Writing Exercise Inspired by Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Sympathizer

I am...

Last year's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Sympathizer, begins with the following paragraph: 

I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces. Perhaps not surprisingly, I am a man of two minds. I am not some misunderstood mutant from a comic book or a horror movie, although some may have treated me as such. I am simply able to see any issue from both sides. Sometimes I flatter myself that this is a talent, and although it is admittedly one of a minor nature, it is perhaps also the sole talent I possess. At other times, when I reflect on how I cannot help but observe the world in such a fashion, I wonder if what I have should even be called talent. After all, a talent is something you use, not something that uses you. The talent you cannot not use, the talent that possesses you--that is a hazard, I must confess. But in the month when this confession begins, my way of seeing the world still seemed more of a virtue than a danger, which is how some dangers first appear. 

I love it when a novel begins with a confession about a personal trait in a way that we are forced to re-examine the virtue of the trait and question the narrator from the get-go (think Nick in The Great Gatsby). Today, I think I'm going to write one of these paragraphs for my mc in my WIP. It won't be the first paragraph, and I doubt it'll make it into the novel, but I'm excited to learn what secrets my mc will or will not reveal to me...

Feel free to join me and do the same on this lovely fall Monday. :)

Building On That Writing

My  youngest has a state writing test coming up, so we been swamped with lots of writing material lately.  Most of the material deals with ways to expand sentences by adding details.  Over the past few months, we've done several writing exercises and have even made up our own silly games. One of our favorite games is to take a simple sentence and pile on the details.

For example, here's my favorite one he wrote.

It's not -

The man cooked.

But -

The big, sweaty, hairy man leaned over his pot of chili and stirred the beans as sweat dripped down his chin and into the pot.

Yuck!

He's pretty proud of that one and I guess I am too.  Sadly, now everything is big, sweaty, and hairy. 

Here's another similar one - the WHO, WHAT, and WHY game.

Example:

WHO:   Collin picked strawberries.
WHAT: Collin picked a bucket full of strawberries.
WHY:   Collin picked a bucket full of strawberries to share with his friends.

Hopefully all this writing will make my little one a stronger one and me too.  When I am editing I tend to go back and add more detail, but I like the idea of playing the WHO, WHAT, WHY game.  This last game might help me clarify my writing to my readers.  I often know what I am talking, so sometimes I forget the readers may get confused if I leave out too much detail.

Another thing I like to do is thing about the five senses and add those into my story.  See, piling on more detail.

 So what secrets do you have to building onto your writing?  As a writer and a mom, I'd love to hear some more fun ideas.

Well, time to get back to building.  Happy Writing.

How to Write Dialogue Tags With Action

I stole the idea for this post from the fabulous Janet Eoff Berend who wrote the great YA novel Vertical (a staple for my classroom of reluctant readers). While we all probably know that it's generally best to use the simple "____ said, or ____asked" because it's less distracting than a whole bunch of "mumbled" "guffawed" "whispered" "shouted" etc. tags, we often want to include action right after speaking. 

Janet found herself using the same actions too frequently so she started writing down actions associated with dialogue as she watched people in real life or in her reading so she could break herself away from old patterns. I started jotting things down as well and found it insanely useful. Here are some of my findings. Feel free to add ones you discover in the comments section. :)

• scanning the titles of books in the bookcase.
• shook his head
• sat back in the soft leather chair.
• unwrapped a stick of Juicy Fruit gum
• motion to the radio
• bite my lip
• give him a small smile
• waved my unasked question away with his hand
• he fumbled about for silverware
• he coughed again and took a deep breath
• he gazed at me intently, his eyes narrowing
• his voice had a strange almost wistful quality to it
• put my hand on his shoulder
• closes her computer
• gets herself a generic soda that is clear and citrus-y
• took a single step and was swallowed up by the crowd
• he did not turn
• glancing down at his program
• leaned forward toward him, smelling his familiar smells
• extending her hand to him formally
• reaching for a plate of cake
• a tear edged itself out of her eye
• I replace the chair beneath the desk



Janet Eoff Berend

• Plus a TON of the usual "he sighed," "she smiled," etc. etc. 

*Note: None of these involve the character doing something else with his/her mouth while talking (okay to do after character finishes speaking) as that is quite difficult to do in real life. :)

Personally, I've loved flipping through my favorite authors' books & discovering the way they use dialogue tags for effect and seeing the ones they tend to rely on. Thanks again to Janet Eoff Berend for the tip and if you haven't checked out Vertical yet, I HIGHLY recommend it (especially if you're looking for a book for reluctant boy readers that involves cool San Diego skate park kids) :)

Things I Learned in Improv Class, Volume 4: Getting Into Character

What's improv comedy and why the heck am I writing about it? Check out the intro of Volume 1 and Volume 2.

TODAY'S LESSON: Getting into character

Before an improviser steps on stage, they make a decision about what character they will play. This can manifest itself in something obvious like an accent, or something more subtle, such as a shift in the way they walk, a tiny tick in their right hand, or a slight change in their breathing. 

The simple choices the actor makes about their character will dictate how the scene moves forward, and how their character will react to their partner's character.

Learning how to create a character: The walking game

Everybody leads with a different part of their body when they walk.  Don't believe me?  Sit on a park bench for a while and watch people walk by. You'll notice that very few people walk perfectly erect - they typically lead with one part of their body, and it varies from person to person.

Shifting the leading part of your body is a very simple way to make a physical transformation into a new character. 

That's me, getting into character during a rehearsal.

To practice, start by walking around the room. Once you're comfortable, shift your weight so that you are leading with your head.  You can do this either with a slight shift forward or an extreme shift forward, depending on how extreme you want your character to be.

Walk around like this for a while. How does it feel? 

Ask yourself the following questions:

1. What kind of person might walk like this?
2. Are they male or female?
3. What might their name be?
4. What kind of day do you think they are having?
5. How old are they?
6. Are they married? Single? Are they happy about this fact?
7. What do they do for a living?

Now try shifting your weight so that you are leading with your knees. How does walking like this feel different from leading with your head? Ask yourself the same questions as above. My guess is you will come up with very different answers.

Keep shifting your weight to different parts of your body - you nose, your chest, your shoulders, your toes, your hips.  Alter the extremity. Can you see how a slight change in the way you walk can create an entirely new character?

so what's this got to do with writing?

Whether it's a character on stage or a character in a book, they are made up of more than the words they say. How they feel and what they think affects everything they do, and using physicality is a simple way to demonstrate emotion and other character traits.  It's also an easy trick to help you avoid 'show versus tell' pitfalls.

How might a brave person walk? A shy person? An angry person? 

Instead of the dialogue tag 'he said angrily', how might you demonstrate that anger through the character's physicality? Through their actions?

Leverage more than words to create your characters - think about their movements, and use those actions to create rich characters that can live outside of the pages of your story.

Happy writing!