from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5 of the Harry Potter series):

            "Don't call them that!" Hermione said furiously, but Umbridge did not appear to have heard her. Still pointing her shaking want at Magorian, she continued, "Law Fifteen B states clearly that 'Any attack by a magical creature who is deemed to have near-human intelligence, and therefore considered responsible of its actions—'"
            "'Near-human intelligence'?" repeated Magorian, as Bane and several other roared with rather and pawed the ground. "We consider that a great insult, human! Our intelligence, thankfully, far outstrips your own—"
            "What are you doing in our forest?" bellowed the hard-faced gray centaur whom Harry and Hermione had seen on their last trip into the forest. "Why are you here?"

Each time a character speaking is cut off, tension and anger emits from the other characters, shown through the intense remarks and accompanying body language. The suspense then builds, as inevitable confrontation approaches.

Reasons one might choose this method of prose:

1.      This is a great way to control which parts of the plot unfold and what information is relayed to the reader.

2.      This method can be used to switch from one character's thoughts to another (reserved mainly for limited omniscient narrative). For example, if Character A is the main focus of a story, a conversation with Character B can then act as a bridge into Character B's thoughts and point of view.

3.      Dialogue can simply be used as an alternative kind of prose to keep the reader's interest.

Vocabulary and Accents
Vocabulary and accents can clue readers into a number of attributes about a character, including educational background, origin, and preferences in friends. However, it can also be used to purposely lead the reader astray. At some point in our lives, most of us make our own choices about accents, whether consciously or subconsciously. And although it's true that cultures and subcultures have a great influence on our speech, so does peer pressure.

During college, I had a professor who taught linguistics. In his first lecture, there was nothing out of the ordinary about him or his lesson; he taught us the basics of how language worked and spoke with the same accent as everyone else. At the end of his first class, he turned and informed us that the whole lesson had been an experiment. When he spoke next, his accent was no longer the one we'd heard all throughout the lesson; it was unmistakably West Virginian, something none of us were accustomed to. The reaction was immediate. Several students giggled quietly. Others started whispering to their friends. After several moments of the commotion, the professor raised his hand to signal silence to the class and resumed speaking with a Midwestern accent, the one he'd been using.

He informed us that he could tell many of us weren't used to second accent. He went on to confess that accent he had been using to teach us during the whole lesson was in fact not his own, that he actually spoke with a West Virginian accent. However, like our class, his peers in school often laughed and him and judged him. It was at that point he chose to teach himself how to speak with a Midwestern accent so that he would be viewed as normal.

Just as with my professor, characters sometimes choose the way in which they speak. Incorporating dialects in writing can provide a richness that no other method will. However, the dialect should be consistent and not overdone; you'll know you've done a good job if others can easily follow the text and understand what the character is saying without having to pause to figure out articulation. A great example of a well-written accent is Hagrid's in the Harry Potter series.

Incorporating Body Language
Body language is also a topic mentioned in my previous article on dialogue, but it's important enough to repeat. One sure sign of amateur dialogue is the occurrence of talking heads. This term can be applied when characters engage in conversation without having accompanying body language or action to propel the plot. Often when talking heads emerge in a book, it's unclear who is speaking. You don't need to have a tag on every line of dialogue, but they are necessary when clarifying identity or when there is an abundance of action. Even when few tags are needed, body language should take the place of adjectives and adverbs.


Dialogue is difficult to master, even for the best of writers. It's a fine balance between exposing plot while remaining concise. Use a combination of all the aforementioned methods to achieve the most efficient and natural dialogue. Also, keep dialogue short and appropriate for the character/scene, and avoid stating the obvious. Pay particular attention to dialogue in tense action scenes; a character will not have time to stop and ramble when they are under attack. Judgements, and therefore words, will likely be quick and brash during these scenes.

Nonfiction Writing, Part 3: Writing Concisely

One of the biggest struggles people have when writing nonfiction is writing concisely. We have a tendency to be overly wordy when we speak, and that translates to excessively detailed writing. In some instances, such as fiction writing, detail can be to your advantage. But in most nonfiction writing, the goal is simple: have a point, and make it. To do so in as few words as possible takes both skill and an immense amount of editing.

So where does one start? My advice is to break it down into four easy steps.

Step 1: Weed out the extraneous words.
Removing unnecessary words may seem rather obvious, but you'd be surprised how many you will discover with a quick read-through. Since most of us write like we speak, there tends to be an entourage of the words that and of, as well as excessive adjectives/adverbs. This step is all about clearing out the clutter.

