Dialog -- Capturing voices for characters
by Wen Spencer
I got a question posed to me:
Hi Wen.
You keep mentioning that you answer questions on writing, I thought I d ask one
here.
How do you manage to write different "voices"? Reading your dialogs, I can
usually tell what Ukiah said as compared to what Rennie or Max said (even...
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Dialog -- Capturing voices for characters by Wen Spencer I got a question posed to me: Hi Wen. You keep mentioning that you answer questions on writing, I thought I d ask one here. How do you manage to write different "voices"? Reading your dialogs, I can usually tell what Ukiah said as compared to what Rennie or Max said (even without checking who said it). And you do it without resorting to accents (except as a flavoring). When I tried writing dialogs, people told me that the character which was my avatar had really vibrant representative dialog. The other characters, and I admit it, were flat, and sounded a bit like me trying to portray someone else. So, the question is, how do you write different people that sound so different? Any general tips for newbies? Thanks, (name withheld by request) Good question, one that is hard to answer -- mostly because I m never sure if I succeed in doing it myself. People have natural vocabularies, point of views, and speech rhythms. For exa
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Naming Characters
by Wen Spencer
Someone asked for help to name their heroine.
This is how I answered them.
I hate naming characters.
Luckily main character names usually just "come" to
me.
Secondary characters, however, are a huge fight.
Usually if I have other characters already named, the first thing I do is look to see
what...
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Naming Characters by Wen Spencer Someone asked for help to name their heroine. This is how I answered them. I hate naming characters. Luckily main character names usually just "come" to me. Secondary characters, however, are a huge fight. Usually if I have other characters already named, the first thing I do is look to see what letters of the alphabet have been used already. If I have Ann, Bob, Candy, and Don, then I don t want the new character be Amanda, Betty, Clarisa, or Dawn. Sure if I LOVE one of those names, they re far apart enough to be used, but I m at a blank screen, why not eliminate all confusion from the get go. Once I have a list of letters free -- say I, J, K and L -- I start generating names I feel are like that personality. Each of us carry some gut level toward certain names. Julia, for me, will always represent a certain person I know in real life. Jackie calls to mind the famous first lady. Kate is a strong woman. Consider what you want for your charac
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Dealing with Reader Knowledge
by Wen Spencer
Is it really stupid to go down into the basement with whatever light source you
can find?
Think about, you re sitting at home and the lights go off.
What s wrong? You
could just sit there and hope the lights come on, or you start trying to find the nearest
light source.
Ah here s a...
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Dealing with Reader Knowledge by Wen Spencer Is it really stupid to go down into the basement with whatever light source you can find? Think about, you re sitting at home and the lights go off. What s wrong? You could just sit there and hope the lights come on, or you start trying to find the nearest light source. Ah here s a flashlight. Cool. Turn it on. Now what? Well, is it just your house or the whole neighborhood? Hmmm, looks like just your house, so possibly you blew a fuse. Down into the basement you go to see if flipping the circuit breaker will work. Typical life. Why, then, do we think characters in a horror movie are so stupid to do the same? Because WE KNOW what s down in the basement waiting for them. We know that this is a horror movie. We know that there s a killer on the loose. We know BAD things happen in basement. Only an idiot would go down and try to get the lights on. Consider this situation: Hannibal the Cannibal walks into a flower shop where the her
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Query letter
by Wen Spencer
Ahhh, the query letter.
Source of much confusion and frustration.
People get worked up over how hard this seems, but really, if you sell the book,
this is just the beginning.
Everyone you talk to, every place that want details on your
book is going to want you to keep it short.
The query is just a...
