Vol. 1 Issue 1  April 2005

The Emerging Times
Kimble McKay Literary Arts Group
Refining the Writer & Representing Fine Authors To Agents & Publishers

We now offer free half-hour consultations for your book ideas, advice, help with any area of writing your manuscript and getting it finished, and how we can assist you to be successful. 

Jillanne Kimble
740-679-2423
9:00am to 6:00pm M-Sat.

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Dialogue - Making Your Characters Come Alive!

             Characters in a good novel really carry the story along more than any other concept in writing.   A problem I too often see in my clients' writing is stale dialogue; the kind that sounds like every character is the same person.

            Have you ever listened to people while at a party or in a crowd at the store?  People speak in this country with many wonderful dialects.  Learning to incorporate different ways of speaking will cause your characters to jump off the page appearing to be actual people.   This is very important.   Your readers must be able to identify and relate to those characters that drive your story.

            How to do this is not complicated.  When you are fleshing out your characters, do so with a notebook.  Take your time and brainstorm about what kind of person each character is from appearance, career, education, family influence, idiosyncrasies, nationality, etc.  By researching and developing your characters, you will come to know them like best friends.  These fictional characters will actually lead you as you write.

            For example -  Your antagonist is an uneducated young man, rough, with a mental disorder.  Which dialogue should you use to bring this character to life?
   
           "I won't do it, no matter how you try to convince me. In fact, you are causing me great turmoil."  Michael sat down, crossed his legs and sighed.

  Or –

            "Hell no I ain't gonna do dat! No way, man.  What, you's think I'm a freakin' idiot?  You really on my nerves, man. Hey man, I gotta a gun that'll fit in yer fat mouth real good, if you's don't shut up."  Michael paced back and forth, mumbling to himself, picking something off his shirt that wasn't there.

         The first example isn't true to the Michael character at all.  He sounds like any other person on the street, giving you no clues to his real personality. However, the second example tells you a few things about him; the manner in which he speaks shows that he is uneducated, angry, and rude. His actions tell the reader that he is seeing things that aren't there, showing - not telling - that he has a problem with reality.  In just a few sentences of dialogue, you have given the reader valuable information about Michael that would take an entire page to tell in narrative form. 

          Affective dialogue will move your story along much faster than writing paragraphs of description that could end up stalling your story.  Dialogue is active writing that will put your readers in touch with your characters unlike any other story dynamic.  Being true to your characters, and how they relate to the rest of the story, will be the most important writing dynamic of your book. 

Ten Secrets for Writing a Novel Quicker

 I asked several writers how long it took them to write a novel they wanted published.  One woman writer made a frustrated face at me, a couple others just stared at me (their novel wasn’t finished yet), and a few just stared.

 We all have hectic lives having to take care of families, jobs, extended family, chores, school involvement, and a host of many other responsibilities. Yet, writers must write. And if we don’t we become frustrated with feelings of failure and that we aren’t accomplishing what our heart nags us to do. The Muse is relentless in its inability to let us sleep at times, allow us to pay attention to important demands with the thoughtfulness we would otherwise give them, and we can’t think of much else but getting back to the keyboard. The Great American Novel waits impatiently.

So how do successful authors find the time to pluck out a novel and make it successful?

 1.          Priorities. We can’t ignore our children, spouses, and chores. But we can prioritize.  Write when the babies are asleep or at school. When everyone is asleep stay up an extra two hours and write. Plan play dates for your small children, or get a neighborhood teenager to baby-sit for a few hours, and take that time to write. The dishes and vacuuming will wait – it isn’t going anywhere. It’s amazing how much we can accomplish with just two hours a day of peace and quiet even if that means going to bed later, or getting up earlier. If you’re young, you have more stamina. If you are older, then some things in your daily housekeeping will have to wait.

      2.          Get a notebook and flesh out the chapters in general. That way you aren’t staring  at a blank screen trying to figure out what comes next. As you consult your  notes, more ideas will come. Be organized.

3.          Write the synopsis first. That way you will have it down on paper the beginning, middle and end. This will keep you focused, and keep you from going off on tangents that waste time.

      4.          Get a notebook dedicated to your novel. List your characters – who they are, what their conflict is, their personality, and what makes them tick, their place in the story. Make notes on what place they have in your story. This will save you a lot of time. Keep a small notebook with you everywhere you go to make notes as ideas spark your mind. When you’re out shopping, doing errands, waiting in line, read the headlines from newspapers and magazines. Listen to the people around you – how they talk, what they look like, what their appearance tells about them. This will help you look into what makes people tick, and help you with character ideas, fleshing out your characters, and how they might speak.

       5.          Do your research for the novel on a designated day each week. That way you aren’t wasting time researching when you’re supposed to be writing.

6.          And finally – NEVER GIVE UP.  Life will always threaten to get in the way of your passion to get a novel finished. Good organization, making sure you get time for you, and being positive will keep the Muse alive.