Dialogue is, in my opinion, one of the largest factors to making a good story. A story can be amazing, but if the dialogue doesn't flow well, then it just kills the flow of a book. It's trips up readers and sends them reeling back into reality, stumbling over your words. One of the things that can really make or break your dialogue flow are dialogue tags.
"What are dialogue tags?" the man asked. Well, they're exactly that. Words like, 'said, responded, asked, yelled, retorted, argued, whispered.' They help clarify who and how people speak. However, sometimes they can do the opposite. If you overdo you tags, perhaps using complex tags or an abundance of adverbs, it can weigh down the sentence, turning a simple sentence into an over dramatized and over complicated ordeal. If you're confused on how good and detailed tags could be bad for your dialogue, here's a little example.
"Hello, Miranda," The man said with a dry tone.
"Hello, Robert," Miranda retorted, taking a seat across from him.
"Been awhile, hasn't it?" Robert inquired, giving a stone cold smile.
"I suppose so. A good, long while." Miranda said with a hint of malice.
"Yes, very good," Robert said back with equal sarcasm.
You kinda see what I mean now? It's such a short conversation, but it seems so jumbled and clustered that you almost pay more attention to how they're saying things rather than what they're actually saying. A lot of times you can cut out those messy tags and let the readers naturally infer how they're saying things based off what they're saying and how they respond.
"Hello, Miranda."
"Hello, Robert," the woman responded, taking a seat across from him.
"It's been awhile, hasn't it?" Robert asked.
"I suppose so. A good, long while."
"Yes, very good."
Although it's slightly less descriptive, you can still get a feel for the tone of the conversation and get a general feeling for how they're talking. Anyway guys, I hoped you learned a little something about creating dialogue, and until next time, peace.
-Ink
Saturday, November 14, 2015
Thursday, November 12, 2015
Playing God
One of the best parts of fiction writing is having the ability to really share your creativity and come up with amazing people, places, and things, spawning a world that you, and only you, can control. It's a great feeling, being able to bend and break the rules of our own world as you create your personal universe. But as far as story telling, how do you convey your world to the readers? How do you show it off? Even then, how do you make a world that's good for sharing?
I think if you're a creative writer, then you're always playing god in your mind. Random ideas come and go, leaving behind glimpses into new worlds and new sets of characters. Every single one brings with it an urge to write and create, to put your glimpse on paper. Although you can make great short stories of these small ideas, it takes a grand one to really make a great novel.
This world that stews in your head will need to meet some qualifications before you write about it though. First of all, and most obviously, it's needs to be unique. Of course I'm sure you'll have many elements that we see in day by day life, but you need to bring something new to the table. Something that has never been read or even remotely heard of before, something that grabs peoples attention and doesn't let go, something that spurs the reader to not only want to read more of your book, but learn more about this world that you've created. Secondly, it needs to be expansive. The real world is humongous with millions of things to learn and explore; people, places, history, sciences, creatures. The world that you create should be similar, with hundreds of facts and interesting things to share. This way readers always have something new to read about and learn, then they will not only become hooked, but stayed hooked. This goes hand in hand with my last point I'd make, which is that your world should be well rounded. These expansive details and creations shouldn't focus around one genre of things, but should represent everything from technology to politics to biology. You should be able to talk for days about all these minute details you've envisioned for your world!
Lets take a look at some of the greatest modern fictional worlds that have some of these traits. The worlds of Eragon, Lord of the Rings, and Game of Thrones, for example. All three series are great examples of large series's that feature amazingly large and detailed worlds. (If you haven't read any of these three, I'd highly recommend it) My favorite is Game of Thrones though. Its unique world that, as far as the reader knows, takes up literally a whole planet; it has it's own continents, oceans, seas, islands, everything. Going past the geography, the series is layered in rich history that is subtly mentioned throughout the five books. I'm pretty sure there is enough for you to learn that you could actually major in Game of Thrones history. It's seriously crazy how much time has been invested to that world and all its characters.
Anyway guys, I hope you learned at least a little something about writing from this. Until next time, peace.
-Ink
I think if you're a creative writer, then you're always playing god in your mind. Random ideas come and go, leaving behind glimpses into new worlds and new sets of characters. Every single one brings with it an urge to write and create, to put your glimpse on paper. Although you can make great short stories of these small ideas, it takes a grand one to really make a great novel.
