As a writer, I've found Twitter to be an invaluable source of information, support, and today it even provided inspiration for this blog post when Georgia McBride sent a tweet reminding us writers to be aware of our weaknesses.
I know I'm not perfect. Far from it. So, I began pondering my weakness, my Writing Kryptonite if you will. The one thing that I do that will destroy my story if left unchecked. It wasn't hard to figure out. In fact, I came upon it almost immediately -- Dialogue.
People find my obession with a great/funny/profound line quite humorous, but I can't help but appreciate a well-written piece of dialogue. I know just how hard it is to craft. Or at least how hard it is for me.
I'm sure there are people out there for whom dialogue is natural, witty, and sparkling on the first try. Me? I have my gems that appear out of nowhere, but for the most part it takes me five or six revisions before I can read my dialogue without wincing at the inane and unbelievable words on the page.
The truth is, I talk funny. At least by modern standards. I grew up dirt poor (with 8 kids in the house, how could it be any other way?) and I think without realizing it, I overcompensated. I didn't want anyone thinking of me as uneducated poor white trash, so I absorbed everything I could. I worked hard to perfect my speech and expand my vocabulary. And unless I'm riled up, you will never even notice an accent.
So, it's safe to say that I don't speak like other people my age. A fact highlighted whenever a reader tells me a normal person would never say a line I've written on the page.
I'm okay with this weakness because I'm aware of it. It's the first thing I point out to my earliest readers when asking for a critique. And when they come back laughing, I understand.
So tell me readers, what's your writing Kryptonite?
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2 comments:
Natural dialogue is a challenge for me, too. As a scientist I have a peculiar vocabulary, so it's a challenge to avoid words that a character would not use.
The other habit that I have with ambiguous value is that I'm prone to creating new characters whenever I need something done in the story. I think it gets the job done, but I suspect that it makes the writing unnecessarily hard to read. The Metalmark Contract ended up with a list of 53 characters in the back. I hope it was excusable in service of the story. Only reviews will tell.
Grammar... English isn't my mother tongue, and sometimes it slips off the side.
Dialog... Trying not to be too obvious, not using useless dialog tags.
Adverbs... They can really spoil a lot of work.
Ellipses... they're just to easy to do.
- EEV
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