Month: May 2012

Crises of Confidence

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Summer is coming up, and that means the release for my novel this summer (The Bleeding Crowd) is coming up fast. It also means that right now I have a giant file of edits from my editor sitting in my inbox to go over that I may or may not be avoiding at the moment…

Now, I’m certainly not saying that I am not appreciative for the edits. Even as an editor myself, I am very aware that there are things in my own writing that slip past me that I would catch on the other side of things (the danger of being too close to your own writing). I am in fact very grateful to have someone going over my stories before they’re out there for the whole world to see.

However, that doesn’t make it much easier to open that file and look at your baby all marked up. I’ve talked before about how to best take a critique, and I’ve been through enough to do pretty well on the not taking edits personally front, but that doesn’t always stop another relatively common writer experience, the crisis of confidence.

Now, getting edits/critiques back are a prime time for them to happen, but crises of confidence can come up at any point in the writing process. Perhaps you’re reading your first edit from an editor, perhaps you’re looking over your first draft, perhaps you’re even still in the middle of writing, I think most writers are at least acquainted with that lingering feeling you get as you’re going along and suddenly think, “Man, I’m really not good at this whole writing thing, am I?”

We all go through it, and in the worst cases, it sometimes stops us from writing a story we otherwise were really excited to tell. Afterall, just look at what you wrote. It sucks. Obviously the entire story would suck if you kept writing. What’s the point? Or if you already finished it, look how awful it is in general. Wouldn’t it just be better to forget it somewhere in your room/on your desk/in your computer’s hard drive forever?

Of course there are going to be some stories you give up on/forget about. I have a good share of half-completed story ideas (ranging anywhere from just started to half a book) that I may never get back to. I have at least two earlier novels that I finished but just don’t find it worth the time to actually do anything with them since the seem so bad to me. It’s ok if you run out of steam every once in a while, or just wrote something for the hell of it and now want to forget about it completely. It only becomes a problem if these crises keep you from writing all together.

In many ways, this is the problem NaNoWriMo was created to battle. By forcing a hard deadline (that includes writing nearly 2,000 words a day) participants are forced to “ignore their inner editors” and get the words down on paper, for better or worse. People tend to have their own opinions on the quantity vs. quality debate there, but it’s not a bad solution, in my opinion, when it comes to trying to fight a crisis of confidence. If it’s possible for you to simply ignore that little voice in your head that’s telling you your book sucks and keep writing one way or another, that’s a good thing.

Unfortunately that’s easier said than done sometimes. And so, some tips for getting past the “I’m an awful writer” blues, at all stages of writing:

First things first, you’re your own toughest critic. When you’re having a crisis of confidence, 99 times out of 100, you’re likely going to be harder on yourself than any one else reading your writing. Where you wouldn’t be so hard on someone else you were critiquing (“There’s some telling here, can you try to show?”) you’re probably going to tear into yourself (“what is with all this telling. Your writing is awful. Why do you even try?”) Ignore the urge to give into self-flagellation, and, no matter where you are in the writing/editing process, leave yourself a note and keep working.

While Still Writing (Tips for getting past a crisis of confidence while in the middle of a work-in-progress)

1. First drafts are supposed to suck. Ok, maybe suck is a little harsh, and I’m sure there are some Mozart writers out there (the ones who have stories that come out nearly perfectly first go around) but having problems in your first draft doesn’t mean that you aren’t a good writer. Maybe the dialogue between your two characters sounds awful right now, but that’s all right, it’s a first draft. As long as you have the basic Point A leads to Point B leads to Point C stuff down, it’s fine. No one is going to be judging your writing skills off of an un-edited first draft. You shouldn’t either.

