Work Room - Week 7
Jan. 28th, 2017 12:20 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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therealljidolThe Topic post is now up: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/974915.html
We are fortunate enough to not only have a Mentor, but the winner of Season 7!
Her Idol story itself is pretty amazing - being the first returning player to win the game, after needing to drop a couple seasons in a row. She just kept coming back, and kept getting better, until that time it "clicked". After that? Well, she talks about that below... but let's just say she's been pretty unstoppable.
Definitely take advantage of having her at your disposal this week!
***
Hello, you crazy people! Long time, no read!
It's me,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
amenquohi, formerly known as "Seven of Nine." (But Gary wrecked that by having more than nine seasons but I'm not bitter. Much.)
I haven't hung on Idol much since winning Season 7, but that's because I've been busy. Winning the season gave me the guts to try for a blogging job with a major women's magazine, I did that for a few years, started blogging for another magazine, started my own blog, then self-pubbed a half-dozen books before finally landing a bonafide 2 book deal with a big 5 publisher. Yeah, baby.
So here's the shameless plug for my YA fantasy, TRAVELER (http://amzn.to/2k2tQDB), out on February 7th. Check it out!
And now here's the part where I impart all my writerly wisdom, right? Right.
I'm going to concentrate on something specific, because the world is full of generic writer advice and because I happen to think it's something I'm reasonably decent at: dialogue.
When I've got a scene in mind, I have a couple of techniques to work the dialogue.
First, act it out. Get up, walk around. Or sit in the car. Play all the roles. Shout, argue, snark a lot. Try out various lines and retorts and make notes while you do it. Or set your phone to voice record.
Second, remember that written dialogue should not sound like speaking in real life. Seriously. Trim out extraneous crap. Don't be redundant, unless the character does it on purpose to be annoying or to make a point. Trim the word "that' everywhere you can. Monologue when you have to, and sometimes, you have to
Third, watch your dialogue tags. Go light on the adverbs. If your characters are answering or speaking with a modifier ("he said, grimly" or "she answered cheerfully") more than 1/4 of their lines, you're doing it wrong. Don't be afraid to keep it to "he said" and "she answered" because those are transparent to the reader and don't interrupt the flow. Save those modifiers for when they can really deliver a punch.
Above all, don't have people talking just to talk. You may have a great, snarky conversation running through your head, but if it doesn't further the plot along or add to a character's development, it's useless. If you're like me and write very dialogue-heavy stories, it feels like cutting off an arm to cut your carefully crafted lines, but if it's not moving anything or anyone forward, you gotta do it. You just do.
And now I'll leave you with a great little video ( http://youtu.be/zJGX2raiafU ) imparting more advice on the subject. I hope you find it entertaining and instructive.
I'll be hanging out in the workroom this week and happy to offer any advice with the caveat that I am absolutely not an expert in this field, just some schmuck who writes stories and worked her ass off to get where she is (and still has her day job). I've written memoirs, self-help books, fantasy, romance and now YA. And blogs and fanfic. And of course, a whole bushel full of delusional LiveJournal Idol entries.
Seven of Nine, signing out.
We are fortunate enough to not only have a Mentor, but the winner of Season 7!
Her Idol story itself is pretty amazing - being the first returning player to win the game, after needing to drop a couple seasons in a row. She just kept coming back, and kept getting better, until that time it "clicked". After that? Well, she talks about that below... but let's just say she's been pretty unstoppable.
Definitely take advantage of having her at your disposal this week!
***
Hello, you crazy people! Long time, no read!
It's me,
amenquohi, formerly known as "Seven of Nine." (But Gary wrecked that by having more than nine seasons but I'm not bitter. Much.) I haven't hung on Idol much since winning Season 7, but that's because I've been busy. Winning the season gave me the guts to try for a blogging job with a major women's magazine, I did that for a few years, started blogging for another magazine, started my own blog, then self-pubbed a half-dozen books before finally landing a bonafide 2 book deal with a big 5 publisher. Yeah, baby.
So here's the shameless plug for my YA fantasy, TRAVELER (http://amzn.to/2k2tQDB), out on February 7th. Check it out!
And now here's the part where I impart all my writerly wisdom, right? Right.
I'm going to concentrate on something specific, because the world is full of generic writer advice and because I happen to think it's something I'm reasonably decent at: dialogue.
When I've got a scene in mind, I have a couple of techniques to work the dialogue.
First, act it out. Get up, walk around. Or sit in the car. Play all the roles. Shout, argue, snark a lot. Try out various lines and retorts and make notes while you do it. Or set your phone to voice record.
Second, remember that written dialogue should not sound like speaking in real life. Seriously. Trim out extraneous crap. Don't be redundant, unless the character does it on purpose to be annoying or to make a point. Trim the word "that' everywhere you can. Monologue when you have to, and sometimes, you have to
Third, watch your dialogue tags. Go light on the adverbs. If your characters are answering or speaking with a modifier ("he said, grimly" or "she answered cheerfully") more than 1/4 of their lines, you're doing it wrong. Don't be afraid to keep it to "he said" and "she answered" because those are transparent to the reader and don't interrupt the flow. Save those modifiers for when they can really deliver a punch.
