The Balance of A Good Dialogue

One of the main problem I have with my first drafts is that my characters say too much. They will either say nothing, or say what is on their mind. And oftentimes, it will be stated clearly.

That's, of course, completely unrealistic. It helps to get the story moving, to play with the characters and what needs to be said, but in the end I don't think it should this way. That's not how it happens in real life. Most people I know will say one thing, and mean another.

This is not easy to do in a novel, because you have to make sure your reader understands what is implied. Perhaps not always right away, as some things are better understood when you look back at them, but some key points will nonetheless be implied rather than said. Yet, if the reader feels lost in your dialogue, if he knows he's missing something, then he might get annoyed.

It's a delicate balance, one I've yet to reach in general.

I expect a lot of it to come with revision, and betas must be a great help in this regard. How do you deal with this? Do you have tricks, any other guide than your instinct?

Dialogues are my favourite part of a novel. I want to get them right!

The Two Sides of a Relationship

I have seen many writers boil down a relationship to a single tag. 'Friendship'. 'Love'. 'Hatred'. 'Rivals'. It's a necessary simplification, one that helps us grasp quickly what is the backbone of the relationship between two characters, but it brings about its dangers.

First, because relationships are more complex than this. Having friends doesn't mean the same for everyone, and even one person will not think the same way about two different friends. There are nuances to every relationship that depend on the characters, and that make it unique.

There is something else that makes every relationship complex, and that is not as often reflected in writing: two characters in a relationship will not think the same way about each other.

The typical example of this is the unrequited love interest. Character A loves Character B with a fiery passion, but Character B couldn't care less.

There are so many other ways this could be exploited, however! I think it's worth it to consider the world from another perspective than the hero's, and see what the surrounding cast think of him, and of each other.

• Character A could think Character B is a rival, and feel the need to prove himself the better of the two, while Character B is only seeking a friend. 
• The  hero can have a sidekick, and believe him to be super loyal, whereas the sidekick spends his time wishing he was with another knight.
• Character A might confide anything in Character B, but Character B seeks comfort elsewhere when he needs it.
• Character A can think of B as nothing but a colleague, whereas Character B thinks of A as a close friend.

No two characters approach friendships, love interests and rivalries the same way. Take the time to consider how they define these relationships. Watch for differences in how two characters view one another. Bringing them to life can add a layer of tension to any scene or be a bad surprise for your hero. And if you have more than one POV, you get to contrast these opinions, too!

If this isn't fun, I'm not sure what is!

The Colours of Language

I like to think words have personalities. They're more than a bunch of letters stuck together. They mean something, and behind that meaning there is a connotation. The same is true for sentences and paragraphs. The way we put them together has a certain vibe to it, a personality. It's that little thing we call voice.

But beyond that, on an even deeper level than words and sentences, I believe every language has a personality. When you speak it, you can see it from the expressions, from the vocabulary, from the sentence structures... but even if you can't understand a word of it, the language vehiculates a special vibe.

Compare italian and german for a moment. One is lyrical, full of vowels and intonations. The other is harder, straightforward, with a lot of sharp sounds.*

The language you write in brings a particular colour to the story you are telling. This is why translations can never best the original. You cannot capture one language's soul with another. You can try, and translators do an incredible job at it sometimes, but it will never have the original text's flow. It cannot.

I believe that is a beautiful thing. It does, however, raise a question: what language should I write my stories in?

I am fluent enough in English that I believe I can write a publishable novel in it. But is this wise? Would some of these stories be better served by French? Can I afford to play both markets? (probably not)

Most of the time I do not even ask myself such questions. The story came to me in English, right? That's enough to make the decision. Edingher, however... for some reason, Edingher was created alternating between French and English, and I wonder if French would not fit it better. I decided to focus on the other novel until I'd reached my decision, but there's something deeply disturbing to wondering if you're in the right language at all. It feels as though I did not know my story at all, and it does not sit well with me.

This is something I have been struggling with for three years now. I'm not sure it will ever go away.

*For the record, I love both german and italian.

Winter Is Fixing My Plotholes

 Ever noticed how real-life experiences sometimes coincide with topics found on blogs around the internet? It just happened to me, with Nathan Bransford post on  The Importance of Exercise for Writer.

We received over a foot of snow in the last day, and as is the curse of those who live in houses rather than apartments during such weather, I had to pick up a shovel and go out. Now, most of my fellows will complain at such a task, but I've always found shoveling - while backbreaking after a while - to be good exercise. It's the winter's equivalent of mowing the lawn, but with less noise!

Plus, with all the studying I do these days, it's one of the rare moment (along with my 20-minutes walk to and from University) that I can think about my plot. Mindless tasks always help with planning. I am not the first to say it, and I doubt I'll be the last!

In the thirty minutes I spent outside, pushing snow around and shoveling it, I figured out how I would solve White Echoes' beginning plothole. This was one of my major concerns, because I could not properly justify why my character took the path of action that started everything.

And with the beginning of that answer came a whole new subplot, and a storyline that finally ties Henry Schmitt, one of the two main POVs, with the overarching plot on a personal level.

I sadly cannot give the new ideas all the love and thinking they deserve for the moment, but rest assured, they have been jotted down for future considerations. 

The plot thickens, I'm on a roll again, and I am having a good day!

Recurring Elements in Your Writing

Have you ever looked back at your writing to realise you seemed to bring back the same elements and themes from one story to another? I know I do, and I know I'm not alone, as Margo at Urban Psychopomp did a post about it last October. But as November came to an end and I looked back at my two novels, I realised I had more connecting elements than I thought, and sometimes they're present in older stories, too.

So let's take a look, shall we?

1. The wind as a divine element.


I'll blame living in a windy city and loving the constant gusts for this one. It's not the first time I associate wind with power and change. In Edingher it's the main religion while in White Echoes it's a single character's personal belief. I may have an obsession for wind.

2. Music as a channel of emotions, especially grief.


This was an intentional theme for Edingher - or, well, I knew music would be an important plot element in Prince Heike's attempt to redefine his country's obsession for expansion (from physical considerations to cultural ones). I had not planned on grief, perhaps because I had not planned on there being grief. White Echoes' use of music as a channel for grief is completely unintentional. It was a spontaneous idea, but I am likely to keep it, if I can.

3. Pregnant women giving birth

There's not a lot of explanation to give on this one, except that in both case it's a major plot point. I have no idea what made me want to write about pregnancy this year, but there it is!

4. Home/Family

Associating these two is perhaps my most frequent and obvious theme. It's in nearly every story I imagine, because family is something I care a lot about, and because I feel it's important to be somewhere you feel like you belong. I don't do it on purpose, but I'm aware it's in my writing.

So, what are your themes? What elements did you find sprouting up in all of your stories? Do you know why they're there?