2. You can always edit later. Here’s the “locking up your inner editor” thing you see so often on the NaNoWriMo forums. The important part when in the writing stages of your Work in Progress (WIP) is to actually write. Maybe you aren’t a quantity over quality person, that’s ok. You don’t have to word vomit (write everything that passes through your head in one go just to get it on the page) as some WriMos are famous for, you just have to give yourself permission to not be perfect. Write as quickly or as slowly as you want, just don’t obsess about one sentence that is giving you problems. Get is good enough for a first draft, and then leave yourself a note to come back to it when you’ve moved on to editing. Don’t rush yourself if you’re not that type of writer, but don’t throw your entire story off the rails just because you’re beating yourself up about one line that just sounds wrong.

3. Jump to a different scene. All right, disclaimer, this one doesn’t always work for everyone. Some people (myself included) write best chronologically. If I don’t write A to B to C, I have a hard time getting everything to line up at the end with the missing scenes. If you have a strong outline, however, or are just fine with writing scenes in varying orders, jumping to some place later in the book can be a good way to get you out of our funk. So what if the entire beginning seems to be a boring info dump? Look at how exciting the climax is. You can always fix things up when you’re feeling better about your writing as a whole.

4. Take a short break. Emphasis on the word short. You don’t want to lose your momentum, but don’t force yourself if you’re in the grandmother of all slumps. Stop trying to force the writing, and perhaps do something more productive than staring at a blank page/computer screen. Do a character drawing, try to plot out how the Main Character’s house looks, or read another book that might inspire you. Just don’t let “not today” turn into “not this week” turn into “not this month” turn into “I once tried writing a novel…”

While self-editing (Tips for getting past a crisis of confidence while attempting to edit/rewrite a draft)

1. First drafts are supposed to suck, second drafts can too. Again, you don’t have to aim for perfection straight out of the gate. If you aren’t a Mozart writer, and don’t have divinely inspired words on the page, expect for there to be multiple rounds of edits before you have something you’ll even remotely think of showing to other people. Just because something seems badnow doesn’t mean you won’t make it great once you’ve finished edits.

2. You don’t have to keep all of it. Is it really just that first scene that isn’t working for you? You can always rework it, rewrite it, or cut it all together. Just because it ended up on the page in your rough draft doesn’t mean that it has to stay in the story for all eternity. Speaking as someone who can word vomit during NaNoWriMo, an entire character from 2010’s novel found themselves cut before the book was even shown to someone else. She just wasn’t working, and wasn’t important enough to save, sadly.

3. See if someone else can give you some pointers. If you get the general feeling that your story is awful, but have no idea how to fix it (and you’re brave enough to let someone else take a look) it can be very helpful to have someone give you some suggestions to help fix things (that will likely be less harsh than your inner critics suggestions of “you suck” and “why do you even try”). One caveat, however: Try to find someone who is also a writer, and editor, or at least a very avid reader. Writers and editors will probably be better at telling you the exact points you can focus on perfecting where casual readers (friends/family/etc.) are more likely to give you less helpful comments such as “I liked it” or “It was ok”.

#3 Tip: If you’re shy about sharing a rough draft that’s probably in pretty, well, rough shape, try finding an online critique forum (such as the NaNoWriMo one here) rather than talking to someone in person. It’s sometimes easier to send a story (or even just a scene from a story) off to another faceless writer than to go up to someone you know in person.

After a critique/edit (Tips for getting past a crisis of confidence while reading over someone elses edits to your work)

1. Nobody’s perfect. Even if you’ve edited your story thirty times yourself, there are still going to be problems you’ve missed (see the whole being too close to your work comment above). Expect for a sea of red (or at least a lot of comments) to come back on any story. It doesn’t mean that you aren’t a good writer, it means the editor/critic had different thoughts about some scenes. In fact, if your critic/editor is any good, you’ll actually hope for a lot of comments/suggestions. Creative writing, like any art, is subjective. The comments are just ways you’ll be able to see what people with other writing styles prefer, and you can decide if they help make your writing better or if they’re just something to think about. A good editor will market everything they think so you can decide what you think is best, not because they’re telling you you’re a bad writer.

