You have probably already realized that writing dialogue is really a challenge. We've talked about how it has to be indicative of the age and life experience of the character, how it should move the story along, and how to avoid certain regional dialects and most slang. So...what else is there?
Let's talk today about vocabulary. You always need to use the kind of vocabulary that your readers will understand. If you are writing for young children, picture books or easy readers, your vocabulary needs to be very simple, basic, and even repetitious. Children who are read to like to hear the same words over and over again, and they like to hear words that rhyme. The kids who are just learning to read by themselves need to see the same words repeated so they become accustomed to them, and to comprehending their meaning.
For middle grade and young adults, vocabulary is still important. I think it is this age that is the most difficult to write dialogue for. Kids in middle school don't want to be "talked down" to, so you certainly don't want to use vocabulary that you just used in writing an easy reader. On the other hand, you don't want to make the dialogue sound like they are in college. It's particularly difficult if you don't have kids around you that are 10, 11 and 12 years old, or are just getting into their teens. So what do you do? Ask if you can volunteer in a middle school, or go to the mall where kids this age hang out and listen to the way they talk. But the best thing to do is to read, read, read.
One of the things I did when I first started to write for this age was to check out books from the library. I took them home and sat down to read the dialogue. I really didn't care much what the story was about, I simply wanted to take note of the way the authors put words, phrases and expressions into the mouths of their characters. I learned a lot from that.
The same thing goes for YA writing. If you don't know how teens talk today, you can read books. But...one thing you have to remember is that "teen talk" changes from day to day. Thus, the vocabulary that is present in books published 5 years ago, or even 2 years ago, may not be exactly the same as teens use today. Because of this, and because so much of their conversation is slang or their own versions of common words and expressions, teens are the hardest of all to write for. At least, I think so. So, how do you get around this?
First of all, you have to know your characters. You have to know what their attitudes are, what little quirks they might have, if they use gestures such as rolling their eyes or 'talking with their hands,' and what emotions they might be expressing at any given time. These characteristics all play a part in how someone speaks, both in real life and on paper. Each of us has a distinct speech pattern, so you want to reflect that in both your vocabulary and in how the character uses that vocabulary. For example: almost all people speak in contractions: can't, don't, aren't, etc. But in my last novel, one of the main characters had lived in Europe for several years, and she had learned a very formal way of speaking so she never used contractions. She always said...do not, will not, should not, and so on. This was a distinct speech pattern which also resulted in a more formal vocabulary for her.
Second, dialogue also has a rhythm to it. If your vocabulary is stiff and formal, your dialogue is going to be the same, and the pacing of the words may seem stilted and unnatural. If this is the way your character is, that's fine, because this kind of dialogue with its more formal vocabulary will be indicative of her life experience and attitude. An example: Lisa is the girl with the European background, and although she is American, she has learned to be very stiff and formal in her speech, so her vocabulary must reflect that. When asked if she could do a particular cheerleading stunt, she replied, "Certainly I can do it. I do not understand why you would question my ability at all. After all, I have learned many complex moves in my European education." This from a 13 year old!
If your character is upbeat, active and enthusiastic about life, then the vocabulary needs to reflect that. For example: my MC asked her new best friend, Amberley, if she wanted to learn to ride. Amberley grins, and says, "Oh yeah! If you don't mind watching my backside bumping up and down in the saddle!" Not only is the vocabulary different, so is the rhythm of speech.
Vocabulary also reflects the emotions a character is feeling. A character can lie, get angry, scheme, feel sad or apathetic...in other words, have the same emotions we have. Dialogue needs to reflect these emotions through the choice of vocabulary and also actions or gestures of the character. As an example, read this paragraph and see if both vocabulary and actions set the dialogue up to reflect the emotions each person is feeling.
"Hey, Alison, how about going to a movie tonight?"Brad put his arm across Alison's shoulders.
"Uh, no, I'm...uh...I've got homework to do." She slipped out from under his arm.
"What's wrong with you, anyway? Now that you've got that inheritance, I'm not good enough for you?" He slammed his hand down on the table.
"It's not that, honestly. Umm...it's just...well, I just have to stay home. Please don't...don't get mad!" She blinked rapidly, her pulse racing.
Can you identify the emotions here? If I took away the actions, could you still tell by the dialogue/vocabulary that one person is angry and the other is frightened? Remember, too, that when a character is expressing an intense emotion, their speech pattern changes and so does their vocabulary.
