Author: dannedmind

Ever read something that reads like a screenplay… or worse, you’re the guilty writer?

While I often have fun creating dialogue-only short stories, and this style can teach you how to include critical physical details in speech, sometimes our characters talk too much. Creating either an exchange that should be cut or feels directionless to the reader.

Other times it seems logical at first to relay information from one character to the next, but if the reader has read it before, they shouldn’t have to reread it.

Beyond simply deleting what is said you have options I call it: SPIT.

1. SUMMARIZE
   • Have your narrator sum up what is said, i.e. “Bill told Dan everything that happened the night before.”
   • In first person, you could sum it up, “I listened to him rattle on about a strange night. I laughed when he mentioned the fish people.”
2. PARAPHRASE
   • Have the narrator explain what is told, using less conversational language– yes, this is an info dump, and I am often surprised by really well-written infodumps that didn’t waste my time with banter or were overly descriptive.
3. IMPLY
   • By jumping forward in a conversation, you can imply that things were said. Whether it’s the end of the conversation or moments later.
   • You can also jump ahead and have a character ask if the other heard anything they said, and then shift to a paraphrase or a ‘I stopped listening once you said . . .’
4. TRIM
   • Cut out every other response or really edit the conversation down to what needs to be there. In our everyday lives, people talk too much too often, and it can be enticing to mirror that in our writing, but when people ramble, so do the readers’ minds.

Either way, it’s a good idea to strike a balance between dialogue and description. And sorry for the acronym, but it should make it memorable . . . right?

Having an art background is something that often leads me to apply those strategies to other things–like writing.

If you are like I once was, finding that perfect word to start a story is like staring at a blank canvas. The only way to break that block is to make a mark.

But it’ll ruin that perfect blank canvas!

Sure. Maybe.

But if we’re talking about writing, it’s one word, and you can, and you will change. Start writing. Get to where you wan the story to go, and then come back and fix that opening line.

Always remember, your first words are you sketching. they aren’t they aren’t set in stone.

But take this further. With drawing starting with a sketch, sometimes it goes a step before that where a thumbnail drawing is produced to get an idea of what the overall image should be shaped like. Think of you writing in this way. Design the overall short story, lay it out physically, and then go back and fine tune those lines until it is complete.

One of the issues I have with writing is burnout.

I know how to avoid it these days, but that doesn’t mean I don’t get overconfident. My burnout generally stems from having a lot of energy and ideas on one particular day and not pacing myself. I’ve written 10k words in a day and then been completely blank the next day.

And sometimes, what I wrote is not beneficial, it’s me writing myself into a hole that the following day, when energy is down, I’m less likely to find a solution out of.

When I have a ton of ideas about what should happen next, if I’ve achieved my daily goal (whatever that might be, set your own and stick to it), I simply leave myself a note, a prompt.

Sometimes it’s Post-It Note size. Other times, I’ll write it like an outline. But the key is to avoid burnout, so that the story can be completed instead of abandoned.

How many times have you been in the middle of a conversation with another person and the subject changes, but your mind keeps circling around what you had planned to say next?

How many times have you planned on doing something like taking a hot bath, only for a phone call or a chore you kept forgetting to do pops up?

You don’t stop thinking about what you wanted to say even though the moment in time to say it has passed.

You go to bed thinking about that relaxing bath you meant to take but ran out of time.

Don’t forget this happens to everybody–even your characters. what we think about, what we desired, it means something–even if it is just to us, and these can be motivating factors for your characters even as they are forced to respond to outside forces, there inner monologue still yearns for what they’d intended.

Remember to position your characters in the direction they want to go before that direction is altered for the sake of the story, and keep in mind that they probably haven’t forgotten what they meant to say or do.