2. It’s just one more chance to make your writing even better. Until the second your book is on the shelves and you can’t get them back, you constantly have chances to make your writing better. Perhaps you’re still beating yourself up about how awful one scene is, especially now that your critic/editor has agreed how awful it is. But you have the story back, you can make it better. And now you have someone to work with to make it better. I promise, not all is lost.

And, for my final general tip: Cut yourself some slack. Some people might naturally seem to be better authors than others, but that doesn’t mean that you’ll never live up to that. Even the best author out there didn’t pop out into the world as a brilliant writer (they at least would have to learn to write first after all), and even then, they had editors, and publishers, and a whole team of people behind them to make their writing sparkle just that much more. You will grow as an author, you will get better with edits, it isn’t fair to yourself to try to measure your WIP against someone else. Give yourself a break, and just write. Enjoy.

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Mental Health Month

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Today, in honor of Mental Health Month, we’re going to take a little detour. This morning, I woke up to an email in my inbox from my mother which contained a link here, talking about mental health month blog day. As they put it on the site:

“Mental health affects everyone and everything we do. Yet, mental health is a topic many don’t feel comfortable discussing. Join us on May 16, 2012, to spread the importance of good mental health and reduce its stigma.”

And I can understand that. While mental health problems don’t have the stigma they once did, they aren’t something everyone’s willing to talk about. You can even see a hint of the stigma in how my mother introduced the link: “In case you’re interested – with your pseudonym of course!”

You see, I come a family that’s rife with mental health disorders. There are people with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), GAD (General Anxiety Disorder), ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), Bipolar Disorder (Do they have an Acronym for that?) and who knows what else. I, myself, was diagnosed with Bipolar II Disorder in college. And while it isn’t something I generally lead off telling people about me, in honor of the day I have decided to forgo the pseudonym and speak honestly.

It can be difficult living with a mental disorder, I’m not going to say it isn’t. There are some opportunities I regret having missed, and there are old friends I would still like to apologise to who reached the point where they couldn’t deal any more before I had things undercontrol (which, with the help of medication and a very strong support system of my friends and family, I thankfully do).

But, on the flip side, there has also been good that comes out of it. For one, there is something inherently freeing about acknowledging that you have a weakness–and that feeling also makes it easier to understand others’ weaknesses. It is estimated that nearly 30 percent of the adult population in the United States has some sort of mental disorder. Even outside of my family, I can’t say I’ve ever been at a loss for people dealing with issues that are nearly invisible from the outside. For the vast majority of people with a mental disorder, that disorder is something they’re dealing with, not their defining characteristic.

And that leads me to my main pet peeve when it comes to people talking/writing about mental disorders (yes, of course I’ll wrap it back around to writing, this is my blog we’re talking about after all):

“But he seemed so happy”

This exact saying generally comes up after a suicide. Most recently, I saw this one on Facebook after the news of Junior Seau’s death. For those who don’t know, Junior Seau was a football player who used to play for the San Diego Chargers. There is also a restaurant named for him/that used to be run by him in the area. Having grown up in San Diego, I had a lot of San Diegian friends posting about his suicide on Facebook, including one girl with whom I went to high school who had spent time as a waitress at Junior Seau’s restaurant. At the news of his death, she wrote, “[He] always seemed so happy when I talked to him…at his restaurant.”

While I suppose this is a natural reaction in some ways (You only kill yourself if you’re really sad. When you’re really sad you look really sad. He didn’t look really sad, therefore, why did he kill himself?) but it’s based on one major assumption, that depression (or any other disorder which can lead to suicidal thoughts) is the only defining trait for someone suffering from it.

It is possible to be depressed and still seem happy. It’s even possible to be depressed andfeelhappy some of the time. Too often, disorders become labels that people use to try to explain the entirety of a person. And they aren’t. They’re certainly a part of the person, but someone isn’t their disorder.