So the bottom line concerning dialogue and vocabulary is this: Know your character! This is so important. Know how she or he will act or react in a given situation. Know that men and women don't have the same speech patterns, nor do teens sound like adults. When your characters are displaying a sense of humor, or becoming angry...whatever the emotion...keep your dialogue consistent with the kind of vocabulary that most easily and clearly defines that emotion. Most of all, keep your vocabulary consistent with the age and life experience of your characters.
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Monday, October 5, 2009
Saturday, September 26, 2009
What is Dialogue?
I know, I know...some of you are going to say, What do you mean, 'what is dialogue?' But it is a serious question, not a rhetorical one. I just finished reading someone's response to that on a literary board, and I was blown away by that post. It was so...hmm, for once, I'm at a loss for the right word. It was unknowledgeable, unprofessional...even that description is not right. It was amazingly bad.
The post said something about 'dialog' ( not even spelled correctly) being the 'backtalk' by a person. And then an example was given from the poster's work, and it was also amazingly bad...no punctuation, repetitious...hmm, just bad. ( Yes, I'm also being repetitious.)
Maybe a better question for this post would be, not what is dialogue, but how do you write it? Do you use a lot of tags? Do you use slang?
Do you use regional speech characteristics, and the misspellings and partial words that often go along with that? Do you allow your characters to play "verbal ping-pong?" So, let's talk about dialogue for a minute.
What does dialogue do? It paints a picture, it tells something about the story, but most of all, it allows the reader to get to know the character. A character's dialogue needs to be unique to her, just as our own dialogues are unique to us in real life. It needs to tell the reader who this person is, what she is like, what kind of personality
she has, and most of all, it needs to be indicative of the age and life experience of the character. The last is important, because you don't want to have an eleven year old talking like a 16 year old...unless, of course, you have a character who is a genius...for example, Millicent Min, Girl Genius, written by Lisa Yee. But not many of us have that kind of character.
Slang is definitely something to watch out for. Those of us who know teens know their everyday language is full of slang. But it never stays the same. Something that is 'cool' today is 'awesome' tomorrow and 'solid' next week. Slang changes faster than one can become accustomed to it, so the best thing is not to use it except very sparingly, and then only the words that have remained in the teen vocabulary for a long time. And at the moment, I can't think of even one slang expression that has been around for awhile...except, perhaps, 'cool.' Although I heard some kids talking not long ago, and the word for 'cool' now seems to be 'distant.' "Distant?" Don't ask, I have no idea !
How about 'ping-pong' dialogue? That's when you have a couple of characters talking back and forth like this:
"So, what do you want to do?" "I dunno. What do you want to do?" "I dunno. How about a movie?" "Okay, which one?" "I don't care. What one do you like?" "I don't know." "You got any money?" "Nope, do you?" "Nope, I'll go ask Mom."
What do we know about these two? What does the dialogue reveal? Nothing, right? It might be exactly like two kids talking in real life, but for a story, this is nothing but idle chatter going nowhere fast...except to lose the interest of the kids who are reading it.
Dialogue is like everything else in a story, it has to move the story forward and it has to have some direction which will point the reader towards what will ultimately be the climax and resolution of the story. For the example above, wouldn't it be better to have the two boys agreeing on a movie, only to discover they don't have enough money between them, so they need to decide how to get the money without having an adult (Mom) coming to the rescue? As in:
"Let's go see the new Batman movie this afternoon." "Okay, you got any money?" "No." "Well, we need to get some. We can ask Old Man Wilson if we can mow his lawn." "I hate mowing lawns. Let's see if we can clean out the garage instead."
Here we see the boys developing an idea, on their own, about how to earn money, but at the same time, entering into a conflict between the two of them. Maybe they each go their separate ways, because they can't agree on what to do..that can lead to adventures for both of them before they come back together with the money to go see the movie. Much better, much more interesting with all kinds of possibilities in terms of action for both.
Then there is the old bugaboo about regional speech. Especially in the deep South, regional speech is hard to understand and even harder to write. In attempting to convey a country twang, you could write: "wa'al, ah don' rahtly kno'." Do you think a kid is going to be able to decipher this? If you say, "Well, I don't rightly know" you are still using the regional way of speaking, without spelling it out. Kids don't care about how people speak in different parts of the country, they just want to get on with the story and action. Use regional expressions and speech patterns for your characters, but don't spell out phonetically how they talk.
