As far as writing tactics go, my advice could be anything but it’s certainly not from a professional. I’m just a guy. Dabbling. But that said, I’ve been writing a lot lately and reading a lot lately and thinking about writing a lot lately, and those things add up to some inquisitive experimentation in the realm of writing tactics, so here goes.
I’m sorry to report that, as it turns out, my writing is quite functional.
That is, I’ve been rereading my manuscript from about three years back, the one that’s been sitting (a) in a file on my desktop and (b) in a stack of printed papers on my bookshelf.
“You should be editing that sucker.” I hear you say, and you’re not wrong.
I should be.
In fact, I’ve plunked it right into my novel software and have been, for the first time in three years, looking it over, re-reading it, pondering the story, and…
It’s functional.
There’s a good story there. All the beats. Reasonable characters. Interesting ideas. A whole wrapped up neatly with a bow and everything plot.
But the writing is functional.
And I can’t blame myself because I wrote it during NaNoWriMo 2020 and (a) there was a pandemic on and (b) I wrote fifty thousand words and a full novel in (less than) thirty days, so you know, you get what you pay for, right?
Functional.
But as I said, I’ve been thinking about writing tactics and thinking about writing tactics lends to thinking about editing tactics and then actually applying some of those editing tactics and, voila!
I have been editing and I’ve found the path that leads me to clear away some of the raw functionality of my writing: I call it the blabbermouths.
See, writing a story is tough. You need to think about a lot of stuff. And unless you are an experienced writer thinking about more than one or two of those lots of things is a tricky balancing act. My writing comes across as so-called functional because the thing I neglected to do well — I mean, I did it, but just not well — was write compelling dialog.
The characters have conversations.
The characters express their concerns.
The characters chat and talk and explain and do all the things that characters do, but they do it in a way that is (and I’m going to write this word at least a few more times) functional.
“Would you like a cup of coffee?” She asked.
He nodded. “Alright. Just black, please.”
It gets the point across and maybe even is all that really needs to be said, stripped down, bare, raw, and good enough.
But it’s functional. And a whole novel (yeah, really) of functional conversation is… well, functional and bland and a whole list of other adjectives that I’ll leave you to your own to look up.
A blabbermouth tactic would be to rewrite that with a focus on just the dialog, revisiting the text of the novel, leaving the plot as is for now, and making every conversation bubble over with everything and anything, at least for the next draft.
“I was going to ask you if you wanted a cup of coffee. I’ve got some ready. I mean, there’s still some left from when I made it an hour ago and I think it’s still hot enough to drink. Nothing special, of course, so if you want some , I can…” She glanced towards the kitchen. “I buy the cheap stuff. In the big red can. Everyone thinks they like expensive coffee but when you go out to a restaurant or even a Starbucks the coffee they’re serving isn’t anything special, you know. They wouldn’t make any money serving you expensive coffee and for all it matters most people can’t taste the difference anyhow. But like I said, I’ve got some if you want it. It’s no bother. Really. Do you want a cup?” She asked.
“I don’t mind the cheap stuff. If you looked at my cupboards you’d be surprised how much shitty food and off-brand ingredients I eat.” He shrugged. “Half the time I just reheat a cup from yesterday’s pot anyhow, so whatever you’ve got left, providing it’s a bit warm still, I’ll take some. Black, please.”
The plot doesn’t change, but the text and the story and the dialog all become just a bit less… functional. Every bit of text gets a blabbermouth makeover, letting every character spill every thought they have in their head without filter or pause. Another round of editing will be needed to smooth it over and even it out and even shuffle some of the bits into a different kind of flow, like:
“I was going to ask you if you wanted a cup of coffee. I’ve got some ready. I mean, there’s still some left from when I made it an hour ago and I think it’s still hot enough to drink. Nothing special, of course, so if you want some , I can…” She glanced towards the kitchen.
“I don’t mind the cheap stuff. If you looked at my cupboards you’d be surprised how much shitty food and off-brand ingredients I eat.” He shrugged.
“I buy the cheap stuff. In the big red can. Everyone thinks they like expensive coffee but when you go out to a restaurant or even a Starbucks the coffee they’re serving isn’t anything special, you know. They wouldn’t make any money serving you expensive coffee and for all it matters most people can’t taste the difference anyhow. But like I said, I’ve got some if you want it.
“Half the time I just reheat a cup from yesterday’s pot anyhow, so whatever you’ve got left —
It’s no bother. Really. Do you want a cup?” She asked.
“Providing it’s a bit warm still, I’ll take some. Black, please.”
And, there you go. A bit less functional.
I’ve got some work to do now, digging back into those fifty thousand words and probably adding another fifty thousand in blabbermouth dialog. It sounds excessive, and it is… deliberately so, but it’s easier to cull and cut than it is to smooth over huge (yeah) functional gaps in the flow of the writing. So, I’m gonna go in there a fill in every crack in the dialog as best I can, and on the other side… well, we’ll sort that part out in a couple months.
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