Step 2: Enhance your writing.
Replace weak verbs with strong ones, and eliminate helping verbs when possible. Improving verbs is an age-old rule the works for fiction and nonfiction alike. It makes your writing stronger and more professional.

Step 3: Edit the document until it is 50% of its original length.
One of my professional writing teachers in college introduced me to this step, and in my opinion, it's genius. The idea is to write your draft, then rework it so it's half the size. If your document is two pages, make it one. If it's ten pages, make it five. Doing so casts out fluff words, and you are left with a more straight-forward document.

Step 4: Repeat Step 3 until the original meaning is lost.
This is where the editing process gets interesting. If you thought Step 3 was hard the first time, wait until you repeat it. When you continue to halve your document until it is transfigured into a new document with a new meaning, you've reached the point where your document is as concise as it can be.

The process is challenging, but the end result is worth the effort: a clear, easy, and concise document.

Nonfiction Writing, Part 1: Structure and Mechanics

When you hear the word "writer," your first thought is probably that of a fiction writer, one who makes up stories and creates fantastical worlds. Little thought is usually given to the other type of writer, the one who put facts into words and combines those facts to create textbooks, user manuals, and the like. And it's no surprise really; many see books as an escape from reality, a stress reliever. And fiction seems to fit that bill. However, nonfiction is still arguably the most popular type of writing. Our curious nature and insatiable thirst for knowledge actually makes the informative books rather appealing. So I'd like to speak up for the nonfiction genre and give it recognition it sometimes lacks.

Planning
The subject matter of nonfiction has a vast range, and it is one of the most difficult types of writing to master, making it a much sought-after skill. Not every person can balance the art of crafting a book with technical explanation. Each piece of nonfiction has a different audience, making a different style of writing necessary. The most successful nonfiction writers figure out how to both relate to the audience and communicate in a way that is clear and easy to understand.

Before writing a nonfiction piece, you'll want to answer these essential questions:
1. Who is the audience for this piece?
2. What am I trying to communicate?
3. How much can I assume my audience already knows about the subject at hand?
4. What am I trying to accomplish by writing this piece?

After you have answered those questions, you can begin sketching an outline or a rough draft of your nonfiction piece. You'll want to decide on the type of nonfiction best suited for your purposes as you do so.

Classes of Nonfiction
Nonfiction can be anything from essays and articles to manuals and textbooks to documentaries and biographies. It is literally every form of literature under the sun that narrates fact or topics understood to be fact. Some types of nonfiction span over several classes or categories of nonfiction. These include articles, essays, textbooks, photographs, and magazines. Other are more specific to their individual class. There are four prevalent classes of nonfiction this post will cover, each with a preferred audience and style.

Sciences and Arts
For science and art pieces, your audience will consist not only of those with a high interest in (and likely a decent understanding of) science or art, but you'll pull in some people unfamiliar to the subject as well. For that reason, nonfiction pieces for this class need to cater to those who are learning new information and those who want to expand their knowledge in the subject area. That's no easy task. So instead of initially focusing on the content you want to present, start by establishing an age range for your audience.

Once you do, maintain the level of your content, keeping it consistent with the audience. For example, let's say you're writing a piece for grade schoolers 8-10 years old. You would present far different information about the solar system, novas and supernovas, and gravity to them than you would someone older who likely would have a better understanding of the detailed physics and chemistry of such objects and ideas. Some previous knowledge can be assumed; your job as a writer is then to fill in the spaces with new material of the same level as the assumed information.

A similar approach can be taken for art books. Those for younger children may introduce the different styles, while ones for older readers can go more in-depth about those styles and the history of them.

How-To and Self-Help
For the how-to and self-help class, readers consist mostly of teenagers, young adults, and adults roughly through middle age. The pieces are heavily content based and should be structured in a way that is easy to follow and concise. The literature can be something as simple as an article or diagram to something as lengthy as a manual or textbook. Blog posts such as this one also fall under the how-to and self-help class.

When constructing a piece for this class, practice the KISS principle; don't make anything more complex than it needs to be. Focus on the point you want to get across, and only include the information that is essential. This type of writing in particular takes some practice. It's a fine balance between realizing the assumed information and exposing fresh material about an otherwise familiar topic.