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Query letter by Wen Spencer Ahhh, the query letter. Source of much confusion and frustration. People get worked up over how hard this seems, but really, if you sell the book, this is just the beginning. Everyone you talk to, every place that want details on your book is going to want you to keep it short. The query is just a selling tool -- think of it as a movie trailer. Just enough to grab. And yes, really do try to keep it under one page. Whatever you do, don t ignore 1 inch margins all around in the effort to fit as much as possible on the page. Generally what you need in a query letter is only this: Dear Editor (call if you don t know their name and make sure you spell it right!) I have written a science fiction/fantasy/mystery/romance/etc (pick one -- and it better be one that this editor publishes) novel of xx,xxxx words. (Word count shows them if fits their required range. A science fiction novel falls around 100,000. Mysteries and Romances are often much shorter. )
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7 tips for writing a novel
Have you always wanted to write a novel? Do you see the story in your head but find
yourself uncapable of getting it all out on paper? Do you begin excitedly writing and
then get burnout almost before you ve evn began?
If it all seems overwhelming maybe the following suggestions will help you become
more...
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7 tips for writing a novel Have you always wanted to write a novel? Do you see the story in your head but find yourself uncapable of getting it all out on paper? Do you begin excitedly writing and then get burnout almost before you ve evn began? If it all seems overwhelming maybe the following suggestions will help you become more organized and form those budding ideas! 1. You Need An Outline SOme people say they can just start writing and it all flows smoothly and evenly to become the perfect piece. If you can write your novel this way, I envy you. (And you probably don t need to read this article)But most people need to form their ideas in some kind of outline. It doesn t have to include every detail of your novel, just the framework. And you can always add and modify as you go along. 2. Point-of-View Decide what point of view you are going to use in a particular scene and stick with it. Don t jump back and forth, it s confusing. Use the "omniscent" viewpoint sparingly and ha
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1
How to Write Short Stories
A glimpse at the advertising columns of our leading
magazines shows that whatever else this country may
be shy of, there is certainly no lack of correspondence
schools that learns you the art of short-story writing.
The most notorious of these schools makes the boast
that one of their pupils cleaned up...
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1 How to Write Short Stories A glimpse at the advertising columns of our leading magazines shows that whatever else this country may be shy of, there is certainly no lack of correspondence schools that learns you the art of short-story writing. The most notorious of these schools makes the boast that one of their pupils cleaned up $5000. 00 and no hundreds dollars writing short stories according to the system learnt in their course, though it don t say if that amount was cleaned up in one year or fifty.
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CHARACTERS AND VIEWPOINT
BY ORSON SCOTT CARD
WRITER S DIGEST BOOKS
CINCINNATI, OHIO
Characters and Viewpoint.
Copyright (r) 1988 by Orson Scott Card.
Printed
and bound in the United States of America.
All rights reserved.
No part of this
book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical
means including...
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CHARACTERS AND VIEWPOINT BY ORSON SCOTT CARD WRITER S DIGEST BOOKS CINCINNATI, OHIO Characters and Viewpoint. Copyright (r) 1988 by Orson Scott Card. Printed and bound in the United States of America. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Published by Writer s Digest Books, an imprint of F&W Publications, Inc. , 1507 Dana Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio 45207. (800) 2890963. First paperback edition 1999. Other fine Writer s Digest Books are available from your local bookstore or direct from the publisher. Visit our Web site at www. writersdigest. com for information on more resources for writers. To receive a free weekly E-mail newsletter delivering tips and updates about writing and about Writer s Digest products, send an E-mail with the message
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Organizing a novel
This morning I thought I’d mention organizing to write a novel.
I start every new project by setting up a folder in My Documents for the project.
With Tinker 2, I’ve labeled the folder, oddly enough, TINKER 2.
From my desktop I’ve
made a shortcut into the folder.
Into this folder I make two folders.
One is...
