TECH: Who are you talking to?

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Original Posting 1 January 2009

Yakkity-yak and Don't Talk Back

Writers Digest, March 2005, The Fiction Essentials column (pages 14, 16, 63) by Nancy Kress talks about inner monologues -- the character talking to themselves. The Inner Voice: reveal your characters' complexity by exposing their personal thoughts.

"We all talk to ourselves -- it's called 'thinking.' We tell ourselves to remember Mother's birthday, to get to bed early tonight, to balance that checkbook soon. Characters in fiction do these things, too, and for the same reason: to respond to the situation at hand."

But, the tone of that conversation is often as important to the readers as the thoughts. "The way a character approaches her thoughts reveals a great deal about her personality. For fiction writers, understanding and using this phenomenon is one of the best ways to build credible, interesting characters."

Nancy provides these points.

1. Half-Full or Half-Empty? How we interpret the world often tells more about us than about the world. Nancy gives the example of three people waiting in a doctor's office a half-hour past their appointment. One person assumes that there was some kind of medical emergency somewhere, and that they will soon be taken care of. Another takes it as a personal insult, that the doctor considers himself more important and is deliberately making them wait. The third is fretting about whether or not they made a mistake, is this the right day and time? Every one of these persons is experiencing the same late appointment, but how they view it and characterize it to themselves tells us a great deal about them.

"Most fiction writers do this instinctively as they force their characters to respond to events in the plot. For the effect of the most powerful, however, the key is repetition." Again and again, think about how your character sees the world, and reflect that point of view consistently in talking to yourself. Optimistic, calm reflection may not be noticed the first time -- but after it repeats several times, we probably will start expecting that this person is optimistic and calm. Don't overdo it, of course.

2. Do It Right. Try these steps:

• what are the dominant aspects of your character's personality?
• how are these qualities reflected in the internal monologue? Pick terms, and an interpretation of the world, that shows us how this person talks to themselves in the privacy of their own thoughts.
• make the self-talk, the internal monologues, consistent. Vary the tone and intensity, but make sure we see the same person in all of them.

Two tips on making the best use of internal monologue. One, have self talk begin near the story's opening. Use it to build characterization, from the very beginning. Two, use internal monologue to reflect and validate character change or development. Usually, the point of view character changes somewhere in the story. One way to mirror this is to change the way he talks to himself. "If the change in the internal monologue seems a natural outcome of your plot incidents, your story will work."

It may be internal monologue, just talking to yourself, but remember -- readers are listening.

An exercise? Take your favorite work in progress, and look for the internal monologue. Whatever's there, make sure it follows Nancy's suggestions by reflecting the character. Then take a close look at your story and see if there are points where you can introduce more internal monologue. Can you let the internal monologue be a running thread in your story? Can it reflect the change in the point of view character?

If you want a real challenge, try writing a story completely in internal monologue. Drop us into the internal monologue as quickly as possible, and tell as much of the story as possible through the internal reflections and commentary of your character. Go ahead, have fun.

(Interesting, when I was writing this, I kept saying internal dialogue -- and on rereading, I began to wonder who the two voices were? So I ran replace over the text and turned dialogue into monologue. Even though some of us do hear more than one voice :-)

TECH: A Tall Dark Man?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting 1 January 2009

Writer's Digest, May 2005, pages 38 to 41, has an article by I. J. Schecter with the title, "The Right Look," discussing physical descriptions of characters. Portraits in words, so to speak.

"It's hard for readers to connect with someone they can't picture. That's why it's your job to ensure that if characters in your story were to jump off the page and walk down the street, they'd be instantly recognizable. Painting a character's portrait can be accomplished in just a paragraph or two as long as it's done right."

Schecter points out that there are two reasons that a good physical portrait helps your story. "First, it teaches the reader something about the character's background, habits or lifestyle." We're used to interpreting physical features as signs of background. So go ahead and use it. "The second major benefit of solid physical description is that it provides a window into the character's physical or emotional world." Again, we all know or like to think we know how to interpret various physical features.

Some of the key techniques to show us the physical identity of a character include:

1. Make your description entertaining and relevant. Be careful to fit things into the context of the story -- adding a peg leg just so that you can tell us about it isn't a good idea -- but idiosyncratic characteristics described in suitable ways can be very good.
2. Use indirect description. Instead of directly describing things, use viewpoints and actions of others to suggest. Don't be afraid to hint at something, and then let us as readers wonder about it for a while before we find out just what it is.
3. Resist over-describing. "As in all writing, when it comes to physical description, less is more. Seldom do you need more than a few details, judiciously placed." Make them potent, distinctive, and don't waste words.
4. Avoid vague or muddled imagery. You want the reader to read the passage once and immediately know the character. You need a strong definitive picture.

"The difference between unfocused writing and thoughtful, engaging character description is the difference between accepting your first effort and pushing yourself to keep at it until it's exact. Be the kind of writer who accepts only exactness."

The article comes with a useful checklist for your character descriptions:

1. Reading this, do I get an immediate, distinct impression of this person's appearance?
2. Is there anything cliched or generic about the description? Could the words I'm using be applied to lots of different people?
3. Is the description excessive? Would readers be more intrigued if they didn't know as much about this person's appearance right away?

And, just for fun, they even have exercises! I'm going to summarize it rather
than quoting it.

1. Pick a random character.
2. Put them in a new setting.
3. Write three paragraphs. In each one, physically describe this character in this setting. Paragraph 1 is from the point of view of an omniscient narrator. Paragraph 2 is a description from the point of view of a friend of the character. Paragraph 3 is a description from the point of view of an enemy.
4. Read your three paragraphs, evaluating the power, precision, and consistency. Revise them to be more specific, and more evocative.

Repeat this same exercise with someone from the real world. Put them in the opening scene of a novel. Make sure that an anonymous stranger reading the novel would recognize the person.

Feel free to repeat as desired with characters from fiction and from the real world. Use settings both real and fictional.

Think of it as quick sketches for the word artist.

Play it again, Sam?