People and Places
The people and places class is a fairly simple one. It contains factual stories told about historical events, as well autobiographies, biographies, journals, memoirs, diaries, and documentaries. The audience for these pieces will vary based on the content. It's a good idea to first establish the specific topic you want to cover, the information about said topic you want to include, and go from there. If you can further deduce a more specific category for the type of nonfiction piece you'd like to write (i.e. a textbook, essay, or narrative), your intended audience will become more obvious. The biggest challenge in writing a piece for this class is presenting the information in a way that is both interesting and completely factual. In my experience, some pieces in this class tend to come off as biased, making it difficult to determine how accurate the information given is.

Politics, Philosophy, and Religion
Many written essays and narratives fall under this class of nonfiction. There is also some overlap between this class and the people and places class, particularly for politics and religion. Catering to this group can be tedious. The topics are abstract, and the audience will vary, though the age range tends to be young adult and older. One of the most advantageous aspects of writing a piece for this class, however, is that you are open to explore many ideas and notions of the topics within, allowing you as the writer to guide the reader where you want them to go. The writing is often very creative. Narratives of this class should pose thought-provoking questions and provide in-depth answers. The biggest challenge with pieces in this class is creating a distinguishable line between fact and satire, a common tool used in crafting this type of nonfiction.

Mastering the Technical Craft
As you write, recall the initial questions you answered in the planning process, and continue to apply them to your piece. Make sure that the details of your writing line-up with these answers. As your piece begins to take shape, go back and review it periodically for accuracy, grammar, and spelling.

When finished, ask yourself some additional questions and make changes accordingly:
1. Is the point of this piece effective?
2. Is the content appropriate for the intended audience?
3. Is the writing clear and direct? Is it easy to understand?
4. Are correct grammar and spelling used throughout?
5. Does the structure of the piece make sense? Should the order of anything be changed?
6. Is the length appropriate?
7. Should any part be more concise?
8. Should any part be expanded upon?

Some of these questions will seem a bit repetitive, but technical pieces require extra revisions. Since they are assumed to be factual, accuracy and professionalism is a must.

Overall, the ability to write nonfiction work takes practice, but it's a useful skill to have. Besides giving you a rather marketable trait when being hired by an employer, becoming adept at writing nonfiction also can increase your abilities in fiction writing, as it gets you to focus more on structure and intended audience for each piece.

Make Every Scene Count: Intimacy and Romance

As natural as intimacy and romance are in everyday life, they aren't the easiest scenes to write about, especially when it comes to standard fiction. For pure romance/erotica novels, the task is pretty simple. Explain in detail the heightened emotions and surges of passion one experiences when engaging in any intimate physical activity. However, for standard fiction that doesn't focus on romance, writing a sex scene or even just a romantic one can be tricky. To establish a well-written and seemingly spontaneous but cleverly crafted love scene for your fiction novel, consider the following guidelines.

1. Use heightened emotions. As I mentioned in some of my previous posts, dramatic writing isn't really something that I endorse very often. Nevertheless, love scenes call for it. When you're in love, every motion, breath, and thought (especially of your lover) is intensified and becomes paramount to your next move. As such, these emotions often lead to instinctive reactions that are not well-thought-out. These scenes usually have a slow-motion-like effect to them.

2. Pay attention to physiological changes. Before any close contact is even made, our bodies adopt some physiological responses when someone we attracted to is in immediate vicinity. Some we notice ourselves, and others we do not. These responses include increased heart rate, perspiration, flushing of the face, clamminess (especially of the hands), and butterflies in the stomach. Some other common, less obvious responses are nausea, shyness (hiding or quickly fleeing the scene), loss of speech or stumbling over words, talking too much or too quickly, forgetfulness, and nervousness (i.e. playing with hands or hair, fidgeting, biting lower lip, looking downward, shifting position often, not able to look in someone's eyes).

3. It's all about the specifics. As with the previous points, note all actions and physical responses that each character involved makes. If the scene is unfolding slowly for the character being followed, so should unfold it for the reader.

4. Don't be too revealing. Even with emotions portrayed and physiological changes exhibited, when it comes to full-on sex scenes, it's good practice to leave some to the imagination. While the reader wants to know what happens, they are usually more excited and "turned on" if you will when parts of the action are eluded to but not actually stated in a count-by-count blow. A good sex scene in a fiction novel works a lot like clothes on a woman; unless you're going for erotica, it's best to show a few tantalizing parts that make your mind wander.