Above all, don't have people talking just to talk. You may have a great, snarky conversation running through your head, but if it doesn't further the plot along or add to a character's development, it's useless. If you're like me and write very dialogue-heavy stories, it feels like cutting off an arm to cut your carefully crafted lines, but if it's not moving anything or anyone forward, you gotta do it. You just do.
And now I'll leave you with a great little video ( http://youtu.be/zJGX2raiafU ) imparting more advice on the subject. I hope you find it entertaining and instructive.
I'll be hanging out in the workroom this week and happy to offer any advice with the caveat that I am absolutely not an expert in this field, just some schmuck who writes stories and worked her ass off to get where she is (and still has her day job). I've written memoirs, self-help books, fantasy, romance and now YA. And blogs and fanfic. And of course, a whole bushel full of delusional LiveJournal Idol entries.
Seven of Nine, signing out.
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no subject
Date: 2017-01-28 05:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-01-28 08:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-01-28 01:41 pm (UTC)On another note, does anyone want to talk about ideas for this topic? All I can think of is stuff like "family of origin" or "city/country/geographic locale of origin" and I feel like it's going to be super boring if everyone writes about those two things.
no subject
Date: 2017-01-28 02:22 pm (UTC)link (http://www.georgeellalyon.com/where.html) . The excerpts I found interesting were :
-a place could open into a piece of descriptive writing or a scene from memory.
-your parents' work could open into a memory of going with them, helping, being in the way. Could be a remembered dialogue between your parents about work. Could be a poem made from a litany of tools they used.
-an important event could open into free writing all the memories of that experience, then writing it as a scene, with description and dialogue. It's also possible to let the description become setting and directions and let the dialogue turn into a play.
-food could open into a scene at the table, a character sketch of the person who prepared the food, a litany of different experiences with it, a process essay of how to make it.
-music could take you to a scene where the music is playing; could provide you the chance to interleave the words of the song and words you might have said (or a narrative of what you were thinking and feeling at the time the song was first important to you (“Where I'm Singing From”).
-something someone said to you could open into a scene or a poem which captures that moment; could be what you wanted to say back but never did.
a significant object could open into a sensory exploration of the object-what it felt, sounded, smelled, looked, and tasted like; then where it came from, what happened to it, a memory of your connection with it. Is there a secret or a longing connected with this object? A message? If you could go back to yourself when this object was important to you, what would you ask, tell, or give yourself?
no subject
Date: 2017-01-28 05:43 pm (UTC)Somewhere out there on the internet there is actually a formula for writing one of those poems, where it literally says (insert pet name here).
(Not recommending that to anyone do that for an entry).
I think it could be ancestry stuff.
Also visiting alien stuff.
Also immigrant stuff
But I also feel sometimes like I don't fit in this world, so it could be "the world I would live in if it felt right."
It could also be a "lost in the wrong dimension" prompt. Alice in Wonderland.
no subject
Date: 2017-01-28 02:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-01-28 04:57 pm (UTC)The first post up is an entertaining snippet from an event in the writer's childhood (sorry, I can't remember who posted... tamarand?something). I honestly am just looking at the topic now and my first thots were a history of where I physically come from. After reading the 1st entry, now I'm thinking of a snippet like that or maybe an event that happened as a child that affected me or still effects me as an adult. Or write about the influences of my childhood ... or even my bff of childhood... there are a lot of different takes on "where I'm from" :). Hope this gives you some ideas too....
no subject
Date: 2017-01-28 03:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-02-03 06:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-01-28 03:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-01-28 05:48 pm (UTC)I miss your stories. I'm glad to know you have a memoir. I don't think I knew that. I will put it on my list. :)
On the infrequent occasions I write fiction, dialogue always comes to me first. I have to force myself to write the action. :/ I'm always doing things backward.
no subject
Date: 2017-01-28 06:03 pm (UTC)Hoo boy- my head's wheel is whirling with ideas and it hasn't stopped with a direction. Ack! Hugs, everyone!
no subject
Date: 2017-01-28 07:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-01-29 04:00 am (UTC)I did start a short story with lots of dialogue involved last time I did LJIdol but it got a bit too big for me with where I took it. This probably would've helped then, I hope it helps in the future and definitely with others here.
no subject
Date: 2017-01-29 10:28 am (UTC)Dialogue is a real weakness and I struggle with it a lot and tend to brush over it but would like to put some of this into practise
As to the topic I was either going to write about where I'm from literally (Glasgow) or a peace from four peoples point of view (mother, father, paternal grandfather, maternal grandmother) as they literally make up the pieces of me
no subject
Date: 2017-01-29 05:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-01-30 02:04 am (UTC)