Stay tuned! We'll talk some more about dialogue in the next post.
The post said something about 'dialog' ( not even spelled correctly) being the 'backtalk' by a person. And then an example was given from the poster's work, and it was also amazingly bad...no punctuation, repetitious...hmm, just bad. ( Yes, I'm also being repetitious.)
Maybe a better question for this post would be, not what is dialogue, but how do you write it? Do you use a lot of tags? Do you use slang?
Do you use regional speech characteristics, and the misspellings and partial words that often go along with that? Do you allow your characters to play "verbal ping-pong?" So, let's talk about dialogue for a minute.
What does dialogue do? It paints a picture, it tells something about the story, but most of all, it allows the reader to get to know the character. A character's dialogue needs to be unique to her, just as our own dialogues are unique to us in real life. It needs to tell the reader who this person is, what she is like, what kind of personality
she has, and most of all, it needs to be indicative of the age and life experience of the character. The last is important, because you don't want to have an eleven year old talking like a 16 year old...unless, of course, you have a character who is a genius...for example, Millicent Min, Girl Genius, written by Lisa Yee. But not many of us have that kind of character.
Slang is definitely something to watch out for. Those of us who know teens know their everyday language is full of slang. But it never stays the same. Something that is 'cool' today is 'awesome' tomorrow and 'solid' next week. Slang changes faster than one can become accustomed to it, so the best thing is not to use it except very sparingly, and then only the words that have remained in the teen vocabulary for a long time. And at the moment, I can't think of even one slang expression that has been around for awhile...except, perhaps, 'cool.' Although I heard some kids talking not long ago, and the word for 'cool' now seems to be 'distant.' "Distant?" Don't ask, I have no idea !
How about 'ping-pong' dialogue? That's when you have a couple of characters talking back and forth like this:
"So, what do you want to do?" "I dunno. What do you want to do?" "I dunno. How about a movie?" "Okay, which one?" "I don't care. What one do you like?" "I don't know." "You got any money?" "Nope, do you?" "Nope, I'll go ask Mom."
What do we know about these two? What does the dialogue reveal? Nothing, right? It might be exactly like two kids talking in real life, but for a story, this is nothing but idle chatter going nowhere fast...except to lose the interest of the kids who are reading it.
Dialogue is like everything else in a story, it has to move the story forward and it has to have some direction which will point the reader towards what will ultimately be the climax and resolution of the story. For the example above, wouldn't it be better to have the two boys agreeing on a movie, only to discover they don't have enough money between them, so they need to decide how to get the money without having an adult (Mom) coming to the rescue? As in:
"Let's go see the new Batman movie this afternoon." "Okay, you got any money?" "No." "Well, we need to get some. We can ask Old Man Wilson if we can mow his lawn." "I hate mowing lawns. Let's see if we can clean out the garage instead."
Here we see the boys developing an idea, on their own, about how to earn money, but at the same time, entering into a conflict between the two of them. Maybe they each go their separate ways, because they can't agree on what to do..that can lead to adventures for both of them before they come back together with the money to go see the movie. Much better, much more interesting with all kinds of possibilities in terms of action for both.
Then there is the old bugaboo about regional speech. Especially in the deep South, regional speech is hard to understand and even harder to write. In attempting to convey a country twang, you could write: "wa'al, ah don' rahtly kno'." Do you think a kid is going to be able to decipher this? If you say, "Well, I don't rightly know" you are still using the regional way of speaking, without spelling it out. Kids don't care about how people speak in different parts of the country, they just want to get on with the story and action. Use regional expressions and speech patterns for your characters, but don't spell out phonetically how they talk.
Stay tuned! We'll talk some more about dialogue in the next post.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Writers' Software
How many of you use a software designed specifically for fiction writers? I've heard about a lot of them, but never thought much about getting one...mainly because I didn't want to pay the price for something I didn't know if I would use or not.
But someone recommended a software called 'Storybook', which is on the Internet, and best of all, it is FREE ! I downloaded it, and it is turning into a gem. I also printed out the tutorial and all of the different charts. I took the charts to Office Max and had them enlarged to make them easier to read, as they print out in very small print.
When you first open the program, you are asked to create a new project, which is the book or story you are working on. On this page, you have 3 different areas. The first shows the scenes in chronological order, the second lists all the objects, which are characters, locations, chapters, scenes, etc., and then the third shows "quick information" about a character or location or whatever has been selected from the second area.