The same is even more true for characters in novels. I am certainly not against authors writing about characters that are suffering from disorders/illnesses the author doesn’t have. Saying that someone can only write about a character that is bipolar if they are bipolar is like saying that someone can only write about a character being from New York if they live in New York. There are just two important things I ask writers to keep in mind, though:

1. Do your research. You can set a story in New York, even if you’ve never been there, but you’re most likely going to want to read up about the city a little, look at some maps, look at some pictures…you know, do some research before you start writing. If you don’t, everyone who reads your book who has been to New York is just going to be rolling their eyes as they read something that shows the author had no idea what they were talking about. The same is even more true when it comes to mental disorders–perhaps because they have been so stigmatised for so long. There are some stock images people tend to get when they think of someone as “mentally unstable” (generally involving straight jackets and padded rooms, at least in my experience) and then, with how “trendy” certain diagnoses are getting to be (“Yeah, she’s all over the place, I think she’s bipolar” “Oh, I don’t get along with people well, I think I have Aspergers”) there are plenty of preconceived notions that are just plainly wrong, if not insulting. Read up to make sure you aren’t just using things you vaguely remember as facts for your novel, or you’ll end up with someone walking to the Statue of Liberty from Midtown Manhattan (you know, instead of taking the ferry, it’s on its own island…)

2. Make your character more than the disorder. I’ve touched on this briefly before, but it’s really the truth. One of the worst things you can do is give your character a disorder and act like that is all of the personality they need (“Oh, that’s Joe, he’s bipolar, so he’s, like, crazy all over the place. And that’s Jane, she’s depressed so she never smiles. Awesome aren’t they?”) A disorder can definitely be a part of a character, it can even be what a story is about, but it isn’t a way to get out of actually developing who your character is. I really can’t stress this enough. After all, just because your character “seems so happy” doesn’t mean they can’t be battling depression.

 

(If you’re interested in writing your own blog for Mental Health Month today, check in with the people over here http://www.yourmindyourbody.org/mental-health-month-blog-day/ for more details, or use #mhblogday to stay in the loop on Twitter)

Method Writing

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It’s been a stressful few days here in DC, between putting in an offer on a house, planning a move, and a bad, bad stomach flu, it’s been interesting. With what little time I’ve had for my own writing, though, it has led me to discover a phenomenon that I’m sure I’m not the only one to experience: As soon as I’m not feeling well, at least one of my characters doesn’t feel well.

There have been a few earlier times I have experienced this, earlier this year I had a bad fall that left me with a banged-up knee. While that injury was a little more conducive to writing (stuck in bed and mentally wide awake) than a stomach flu, suddenly I couldn’t quite bring myself to make my characters kneel. Perhaps it wasn’t going to be painful to the characters, with their young, non-banged-up knees, but I still couldn’t bring myself to think of it while I personally couldn’t kneel.

Honestly, it seems completely understandable when it comes to how I write. I physically imagine myself doing what they are to think about how the scene is set up. Is one character going to swing their arm? Then I’m imagining swinging my arm for the motion (if not actually swinging my arm around…) and thus them kneeling made me think of me kneeling. And me not feeling like doing much moving at all while sick, made them not feel like doing much.

And so, perhaps there is another name for it, but I have thus dubbed this writing style Method Writing. Even if you aren’t a theatre/movie person, I’m betting that most readers out there have heard of Method Acting. For those who haven’t, Method Acting is a style of acting in which the actor attempts to become their character (or have their character become them) by truly feeling/experiencing what the character does in the hopes of showing more authentic reactions, rather than attempting to play someone else. When there are stories of actors remaining “in character” throughout a film shoot (acting as the character they’re playing would even while off stage) or living in a cave for months in preparation for character who does likewise, they’re generally method acting. (Cracked.com actually has some great examples of over-the-top Method Acting here.)

While doing that for writing might be a little more difficult than for acting (an actor’s playing one person, an author’s writing (probably) at least dozens) Method Writing has the same sort of idea behind it, we, the author, experience what our characters are feeling to make their reactions more realistic.