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Organizing a novel This morning I thought I’d mention organizing to write a novel. I start every new project by setting up a folder in My Documents for the project. With Tinker 2, I’ve labeled the folder, oddly enough, TINKER 2. From my desktop I’ve made a shortcut into the folder. Into this folder I make two folders. One is NOTES, where I have things like the synopsis that I sold the novel with (which I did have stored in the Tinker (1) folder) and the bible I’m building which has all the characters from the first book and descriptions of them. I also needed to work out a rough timeline so I know when this novel starts. In Tinker, the story starts shortly before Midsummer’s Night Eve, and then runs for roughly two months after that date, so it’s now the end of August. August tends to be muggy hot during the day and cool in the evenings. The days are still long, and the summer stars are in the sky. The trees will be starting to turn if the novel runs more than a month in time
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Boo!
Scared you, didn t I? But I also got you to read on to this second sentence.
So,
even though it was only four characters long, that first line did its job: it served as a hook
to bring you into this piece of writing.
In that sense, it was a great beginning -- and "great
beginnings" are the topic of this, the first installment of...
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Boo! Scared you, didn t I? But I also got you to read on to this second sentence. So, even though it was only four characters long, that first line did its job: it served as a hook to bring you into this piece of writing. In that sense, it was a great beginning -- and "great beginnings" are the topic of this, the first installment of the "On Writing" column that I will be contributing to each issue of On Spec. A Canadian horror writer I know said something very intriguing recently: he was looking forward to the day when he was well known, so that he wouldn t have to start off with a grabby first sentence. He wanted to be able to begin subtly, with the reader trusting that the story would be worth his or her time just on the strength of the author s name. But even the lions of literature still go for the snappy start. Consider this opening line from Robertson Davies s Murther & Walking Spirits: "I was never so amazed in my life as when the Sniffer drew his concealed weapon from it
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A Glossary of Literary Terms
ROBERT HARRIS
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA COLLEGE
VERSION DATE: MAY 22, 1997
To find a particular term, use your browser s Find command (on the Edit menu in Netscape, for example).
Note: This file is 102K.
Printing it requires about 33 pages with Netscape 3.
0.
Adventure novel.
A novel where exciting events...
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A Glossary of Literary Terms ROBERT HARRIS SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA COLLEGE VERSION DATE: MAY 22, 1997 To find a particular term, use your browser s Find command (on the Edit menu in Netscape, for example). Note: This file is 102K. Printing it requires about 33 pages with Netscape 3. 0. Adventure novel. A novel where exciting events predominate over characterization and sometimes theme. Examples: H. RIDER HAGGARD, KING SOLOMON S MINES Baroness Orczy, The Scarlet Pimpernel ALEXANDRE DUMAS, THE THREE MUSKETEERS Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo ALLEGORY. "A FORM OF EXTENDED METAPHOR IN WHICH OBJECTS AND PERSONS IN A NARRATIVE, EITHER IN PROSE OR VERSE, ARE EQUATED WITH MEANINGS THAT LIE OUTSIDE THE NARRATIVE ITSELF. THUS IT REPRESENTS ONE THING IN THE GUISE OF ANOTHER--AN ABSTRACTION IN THAT OF A CONCRETE IMAGE. THE CHARACTERS ARE USUALLY PERSONIFICATIONS OF ABSTRACT QUALITIES. . . . " (WM. THRALL, ET AL, HANDBOOK TO LITERATURE, NY ODYSSEY, 1960) MANY WORKS CONTAIN ALLEGORI
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There was a cartoon in The New Yorker many years ago in which the female host
of a posh party accosts one of her guests: "I ve just learned that you wrote a novel based
on somebody else s screenplay.
Please leave my house at once.
" It s true that
novelizations are the antithesis of literature, but when I was a teenager, desperate to...