When you select a character, you can indicate him/her as a central character or minor character, including giving them names. Here is where you can also name the various locations in your story.
There is a large area designated as the for scenes. Every scene in the program is assigned to a "strand" (or plot-line,) and there is space to write a short summary of the scene, as well as places to write in the characters in the scene and the location. Because most stories/novels have several strands, there is a separate column for each strand.
There are various charts which really help keep everything and everyone straight, particularly if you have a lot of characters and locations. One is titled "Who is Where, When?", and it shows the names of all the characters, where they are supposed to be on any specific day and at any specific time. This is a tremendous help if you are like me, and have to keep going back into the story to find out what day it should be now, and where exactly my character should be. I have an awful time with remembering dates and time lines.
There is another chart that lets you keep track of where the characters are, according to the scenes and chapters. Another chart shows the appearance of the characters by date. This is especially helpful if you have several minor characters who appear early in the story, and then not again until much later on. It sure saves time so that you don't have to go back to your first few scenes or chapters to find out who they are, when they first appeared, and what part they played at the beginning. This also keeps your characters straight, in that if a waitress at a cafe is named Miss Winslow in the first scene she's in, your character doesn't go back to the same cafe with the same waitress whom you now call Mrs. Wilson.
There are many very good things about this software, the least of which, as I said, is that it is FREE. If you download it, don't forget to print out the tutorial, look on the left side where "charts" are listed, and print each of those out, also. They show you exactly how to use them, and it's so easy then to keep track of everything.
One of the best things about this program is that you can have as many stories going at one time as you want. All you have to do is click on the "Create new project" button, and you have all your charts before you, now empty, so that you can begin another WIP.
No, I'm not getting any kind of kickback for talking about this software! It's just something I think is a great help for writers, and since it's free and can be downloaded from the website, if you don't like it, just delete and uninstall, and it's gone.
The website is: http://storybook.intertec.ch/joomla.
But someone recommended a software called 'Storybook', which is on the Internet, and best of all, it is FREE ! I downloaded it, and it is turning into a gem. I also printed out the tutorial and all of the different charts. I took the charts to Office Max and had them enlarged to make them easier to read, as they print out in very small print.
When you first open the program, you are asked to create a new project, which is the book or story you are working on. On this page, you have 3 different areas. The first shows the scenes in chronological order, the second lists all the objects, which are characters, locations, chapters, scenes, etc., and then the third shows "quick information" about a character or location or whatever has been selected from the second area.
When you select a character, you can indicate him/her as a central character or minor character, including giving them names. Here is where you can also name the various locations in your story.
There is a large area designated as the for scenes. Every scene in the program is assigned to a "strand" (or plot-line,) and there is space to write a short summary of the scene, as well as places to write in the characters in the scene and the location. Because most stories/novels have several strands, there is a separate column for each strand.
There are various charts which really help keep everything and everyone straight, particularly if you have a lot of characters and locations. One is titled "Who is Where, When?", and it shows the names of all the characters, where they are supposed to be on any specific day and at any specific time. This is a tremendous help if you are like me, and have to keep going back into the story to find out what day it should be now, and where exactly my character should be. I have an awful time with remembering dates and time lines.
There is another chart that lets you keep track of where the characters are, according to the scenes and chapters. Another chart shows the appearance of the characters by date. This is especially helpful if you have several minor characters who appear early in the story, and then not again until much later on. It sure saves time so that you don't have to go back to your first few scenes or chapters to find out who they are, when they first appeared, and what part they played at the beginning. This also keeps your characters straight, in that if a waitress at a cafe is named Miss Winslow in the first scene she's in, your character doesn't go back to the same cafe with the same waitress whom you now call Mrs. Wilson.
There are many very good things about this software, the least of which, as I said, is that it is FREE. If you download it, don't forget to print out the tutorial, look on the left side where "charts" are listed, and print each of those out, also. They show you exactly how to use them, and it's so easy then to keep track of everything.
One of the best things about this program is that you can have as many stories going at one time as you want. All you have to do is click on the "Create new project" button, and you have all your charts before you, now empty, so that you can begin another WIP.
No, I'm not getting any kind of kickback for talking about this software! It's just something I think is a great help for writers, and since it's free and can be downloaded from the website, if you don't like it, just delete and uninstall, and it's gone.
