Dialogue Talk

Doing the character checklist this week, I realized that I hadn’t written much about dialogue. Oh, I have a couple times.

Plot & Character

I’m starting a series of posts about plot this week – as requested. Thanks for popping in or sending me emails with your preference!
Plot and Character are Intertwined
Before I start talking about plot, I have to say something about characters, the people who will be DOING and REACTING to the plot. Obviously, they are intertwined. [...]

Top Posts of 2009

I’ve taken a look at my statistics and here’s the top posts on Fiction Notes for 2009, in order of popularity. Five of these are the first page of a series of posts on a certain topic. The other five are individual posts.

Novel Writing. 30 Days to a Stronger Novel. 30 one-minute creative writing tips [...]

Revise Second Draft

UnBlinded: Revising the Second Draft
419 Specific Comments
I’ve just gotten back two critiques on the second draft of my WIP novel. 419 specific comments. I’m excited.

Larger concerns. Each critique was accompanied by a letter with larger concerns. Both are still concerned that the characterization needs work. One would like a stronger opening and one thinks a [...]

Separate POV chapters

More Than One POV? Split to Revise
My current draft of my WIP novel has two point of view characters. I’ve just copied each POV into its own separate file to revise and edit.

Voice. The main reason for this is to work on getting a consistent voice for each point of view. When they are intertwined, [...]

character development

4 Stages of Character Development
When you write a first draft, there are really two novels at that point. There’s the one on the paper and there’s the one in your head and they are not the same.
I know this. But I’m experiencing it again as I’m working through this revision. In order to put on [...]

Supporting characters

Make supporting characters interesting
Wednesday, I went to north central Arkansas to teach a professional development class and on the way up, I listened to an audio version of T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton, the 20th Kinsey Millhone mystery.

At one point the detective calls a college to do a background check on a suspect. [...]

Character Bait

Letting Characters Emerge
Hurrah! My potential character took the bait! He is revealing himself slowly.
As I was thinking of ideas for picture books, an idea came up: what if the family was structured in a distinctive way?
At 2 a.m. this morning, the character woke me up and started dictating a scene about dealing with her [...]

Sports: Passionate characters

Sports books are action-oriented, fast-paced and full of memorable characters; but the core of a sports book–fiction or non-fiction–is people. Characters make sports interesting. Granted, these characters are constantly on the move and not inclined to deep musings about life. Yet, it is the character interacting with the unique aspects of a sports novel that [...]

My Character’s Whispering Secrets

Shh! Don’t tell anyone else, but my character just told me a secret.
Great Way to Find Unusual Secrets
One common complaint about a first draft is that the characterization needs to be deeper. In Sol Stein’s book, Stein on Writing, Chapter 16 talks about the secret snapshot technique. Stein recommends that you think about [...]