Revision Friday: Dialogue

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I'm neck-deep into revising my WIP. I'm going over all my dialogue, because it's one of the "fastest ways to improve your fiction," according to James Scott Bell in chapter six of his book,Revision and Self-Editing. 

Bell does a wonderful job of breaking dialogue into eight essential characteristics. One of these is to make your dialogue full of subtext. He explains that dialogue should be like an "iceberg",the part we read on the page and the part underneath the surface. There should be layers beneath the surface of story,character,and theme.

1- What has happened in the story so far will affect the present. This is the back story...whether it's presented in the story or not it should effect the dialogue.

2- It's important to "know your character's deep background-the events that shaped her from childhood on." In Susan Collin's, Hunger Games,we don't fully understand why Katniss is so curt with her mother until later. 


3- Often writers say that theme doesn't emerge until much later in the writing process. So once your themes have shown themselves you can go in and tailor your dialogue. Then when the reader discovers the theme, the conversation is more meaningful in retrospect.

Bell, James Scott.Revision and Self-Editing:Techniques for Transforming Your First Draft into a Finished Novel.Ohio: Writers Digest Books,2008.

So now you know what I'm busy working on. What's on your plate today?

Bogged Down With Backstory

      I have always had a hard time when a book spends the first 3-5 chapters telling us everything about the protagonists past before the story actually gets going. Does that mean backstory isn't important? Definitely not! Backstory informs the actions of the characters in the narrative. It is why one character reacts to an event one way and another has a different reaction altogether. The writer needs to know the backstory of his characters.

     Learning the backstory of your characters can happen several ways.   Some writers spend hours creating the past life of the characters, sometimes writing pages of backstory. Will the writer use it? Maybe. Other writers discover their characters backstory as it becomes relevant in the story they are creating. The important thing is to understand when and how to use it.

   Prologue, memories, flashbacks and bits and pieces can all convey backstory. Remember the reader only needs enough information to become engaged in your characters. 

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