The website is: http://storybook.intertec.ch/joomla.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Editing and Revision
Since I'm in the process of doing a final edit and revision on my novel before I start the long journey towards publication, I thought I would write about some of the things I've had to learn about editing along the way.
First, there is the "Which" Hunt: cool phrase, right? Unfortunately, I can't take the credit for it, and don't remember who came up with it, but I heard it at a conference last year. The word "which" usually means "what one" or "which one," as in "Which movie shall we check out." But often we say 'which' when we actually mean "that," as in "The wolf that howled at the moon." Make sure that you've have used "which" properly, and not confused it with "that."
A phrase that I used a lot in my first few drafts, and really got both my critique group and my ICL instructor on my back for, was the phrase "Just then." First, "just" usually means "fair" or "according to the principles of justice." "Just then" almost always is used when you really can be much more descriptive by saying, "Abruptly," or "suddenly," or other adverbs that can attribute a more immediate action than "just then." If you are using the word "just" by itself, look over what you are saying, and see if you don't really mean "simply" or "merely" or...maybe you don't need a modifyer at all.
"A little." "Sort of." "Kind of." I've heard these phrases called "belittlers" because they don't tell the reader anything and belittle our work. How much is a little? How do you measure it? The same with "sort of" or "kind of." What do these phrases really mean? Be specific and don't 'belittle' your writing.
Watch out for caps and italics. You should stay away from capitalization of words, and only use italics when absolutely necessary. I think it's okay to use italics when a character is thinking or talking to herself, but use them carefully and sparingly. As an example, my MC has a "little voice" that talks to her ( no, she's not crazy !) and I use italics when the little voice is speaking. However, keep in mind that when you do use italics, the voice needs to be in the present tense.
I usually indicate my MC is talking to herself or thinking by using a descriptive sentence structure. Example: Okay, I thought as I slammed down the phone, they don't want me over there tonight. Fine, I don't care. If you use this structure, remember to start a new paragraph for the character's thought, and then another new one to indicate a continuance of the story/action.
If you use quotation marks for the thought, you need to make sure the character is actually talking to himself. "I'm not really afraid," AJ said to herself as she walked down the dark street. "I just don't like being on this street by myself at night." Also, remember that you should never say ...he thought to himself. After all, there isn't any other way to think!
When you start to edit, be sure to go through your work paragraph by paragraph and see how many of these extraneous words and phrases you can eliminate to tighten up your work.
First, there is the "Which" Hunt: cool phrase, right? Unfortunately, I can't take the credit for it, and don't remember who came up with it, but I heard it at a conference last year. The word "which" usually means "what one" or "which one," as in "Which movie shall we check out." But often we say 'which' when we actually mean "that," as in "The wolf that howled at the moon." Make sure that you've have used "which" properly, and not confused it with "that."
A phrase that I used a lot in my first few drafts, and really got both my critique group and my ICL instructor on my back for, was the phrase "Just then." First, "just" usually means "fair" or "according to the principles of justice." "Just then" almost always is used when you really can be much more descriptive by saying, "Abruptly," or "suddenly," or other adverbs that can attribute a more immediate action than "just then." If you are using the word "just" by itself, look over what you are saying, and see if you don't really mean "simply" or "merely" or...maybe you don't need a modifyer at all.
"A little." "Sort of." "Kind of." I've heard these phrases called "belittlers" because they don't tell the reader anything and belittle our work. How much is a little? How do you measure it? The same with "sort of" or "kind of." What do these phrases really mean? Be specific and don't 'belittle' your writing.
Watch out for caps and italics. You should stay away from capitalization of words, and only use italics when absolutely necessary. I think it's okay to use italics when a character is thinking or talking to herself, but use them carefully and sparingly. As an example, my MC has a "little voice" that talks to her ( no, she's not crazy !) and I use italics when the little voice is speaking. However, keep in mind that when you do use italics, the voice needs to be in the present tense.
I usually indicate my MC is talking to herself or thinking by using a descriptive sentence structure. Example: Okay, I thought as I slammed down the phone, they don't want me over there tonight. Fine, I don't care. If you use this structure, remember to start a new paragraph for the character's thought, and then another new one to indicate a continuance of the story/action.
If you use quotation marks for the thought, you need to make sure the character is actually talking to himself. "I'm not really afraid," AJ said to herself as she walked down the dark street. "I just don't like being on this street by myself at night." Also, remember that you should never say ...he thought to himself. After all, there isn't any other way to think!