This world that stews in your head will need to meet some qualifications before you write about it though. First of all, and most obviously, it's needs to be unique. Of course I'm sure you'll have many elements that we see in day by day life, but you need to bring something new to the table. Something that has never been read or even remotely heard of before, something that grabs peoples attention and doesn't let go, something that spurs the reader to not only want to read more of your book, but learn more about this world that you've created. Secondly, it needs to be expansive. The real world is humongous with millions of things to learn and explore; people, places, history, sciences, creatures. The world that you create should be similar, with hundreds of facts and interesting things to share. This way readers always have something new to read about and learn, then they will not only become hooked, but stayed hooked. This goes hand in hand with my last point I'd make, which is that your world should be well rounded. These expansive details and creations shouldn't focus around one genre of things, but should represent everything from technology to politics to biology. You should be able to talk for days about all these minute details you've envisioned for your world!
Lets take a look at some of the greatest modern fictional worlds that have some of these traits. The worlds of Eragon, Lord of the Rings, and Game of Thrones, for example. All three series are great examples of large series's that feature amazingly large and detailed worlds. (If you haven't read any of these three, I'd highly recommend it) My favorite is Game of Thrones though. Its unique world that, as far as the reader knows, takes up literally a whole planet; it has it's own continents, oceans, seas, islands, everything. Going past the geography, the series is layered in rich history that is subtly mentioned throughout the five books. I'm pretty sure there is enough for you to learn that you could actually major in Game of Thrones history. It's seriously crazy how much time has been invested to that world and all its characters.
Anyway guys, I hope you learned at least a little something about writing from this. Until next time, peace.
-Ink
Thursday, November 5, 2015
(Vague?) Descriptiveness
Be descriptive. Be descriptive. Be descriptive.
You hear it all the time. Wanna be a good writer? Be descriptive. Feel like your story is lacking? Be descriptive. Don't know what else to say? Just. Be. More. Descriptive.
But, is there such a thing as being too descriptive? Could there possibly be a metaphorical roof to your pile of literal descriptions?
Description, generally, is a great thing to have in a story. Many good writers discover their talent because of their natural ability to provide detailed and colorful descriptions of things. Also, lots of your favorite stories probably have loads of great details that introduce and get you involved with the worlds that they create. If a story is like a good cake, then description is like the frosting that covers it, making it so much more appealing and tasty.
Description can be used throughout a whole book, and pretty evenly distributed, but often times we associate it with two main things; characters and settings. Describing a scene helps suck a reader in, getting their imagination pulled in and involved with the story. Describing characters does the same, introducing people to the people of the world and getting them connected to their personalities.
However, whats one of the great things about reading about and getting to know a new character? Using not only description, but mixing in your imagination and and creating your own unique spin off while you read.
I know this can be kinda weird to think about, and that you may never have thought about how your perception of a character is any different than anyone else's, but it really is. Often times the characters that are the best are the ones with little description, characters that have a hint of vagueness to them so that instead of being force fed every detail and every trait of a character, we can get to know them over time and make our own perceptions of them.
This is one of those few times where I'm not gonna give an example, just because it would be way to long! A character should be introduced slowly over time with examples that demonstrate the persons traits, not in a single paragraph or two and then call it good. The reader should get to know the character, not just be introduced to them!
Look for that next time you begin a book. Notice that the author will leave out quite a few features for you to fill in with your own imagination. Hopefully this'll help you guys next time you write! Until next time guys, peace.
-Ink
You hear it all the time. Wanna be a good writer? Be descriptive. Feel like your story is lacking? Be descriptive. Don't know what else to say? Just. Be. More. Descriptive.
But, is there such a thing as being too descriptive? Could there possibly be a metaphorical roof to your pile of literal descriptions?
Description, generally, is a great thing to have in a story. Many good writers discover their talent because of their natural ability to provide detailed and colorful descriptions of things. Also, lots of your favorite stories probably have loads of great details that introduce and get you involved with the worlds that they create. If a story is like a good cake, then description is like the frosting that covers it, making it so much more appealing and tasty.
Description can be used throughout a whole book, and pretty evenly distributed, but often times we associate it with two main things; characters and settings. Describing a scene helps suck a reader in, getting their imagination pulled in and involved with the story. Describing characters does the same, introducing people to the people of the world and getting them connected to their personalities.
However, whats one of the great things about reading about and getting to know a new character? Using not only description, but mixing in your imagination and and creating your own unique spin off while you read.
I know this can be kinda weird to think about, and that you may never have thought about how your perception of a character is any different than anyone else's, but it really is. Often times the characters that are the best are the ones with little description, characters that have a hint of vagueness to them so that instead of being force fed every detail and every trait of a character, we can get to know them over time and make our own perceptions of them.
This is one of those few times where I'm not gonna give an example, just because it would be way to long! A character should be introduced slowly over time with examples that demonstrate the persons traits, not in a single paragraph or two and then call it good. The reader should get to know the character, not just be introduced to them!
Look for that next time you begin a book. Notice that the author will leave out quite a few features for you to fill in with your own imagination. Hopefully this'll help you guys next time you write! Until next time guys, peace.
-Ink
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