But is it a good way to write? I believe the answer simply is, if it works for you. Personally, I’d find it really hard to write without trying to feel how my characters are feeling (why I have been known to sit crying at the keyboard on occasion while writing an upsetting scene or make really angry faces during a fight…I’ve been told I’m interesting to watch…) but writing is very personal, what works for one writer doesn’t work for another.

So, if you’re still developing your writing style, or are looking for some other writing strategies and are interested in trying something like Method Writing here are some of the pros and cons.

Pro: It’s easy to understand how your character feels. Perhaps the main reason why you would consider “Method Writing” By making yourself feel what the character does (or having the character feel how you are feeling) it becomes simple trying to work out their reaction to a certain situation obstacle. When you can physically feel how your character does (heartbroken, elated, enraged) it’s easier to decide what they’re going to do next.

Con: It’s easy to get over-invested. If you didn’t pop over to the Cracked.com article up above, there are some pretty crazy examples of Method Acting over there, notably:

“In the film [Oldboy], Choi’s character uses a piece of hot wire to count off the years he has spent in prison on his own body. Not content with the fact that this could be done with makeup and special effects, Choi actually performed the act on himself multiple times, on camera. That’s right, that’s his actual flesh being burnt in the movie.”

While I’ve never quite gotten to the point of self-mutilation to understand a character, I can tell you that it’s relatively simple to get yourself in the same sort of [emotional] situation when Method Writing. You’re so invested in a scene you’re writing, that you physically feel as though you’ve been in a fight, or you end up feeling depressed for hours after because you made yourself truly experience how a character’s death affects everyone else in the story. If you aren’t willing to put yourself through that (or know you’re going to be especially awful to your characters) perhaps reconsider.

Pro: There are some simple ways to get in the right frame of mind. In the vein of sick me = sick characters, Method Writing also allows for some pretty easy ways to get in the right mindset for a scene. Are your characters somewhere that’s really hot? Go sit in a hot car for a little bit while writing. It’s pretty simple to get your characters feeling hot that way. Is your character really hungry? Wait to write the scene until you’re really ready for lunch. I wouldn’t suggest going to extremes (getting to the point of heat stroke or not eating for days to get the exact feeling down) but the little things make it easier to understand the character and, in my experience, easier to write the scenes.

Con: It can be limiting. While sitting in a hot car might easily get me in the right frame of mind for a desert scene, a hot summer can also make it really difficult to write a story taking place during the winter. I have actually set stories aside waiting for the proper season to hurry up and get here before. Walking home when it’s 90-degrees out may give me a lot of inspiration for a summer story, but it makes it difficult to write about characters being caught in a blizzard…

Pro: It makes you want to finish the story. One big problem a lot of authors find when trying to write a novel is stopping before actually getting to the end. It’s understandable. Most novels tend to be around 80,000-120,000 words. Just in the typing/writing alone, that’s a lot of time. And far too often planning a novel is more fun than actually sitting down and writing one (there’s a reason you get a lot of people talking about novel ideas they have and they never actually even start writing…) Halfway into one story, you suddenly have a brilliant idea for an even better story, stop what you’re doing, and then start the next. Then halfway in to that brilliant idea, the same thing happens (or even you just get bored with it). When you feel emotionally connected to your characters, you actually want to get them to the end of the story. Sometimes it’s the added little push you need when hitting a mid-story slump.

Con: It can  make you care a little too much. While you should always care about your characters, putting too much of yourself into a character can be limiting–and can be the start of a Mary Sue problem. Suddenly, you care so much about your Main Character, you can’t take any criticism without feeling personally attacked and the entire fabric of your story starts morphing around that “you” character–not a good thing.

I’m sure there are many other pros and cons people who are likewise Method Writers (knowingly or unknowingly) have experienced, but those are the biggest for me personally. I’d love to hear any other thoughts on Method Writing or other writing styles if you have them (feel free to comment, contact me on Twitter [@JessicaDall] or email me at jesskdall(a)gmail.com). And so, blog readers, are you Method Writers?

