Category: dialogue
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Friday’s Findings: Doing a Scene Audit
I’ve been on vacation this week and while I haven’t gotten as much reading done as I would have liked, I have gotten a LOT done on my novella, Traption. I’ve spent this week going through each scene, one by one and asking myself the following questions: Does this scene have a goal?What are the…
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Avoid Infodumps: Dole Out Information
As I write my current draft for my WIP called Traption, I am trying to avoid infodumps. One way to avoid heaping a mound of story-stopping background details is to weave the information throughout the story. Use dialogue. Use a short flashback. Use inner monologue. Doling out the information a little here, a little there,…
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Camp NaNoWriMo Update #5
Camp NaNoWriMo for April 2022 is over. Did I reach my goals? Yes and no. No, I did not reach my word goal of 15,000 words. I got to 11,600 words. And I’m happy with that. I had a blast discovering more about my story (a better goal than word count). I learned more about…
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Camp NanoWriMo Update #4
I passed up 10,000 words. Only 5,000 to go. I’m fleshing out the last ten or so scenes of my WIP I did for my 2019 NaNoWriMo project by just writing dialogue. I’m using what I call “layering” in the narrative elements: Dialogue Action Reaction/Internal Thought Emotions/voice cues, facial expressions, body language, visceral reactions Senses/Description…
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Friday’s Findings: Doing Voice Journals
This week I’ve been doing voice journals for my characters as I reach the midpoint of Camp NaNoWriMo. I first read about this practice in James Scott Bell’s The Art of War for Writers. This week I’ve read a few online articles on the subject. I’ve capsulated the main concepts of doing voice journals for…
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What a Mess!
After thirty days of writing over fifty thousand words, what do I have to show? An incoherent mess of scraps of conversations, descriptions and exposition. It’s a mess. And that’s what makes my 2021 NaNoWriMo a success. The story is there, told all the way through. I just have to rework it and rework it.…
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Friday’s Findings: The Story on Two Levels
I believe I’ve quoted this fiction writing axiom before, but Terry Pratchett said, “The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.” With this year’s NaNoWriMo, I’m finding out how true this is. I’m feeling exactly what he was talking about. I spent September and October prepping my story. I made up characters. I…
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NaNo Update
Just a quick update on my NaNoWriMo project. Over the weekend I reached 30k words, which was my goal. I’m pleased with how it’s going, but, of course, NaNo is about just getting it down on paper (or on the computer). Some things going well: I’ve written something for every scene in the story. Sometimes…
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She Narrowed Her Eyes: Emotions into Body Language
One thing I look for when writing a characters emotions is body language. How does anger translate in a person’s expression, posture and movement? How does shock? How should a writer transcribe what their characters feel into tangible body language? Let’s break it down. First, I want to thank author K. M. Weiland for introducing…
Andrew M. Friday 