When you start to edit, be sure to go through your work paragraph by paragraph and see how many of these extraneous words and phrases you can eliminate to tighten up your work.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Remembering 9/11
September 11th, 2001. Will any American forget this day? I surely won't. My husband and I slept late that morning, for some reason I don't remember now. I went into my study, clicked on my computer and checked my email, which I always do first thing. Several emails jumped out at me without warning...Internet friends in Canada telling me how sorry they were for the horrible things that were happening, and that they were praying for America. Praying for America? Horrible things happening? What in the world....
I immediately turned on the TV, and then screamed for my husband. They were rerunning the first plane crashing into the first Twin Tower. What was going on? How could America be under attack? We were America, for heaven's sake. Nobody messed with us! But someone just did, and for all of our complacency, almost 4,000 innocent Americans died that morning.
Now it is eight years later, and I guess some of the horror of that day is gone...but never forgotten. For those of us who had friends, family, neighbors who died that day, the pain will never go away. For the rest of America, it is the memory that will never go away.
My grandson was ten years old at the time. His class, teacher and students, talked about that day for many weeks to come, as probably, did every classroom in the country. But one day, he asked me a question that I found very hard to answer. He said, Grandma, how come God let this happen? Isn't He always supposed to keep us safe?
I only had one answer for him. I don't know how good or accurate it was, but it was all I could say because it was what I believe. This is what I told him:
God gave every human on this earth a Free Will...a Freedom of Choice. He also gave all of us the tools to make this earth a good and safe place. He gave us intelligence, ability, creativity and knowledge. I'm sure it was His desire that we use those tools to create for ourselves a near-perfect place, where evil could not survive. But we didn't do it. There are people who have created bad things in life, rather than good things. These are the people who have chosen an evil path instead of a good path, but God can't do anything about that. Because if He did, He would have taken the freedom of choice away from them, and then He would have had to take freedom of choice away from those who only do good. God didn't create bad people, He merely created people with the free will to choose the kind of life they wanted for themselves, and there are those who choose evil and those who choose good. We have to live with that, and decide for ourselves which path to take. That's why all humans have Free Will.
My grandson wasn't too satisfied with that answer, but over the years, I believe he has come to understand it.
This is my belief. What is yours?
I immediately turned on the TV, and then screamed for my husband. They were rerunning the first plane crashing into the first Twin Tower. What was going on? How could America be under attack? We were America, for heaven's sake. Nobody messed with us! But someone just did, and for all of our complacency, almost 4,000 innocent Americans died that morning.
Now it is eight years later, and I guess some of the horror of that day is gone...but never forgotten. For those of us who had friends, family, neighbors who died that day, the pain will never go away. For the rest of America, it is the memory that will never go away.
My grandson was ten years old at the time. His class, teacher and students, talked about that day for many weeks to come, as probably, did every classroom in the country. But one day, he asked me a question that I found very hard to answer. He said, Grandma, how come God let this happen? Isn't He always supposed to keep us safe?
I only had one answer for him. I don't know how good or accurate it was, but it was all I could say because it was what I believe. This is what I told him:
God gave every human on this earth a Free Will...a Freedom of Choice. He also gave all of us the tools to make this earth a good and safe place. He gave us intelligence, ability, creativity and knowledge. I'm sure it was His desire that we use those tools to create for ourselves a near-perfect place, where evil could not survive. But we didn't do it. There are people who have created bad things in life, rather than good things. These are the people who have chosen an evil path instead of a good path, but God can't do anything about that. Because if He did, He would have taken the freedom of choice away from them, and then He would have had to take freedom of choice away from those who only do good. God didn't create bad people, He merely created people with the free will to choose the kind of life they wanted for themselves, and there are those who choose evil and those who choose good. We have to live with that, and decide for ourselves which path to take. That's why all humans have Free Will.
My grandson wasn't too satisfied with that answer, but over the years, I believe he has come to understand it.
This is my belief. What is yours?
Friday, September 4, 2009
Similies, Metaphors, and Analogies
Do you ever get confused between similies, metaphors and analogies? I do. I'm forever saying something is a metaphor when actually it is a simile. So, let's talk about these sometimes confusing elements of writing.
A simile is a kind of comparison between two objects or, often, between a human ( character) and an object. They always use the words "like" or "as." In my novel about AJ, when she first met Lisa, she described her as being "as tall and thin as a popsicle stick." Actually, that was a pretty good simile, even if I do say so myself! It immediately brings to mind a popsicle...and what kid doesn't like them? So the reader already has a good idea of what Lisa looks like, and it doesn't matter too much what her eye and hair color are. So, already I'm ahead of the game, because I don't have to spend a lot of descriptive verbage on Lisa's appearance.