Floating Dialogue

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In a previous blog post, I discussed why writers shouldn’t be afraid of using the word “said” too much when writing dialogue. While I did talk about being able to tag dialogue with actions rather than “said” and its replacements (whispered/exclaimed/etc.) I didn’t mention another possible route that will also save dialogue from repetitive tags. Not using a tag at all.

Now, it’s absolutely fine–if not sometimes preferable–to not have tags after dialogue,  especially in a quick exchange. The more words there are to read, the slower action will seem to be passing. So, if Bill and Sam are having an argument, it might be preferable to have an exchange along the lines of:

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Bill said.
“You’re an idiot.” Sam crossed his arms.
“Who’s the one who tried sailing a bottle to China?”
“I was five, let it go.”

And so on and so forth. Without the tags, more focus is placed on the dialogue, and it, as a whole, reads more quickly. So, all in all, a good thing.

Why I don’t suggest not using tags as a suggestion in my previous “said” article, however, is it’s very, very easy to abuse it. While it’s fine to have some untagged dialogue, what you definitely want to avoid is floating dialogue. That is, untagged dialogue that leaves the reader wondering who the heck is talking.

As I have said before, writers tend to have a bias when it comes to dialogue vs. narrative. Some find dialogue difficult to write, some hate narrative, it really just comes down to what each writer’s strengths are. For those who tend towards dialogue, floating dialogue is a common problem I see with new writers.

Now, I can only speak from personal experience, but the reason I tend to write so much dialogue is that, where narrative can seem wordy and forced, the call and response nature of dialogue keeps it coming so quickly that sometimes I have troubles keeping up with where I want the conversation to go. Since I hear the characters talking in my head, it’s easy enough to just write what they’re saying and forget about writing what they’re doing in my head. It’s their words that are important after all, right?

Well, sort of. While, in those situations, you are probably doing the bulk of your story telling in the dialogue, the readers sadly isn’t seeing what you’re seeing your characters doing while reading. And so, while you are writing a powerful, emotional scene between your main characters, filled with brilliant, brilliant dialogue, your reader is being left with something akin to the written version of hearing a movie in the next room without being able to see who’s talking or what they’re doing.

While it’s a fine balance–you never want to talk down to your readers/hit them over the head with something they probably already understand–you don’t want to make it too difficult for them understand what’s happening. If you’re spending every other page flipping around trying to understand who’s talking, you’re more than likely not going to get invested in the story. When you aren’t invested in the story and it’s taking a lot of effort just to understand the basics, it’s pretty likely you aren’t going to enjoy the book/will be putting it down not too far in.

And so, if you are planning on using untagged dialogue, watch out for floating dialogue by:

1. Only use untagged dialogue when there are two people in the conversation. When it comes to floating dialogue, this is probably the biggest problem I’ve found in my editing work. While it’s fine to switch off between two people in an argument without tags, you can’t do that where there are multiple people sitting around. For example:

“Hi,” Sam said.
“Hey,” Bill said.
“How are you?” Karen asked.
“I’m fine.”
“Awesome. Do you want to go to the park?”
“I don’t know, it looks like rain.”
“No, I saw the weather report. Just cloudy.”

Ok, hands up. Who can tell who’s saying what at the end of the conversation? Since Karen asks Sam a question (How are you?) the “I’m fine” is probably Sam again, but then, is it Karen saying “Awesome”? Or is it Bill? And who says it looks like rain? Bill? Sam? Karen? Depending on who said “Awesome” it could be any of them.

In contrast with just two people:

“Hi,” Sam said.
“Hey,” Bill said. “How are you?”
“I’m fine.”
“Awesome. Do you want to go to the park?”
“I don’t know, it looks like rain.”
“No, I saw the weather report. Just cloudy.”

Perhaps still a little float-y, but at least you can more than likely tell it’s Sam-Bill-Sam-Bill-Sam-Bill.