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There was a cartoon in The New Yorker many years ago in which the female host of a posh party accosts one of her guests: "I ve just learned that you wrote a novel based on somebody else s screenplay. Please leave my house at once. " It s true that novelizations are the antithesis of literature, but when I was a teenager, desperate to learn how to write, I read dozens of them. Why? Because in a piece of fiction, every nuance can be described in words. It was fascinating to see the ways in which writers described scenes that I d already watched on the big screen. (In point of fact, of course, most novelizations are written before the movie is completed. The writers of the book versions have probably never seen a single frame of the film, so the way they describe the action is often quite different from the way it was actually shot. ) For writers beginning today, there s an even better tool available than novelizations: the new interpreted-for-the-blind movies on video. These use th
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Reusing old stuff
by Wen Spencer
THere are times when things don t work right where you put them, so you need to
yank them back out.
I always save everything I write, because 1) it makes me fearless at
yanking them back out and 2) often they fit somewhere else with a little tweaking.
If you look back a ways, you ll find the original...
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Reusing old stuff by Wen Spencer THere are times when things don t work right where you put them, so you need to yank them back out. I always save everything I write, because 1) it makes me fearless at yanking them back out and 2) often they fit somewhere else with a little tweaking. If you look back a ways, you ll find the original ending of TINKER. You might want to see compare it to the following to see how I changed it to fit the second book. I m still not totally happy with Oilcan s section, but I think it will work out in the long run. Think. Okay, I’m stuck. Well, not really stuck as there’s too many options. I want to keep the book focused on Turtle Creek and not repeat “build-a-gate” that more or less repeats book one. Lack of materials is going to seriously hamper Tinker, but I feel I need more…. I think. My first reaction is to have someone stole all of Tinker’s stuff while Oilcan was out on a run. The problem is that Pony immediately goes into protective mode an
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A Quick Guide to Creating Memorable Non-Player Characters
by
Rich Staats, 1999
http://www.
geocities.
com/TimesSquare/9329/
staats@alum.
mit.
edu
Gregory bit his tongue, and the blood joined the rain pattering down on his matted hair.
The streams trickled
annoyingly down his chin as he watched his comrades disappear in a ball of...
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A Quick Guide to Creating Memorable Non-Player Characters by Rich Staats, 1999 http://www. geocities. com/TimesSquare/9329/ staats@alum. mit. edu Gregory bit his tongue, and the blood joined the rain pattering down on his matted hair. The streams trickled annoyingly down his chin as he watched his comrades disappear in a ball of flame. Amazingly, several of the group emerged alive from the conflagration. Gregory ran forward with healing salves and a strong sword arm to defend his comrades while they recovered from the ill placed fireball. Gregory identified the Seldari priestess and headed that way. "Best to heal the healer" thought Gregory. "How did I get myself paired up with this group of miscreants?" he mused. "I should have known something was wrong when they hired me on to help assault Borgbad keep. What was I thinking of?" Gregory asked himself aloud. He was almost to the party now and had to step carefully over the charred, uprooted brush and small trees. A filmy grim
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DRAMATICA:
A NEW THEORY OF STORY
Developed and Written by
Melanie Anne Phillips & Chris Huntley
SPECIAL ON-LINE EDITION.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
In support of the on-line writing community, Screenplay Systems
Incorporated is providing this special on-line edition of the 450 page book,
DRAMATICA: A NEW THEORY OF STORY.
How This Book Is...
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DRAMATICA: A NEW THEORY OF STORY Developed and Written by Melanie Anne Phillips & Chris Huntley SPECIAL ON-LINE EDITION. TABLE OF CONTENTS In support of the on-line writing community, Screenplay Systems Incorporated is providing this special on-line edition of the 450 page book, DRAMATICA: A NEW THEORY OF STORY. How This Book Is Arranged Part of what makes a story great is its underlying dramatic structure and part is the manner in which that structure is related to an audience, often called "storytelling". Therefore, this book is divided into two principal sections: The Elements of Structure and The Art of Storytelling. In The Elements of Structure you will explore the essential components that occur in all complete stories as they appear in Character, Theme, Plot, and Genre. In the Art of Storytelling you will examine the Four Stages of Communication that occur between an author and an audience: Storyforming, Storyencoding, Storyweaving, and Reception. By the time you have fini
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