The thing is, a lot of times when we write, we get lazy or we get so engrossed in what we are saying that we resort to the first simile that comes to mind. Very often, that simile has become so overused that it is now considered a cliche, which we most definitely don't want to use. Remember this line, which I think is from a famous poem ( although I don't remember which one): My love is like a red, red rose. Others are: She's fat as a pig; he's dumber than a stump; he's as slow as molasses in January. These are very common similies, and probably ones we all think of, or even use in conversation, all the time. But we don't want to use them in writing, especially for kids. When you decide to use a simile, be creative, make up your own and make sure that your reader will have an image come to mind that s/he can relate to.
Then there is the metaphor. Okay, this is another kind of comparison, but one in which we say the person ( or object) is something that it obviously isn't. How about this: "Her eyes were sapphires in her pale face." Well, now we know that this person does not have "sapphires" for eyes. "That boy is a clumsy ox." No, he may be clumsy, but he is not an ox. Once again, when a metaphor doesn't envoke an understandable image in the reader's mind, it shouldn't be used. Like many similies, metaphors that we are the most familiar with have become cliches, and editors frown upon them. The most important thing to remember, however, is that younger children probably don't have enough mental acuity to really understand them.
Finally, there is the analogy. An analogy is a comparison between two things which are actually entirely different. It is the most difficult to write in such a way that children will understand it, so mostly, we shouldn't ! Analogies can be expressed in different ways, too. One example is: Grass is to green as the sky is to blue. Hmm...would a kid understand this? Another way: The sunrise is like a beautifully wrapped birthday present. It's pretty to look at, but beyond that is something brand new. Okay, maybe you can write a better analogy, and one that kids can relate to. As for me, I think I'll stick to a few similies and metaphors!
A simile is a kind of comparison between two objects or, often, between a human ( character) and an object. They always use the words "like" or "as." In my novel about AJ, when she first met Lisa, she described her as being "as tall and thin as a popsicle stick." Actually, that was a pretty good simile, even if I do say so myself! It immediately brings to mind a popsicle...and what kid doesn't like them? So the reader already has a good idea of what Lisa looks like, and it doesn't matter too much what her eye and hair color are. So, already I'm ahead of the game, because I don't have to spend a lot of descriptive verbage on Lisa's appearance.
The thing is, a lot of times when we write, we get lazy or we get so engrossed in what we are saying that we resort to the first simile that comes to mind. Very often, that simile has become so overused that it is now considered a cliche, which we most definitely don't want to use. Remember this line, which I think is from a famous poem ( although I don't remember which one): My love is like a red, red rose. Others are: She's fat as a pig; he's dumber than a stump; he's as slow as molasses in January. These are very common similies, and probably ones we all think of, or even use in conversation, all the time. But we don't want to use them in writing, especially for kids. When you decide to use a simile, be creative, make up your own and make sure that your reader will have an image come to mind that s/he can relate to.
Then there is the metaphor. Okay, this is another kind of comparison, but one in which we say the person ( or object) is something that it obviously isn't. How about this: "Her eyes were sapphires in her pale face." Well, now we know that this person does not have "sapphires" for eyes. "That boy is a clumsy ox." No, he may be clumsy, but he is not an ox. Once again, when a metaphor doesn't envoke an understandable image in the reader's mind, it shouldn't be used. Like many similies, metaphors that we are the most familiar with have become cliches, and editors frown upon them. The most important thing to remember, however, is that younger children probably don't have enough mental acuity to really understand them.
Finally, there is the analogy. An analogy is a comparison between two things which are actually entirely different. It is the most difficult to write in such a way that children will understand it, so mostly, we shouldn't ! Analogies can be expressed in different ways, too. One example is: Grass is to green as the sky is to blue. Hmm...would a kid understand this? Another way: The sunrise is like a beautifully wrapped birthday present. It's pretty to look at, but beyond that is something brand new. Okay, maybe you can write a better analogy, and one that kids can relate to. As for me, I think I'll stick to a few similies and metaphors!
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Historical Fiction...or...?