2. Don’t use untagged dialogue when the characters are doing something. As stated in my “don’t be afraid of ‘said'” article, you can get around using ‘said’ over and over again by making the tags action. For example:

“How are you?” Bill shuffled his papers away.
Sam took a seat across the desk from him. “I’m fine.”

In this case, the dialogue tags are not only telling the reader who’s speaking, but acting as stage directions in a way. Going back to the movie example, with no tags and multiple people, you’re in the other room listening to a bunch of talk from who knows how many people. With no tags and two people, you at least can tell who’s speaking, but that’s all you have, a bunch of lines with no action. If all your characters are doing is standing around having a conversation, you don’t need any tags. If they’re moving around, though, you need to show it–and while it’s happening. Putting on an action tag not only shows the reader what’s happening (what the “actor” is doing on-screen) but it also keep the reader up to date. One thing I perhaps find the most annoying of all floating dialogue problems is something along these lines:

“How are you?” Bill asked.
“Fine,” Sam said.
“That’s cool, have you seen my new pet?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“Well, here it is!”
While they had been talking, Bill had walked around the corner and pulled out a giant dog that then attacked Sam.

a) Action slows down when the actual exciting part is buried under a mountain of “this is what you missed”

b) For the past five lines I’ve been picturing Bill and Sam standing there talking, now I have to reattach it to the incorrect visual I have in my head, which means I have to backtrack in my mind slightly rather than staying with the action.

Both of these problems can be solved by simply tagging the lines with action:

“How are you?” Bill asked.
“Fine,” Sam said.
“That’s cool.” Bill slowly moved towards one corner of the room. “Have you seen my new pet?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“Well, here it is!”
Bill pulled out…

3. Don’t put tags in after a new person has already entered the conversation. In the same vein of not making the reader play catch up to the action, if a third person enters into a two person untagged conversation, make sure the reader knows it immediately.

“Hey,” Bill said.
“Hey, how are you?” Sam asked.
“Not bad.”
“Awesome, do you want to go to the park?”
“I don’t know. It looks like rain.”
“Oh, hey Karen, how are you?”

Wait, what? When did Karen get there? Was she actually speaking when I thought it was Bill? When possible–if you don’t have a legitimate reason for keeping the reader off balance–try not to make the reader confused enough to stop and reread previous lines.

4. Even in a two person conversation, don’t only use tags at the very beginning of the conversation. Ok, so there are two people standing there talking to each other. Nothing else it happening, it’s just going to be a quick back and forth. Sounds like the perfect place not to use tags. You mark the first speaker as Bill, the second as Sam, and then go at it. If it’s a very short conversation, that’s absolutely fine. If it’s going to go for pages back and forth, still make sure you throw some more tags in their down the line, even if it’s just to make sure someone doesn’t miss a line somewhere and get really confused when it seems like Sam’s saying what Bill would. A good rule of thumb is to have names attached to dialogue atleast three times a page, just to make it clear which speaker is which. Of course, that’s just a vague outline. If it seems likely the reader is still going to get confused even with three tags, make sure you put more in. If you think it’s crystal clear, you might be able to go for longer between tags (though checking in with a beta reader/editor who can tell you if they’re lost will help you know whether or not it really is that apparent later on).

5. Remember the reader isn’t inside your head. And, as always, this is the big one. While it might be obvious in your head that Bill is saying something and then Sam is, you just can’t expect the reader to know that. While it’s so obvious to you that Bill’s moving across the room while speaking, until you’ve written it down, the reader just can’t know that. Don’t over explain things (if it isn’t important that the main character just got their hair done and put on some new sneakers they bought last week, you don’t need to say it. If you already said they don’t like peas, you don’t have to repeat it) but make sure you have all of the necessary information to keep them from being confused a couple of paragraphs down. Are multiple people speaking without any way for someone outside of your head to know who you mean says what? Then use tags. Is the character moving around while talking? Then use action tags. Are there just two people standing there having an important conversation? Then you’re probably ok if you don’t want to use tags for a little while.

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