Conversations with Myself

Lately, I've really been thinking a lot about characters.  In my opinion, they're more important than even a good plot (though a good plot is very important).  As I've said before, characters are what make readers keep reading.  If the reader has an emotional attachment/investment towards the characters, it's going to compel the reader to want to find out what happens to those characters.  Good characters drive the story even more than a good plot, in my opinion.

So for the next few Wednesdays, I'm going to try to talk about different aspects of characterization.  I don't know if I'd consider myself an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but since I've written three books and portions of other books, I have had a little experience in what works and doesn't work.  Today, I'm going to write about dialogue.

I want to say right off that dialogue is not my strong point.  I'm not the most articulate person; I write far better than I speak.  But most novels include dialogue, and I'm not creative enough to believably find a way around it.  So my novels have all included dialogue, as well.

Dialogue is important for many reasons.  It shows the inner workings of characters' minds, as well as relationships between characters.  But it's interesting to think of what dialogue really is.  The writer, who in my case is just one person, has to create a conversation involving more than one person.  I've got to pretend I know what each person in the conversation is going to say and how they're going to say it.  I'm often bewildered because I have no idea how people talk to each other, and I'm not sure if the conversation I'm essentially having with myself is even believable.

Sometimes, I go to edit some of my dialogue, and I realize it's not anything like what people would say in real life.  For instance, I'm pretty sure that in real life people don't sigh every other sentence, nor do they call each other by name after every other word.  And I think I've exhausted my mental thesaurus for phrases that could be used instead of "he said-she said." 

Other times, however, there is a sort of magic that happens.  The characters' conversations just flow from my brain onto the computer screen (or paper, if I'm going old skool--which doesn't happen often because my writing wrist is a pansy).  Sometimes I'm caught off guard by things the characters say, how they say them, or what they do while they're saying things.  These are the dialogues I don't have to edit much.  These are the dialogues where it seems as though there really are two people talking, and not just me writing down what I think these people should say. 

When dialogue like this happens, I know my characters have ceased to be ideas and have taken on lives of their own in my story.  I'm no longer having conversations with myself, but observing something outside of myself, yet guided by my pen (or more likely, my keyboard).

I'm not really in control of when these magical times happen, but I do have a few things I've learned to help me write better dialogue:

1. Observation.  Maybe this seems stalkerish, but a good way to figure out how people talk is to listen to people talk.  If I'm writing a YA book, it might be a good idea to listen to how teenagers are talking.  If I'm writing a science fiction series, it might be a good idea to listen to how nerds are talking.  If I'm writing a fantasy, it might be a good idea to listen to how Dragons are talking (lucky I've got five of those in my room).  Another part of this observation (that is slightly less creepy) involves reading other books.  It's easier to write good dialogue if I'm reading good dialogue.  The danger in this is that sometimes it's easy to steal lines from books and/or movies without realizing it.  Again...that's what editing is for.

2. Practice.  This means I ACTUALLY have to talk to ACTUAL people...and essentially observe myself.  How do I talk?  How do others talk to me?  It's important to think about these things while writing dialogue.  And I've found that the more I write dialogue, the easier it gets. 

3. Edit.  I think I've already mentioned this, but it's so important.  Sometimes even good dialogue contains repetition (a person can only run their fingers through their hair so many times before the reader starts wondering if the character has lice), poor phrasing, unrealistic or uncharacteristic word/sentence choices, etc.  I reread my dialogue more than my prose (though rereading both is important).  Sometimes I have a friend read over it to make sure I haven't missed anything.  I want to make sure I'm representing my character's words as clearly as possible so my readers can see them for who they are.

I'm sure I still have much to learn about dialogue and good characterization, but these are some things I've been thinking about lately.

Good Characterization is...Well, Good.

I finally got out from the rock I've been living under for the past week and saw Harry Potter 7 (Part 1). Of course I've read the books, and I've also seen from what others have posted online that certain characters died. I knew I was going to cry. I did cry, but the death scenes did not affect me as greatly as another scene.

I knew this scene was going to be important. I was looking forward to it. If you haven't read the book, stop reading this now. If you have read the book or have already seen the movie or both, keep reading. There are a few minor spoilers. If you haven't seen the movie but have already read the book, then no worries. I won't give anything away you don't already know just from reading...at least nothing important. :-P

One of the climactic scenes in the book/movie was when Harry followed the doe patronus out into the forest and found Godric Gryffindor's sword in the pond. He was an idiot and went into the water with the horcrux locket around his neck; the locket proceeded to try to kill him. Ron, who had previously deserted Harry and Hermione, was there to rescue Harry and use Gryffindor's sword to stab the You-Know-Who out of that horcrux.

But before Ron's triumphant moment, he had to face some demons. It was one of Ron's finest moments. I loved this scene in the book, but seeing it on screen was just amazing. It took it to a whole other level for me, emotionally. I connected to Ron in a way I never have before.

When Harry opened the locket, the voice of the horcrux tortured Ron. Ron who had always felt like he was competing with his brothers, who always felt unwanted compared to his sister, who always felt like he was in Harry's shadow, was being tortured by all his insecurities. And the part that really really got me was when the fake Hermione looked down at Ron and said, "You're nothing. Nothing."

I started crying there in the theater. I got it. I got who Ron really was, and how important it was for Ron to defeat that horcrux. He had to prove to it and to himself that he was NOT nothing. Even in the midst of a totally inappropriate scene (why did fake Hermione and fake Harry have to be naked while they were kissing??--sorry if I gave something away there, but I think it's better you know beforehand), I was weeping.

And then Ron stabbed that horcrux, and I wanted to stand up and cheer. I didn't, because I was already feeling awkward for crying over a scene that probably wouldn't make most people cry. Then Ron said something funny to lighten the mood, and my tears melted into laughter.

But wow. I just have to hand it to J. K. Rowling that she's a fantastic writer. She handles plot so well, but she's even better at characterization. I just reread that scene from the book, and the movie was almost word-for-word what was Rowling had written. It was just so powerful to actually see her words portrayed. I'm pretty sure I was affected so deeply by Ron's defining moment because I'm a writer.

In a way, Ron really reminds me of one of the characters I wrote for my first series. He's an underdog. Things don't go right for him. He is always facing insecurities. This particular character is more like myself than any other character I've written. Because I'm insecure. There are times when I feel unloved. To actually write that into a character and make him/her believable is an incredible experience.

I don't know if I'm as good at it as Rowling. Probably not.

One thing I'm fairly sure about is that J.K. Rowling probably knows how it feels to be Ron. That's how she was able to write him so well. And I'm glad he got to stab that horcrux. I'm glad he got to prove to himself that he was NOT nothing. It's those incredible moments that us writers live for--the moment when our characters become something more than what they were.

And as always, good writing spawns good writing. Creativity spawns creativity.

I'm back in the game.

...oh, and Weasley is our king!