About 2 1/2 years ago, I started writing an historical fiction novel concerning the Underground Railroad and the Civil War. I had spent about a year on the research, including a barge trip down the Ohi0 and Mississippi Rivers to visit some of the sites of both the Civil War and the Underground Railroad. I sent what I had written, as well as the synopsis for the entire book, to my ICL instructor for my last assignment. But when I began the ICL advanced novel course, my new instructor wanted me to write a more contemporary novel, which is the one just completed. Consequently, the historical novel has been on the back burner until now.
In the meantime, I sent the first few chapters to my critique group. One of the women in the group refused to read it, and emailed me that she was leaving the group. Her reason? She felt that because the book concerns slaves and slavery in the South, that she could not read it because she resented the "implication" that plantation owners of that era mistreated their slaves. She also said that she believed that such things should not continue to be written; that if they were not, people would forget about slavery, and would accept the fact that Southerners were good, loving and gentle people.
Well, I won't go into any part of that. We all know how slaves were treated and the despicable fact that some human beings thought it perfectly all right to own other human beings.
My question is: should there even be a genre such as 'historical fiction?' What about history in general? Are there parts of our history, US and World, both, that should never again be written about? Should we never allow our children, grandchildren and succeeding generations learn about slavery, about the fearsome battles for the rights of women to vote, for Civil Rights, about the horrors of Hitler, the Nazi Regime, and the Holocaust?
How do we learn from our past mistakes? How can we assure that these same evils against the human spirit never arise again with future generations, if we don't write about them? What about teaching them in our schools? Should that be forbidden, too?
I never understood this woman's attitude, but I was glad that she chose to leave the group. Personally, I would never refuse to read someone's manuscript simply because I disagreed with the topic they were writing about. I probably would put in a few personal remarks about why I didn't like it, but at least I would read it. And I hope that I would be honest enough to critique it objectively, for the content and how it was written, rather than for the subject matter.
I love history, and I love writing historical fiction. I just wish it didn't take so long to do the research for the many topics I would like to write about. But is this something we should think seriously about? Do we really need to take a second look at the retelling of history, whether it be as fictionalized or as simply fact?
My opinion? I don't think so. Our history is an indelible part of our lives; it is as necessary to learn about it and to understand it as it is to keep current with our world today. Without yesterday, there is no today, and without today, there is no tomorrow. We need to teach our upcoming generations that all of our history is a vital part of who we, as a nation, are, and that they must know what happened yesterday in order not to repeat it tomorrow.
This is what I think. How do you feel?
In the meantime, I sent the first few chapters to my critique group. One of the women in the group refused to read it, and emailed me that she was leaving the group. Her reason? She felt that because the book concerns slaves and slavery in the South, that she could not read it because she resented the "implication" that plantation owners of that era mistreated their slaves. She also said that she believed that such things should not continue to be written; that if they were not, people would forget about slavery, and would accept the fact that Southerners were good, loving and gentle people.
Well, I won't go into any part of that. We all know how slaves were treated and the despicable fact that some human beings thought it perfectly all right to own other human beings.
My question is: should there even be a genre such as 'historical fiction?' What about history in general? Are there parts of our history, US and World, both, that should never again be written about? Should we never allow our children, grandchildren and succeeding generations learn about slavery, about the fearsome battles for the rights of women to vote, for Civil Rights, about the horrors of Hitler, the Nazi Regime, and the Holocaust?
How do we learn from our past mistakes? How can we assure that these same evils against the human spirit never arise again with future generations, if we don't write about them? What about teaching them in our schools? Should that be forbidden, too?
I never understood this woman's attitude, but I was glad that she chose to leave the group. Personally, I would never refuse to read someone's manuscript simply because I disagreed with the topic they were writing about. I probably would put in a few personal remarks about why I didn't like it, but at least I would read it. And I hope that I would be honest enough to critique it objectively, for the content and how it was written, rather than for the subject matter.
I love history, and I love writing historical fiction. I just wish it didn't take so long to do the research for the many topics I would like to write about. But is this something we should think seriously about? Do we really need to take a second look at the retelling of history, whether it be as fictionalized or as simply fact?
My opinion? I don't think so. Our history is an indelible part of our lives; it is as necessary to learn about it and to understand it as it is to keep current with our world today. Without yesterday, there is no today, and without today, there is no tomorrow. We need to teach our upcoming generations that all of our history is a vital part of who we, as a nation, are, and that they must know what happened yesterday in order not to repeat it tomorrow.
This is what I think. How do you feel?
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