The Approach

By
This week’s Human Observation Project is focusing on how the same thing, depending on how it’s presented, can warrant a different response. 

Have you ever been in a situation where someone comes up to you and starts off by saying, “You did this...”  Whoa, instantly you get defensive.  After all, they are essentially accusing you by the way they approached you, aren’t they?  Now, what if that same person had come up to you and said, “I’m not sure exactly what happened here, but I think…”  It’s a peaceful approach.  You would no doubt listen to more of what they had to say without the inclination to fight with them.  They’re not wanting to point blame; they’re simply bringing something to your attention.

How can we put “The Approach” to use in our writing?
By harnessing the power of dialogue, we can inflict emotion, and assign motive to our characters without the need to add a “tell” phrase.

For example:

“You’re the one who brought the subject up.”

Do you need to add a tag to this dialog, saying something like “she said, defensively”, or “she crossed her arms, closed to anymore discussion”?  Absolutely not, because it’s implied by the word choice that there’s conflict.  You don’t even need context to pick up on that.

What if in the same scene, the character said this instead:

“Why do we have always have to talk about this?  By the way, how’s your mother these days?”

Based on this we can tell the matter is a sensitive one to our character.  They want the subject changed, but unlike the first example, there’s no indication our character is angered by the conversation, they would just rather talk about anything else.  The subject matter strikes them emotionally on some level.

These are just two basic examples of how “The Approach” can be utilized in our writing.  What about you?  How have you used this aspect in your writing?  Or what is another example you can think of?

Comments

  1. Laura JosephsenApril 19, 2011 at 1:25 PM

    This is something I've been trying to work on in my novels--paying close attention to how much "action" versus "telling" I'm doing. Some things really do speak for themselves!

    ReplyDelete
  2. LorrieApril 19, 2011 at 2:47 PM

    Carolyn-I just put your blog in my RSS feed. I love it. Your blogging ideas are great and very helpful. I am working on my first children's book. I don't have a blog yet, but hopefully by the end of the year...I am just trying to work up some courage :+)
    Lorrie

    ReplyDelete
  3. Carolyn ArnoldApril 19, 2011 at 5:42 PM

    Welcome to my blog, Laura :) And thank you for commenting. It really can be a challenge to show, not tell, but can be accomplished in small ways. I think a lot of us have to watch this :)

    Lorrie, your kind words really made my day. Thank you. And as far as blogging, you may find as I have, the terrific support that comes from other writers, and you'll grow and be inspired, in ways you didn't know possible.

    ReplyDelete
  4. StephscoApril 20, 2011 at 12:14 AM

    I just found you, too via a blog trail from Query Shark. Hi!

    I'm also working on this type of editing, I view it as the mechanics of writing, which take time to fine tune. I try not to be too hard on myself, and not get too attached to any lines since sometimes they need to be deconstructed entirely in order to work.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Carolyn ArnoldApril 20, 2011 at 7:57 AM

    That's awesome Stephsco - welcome to my blog :)

    Oh, speaking of not getting attached to any lines...do you find sometimes the ones you love the most a beta reader will be "what are you trying to say here"? That's happened to me before. sigh.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for taking the time to make a comment.

Popular posts from this blog

When Family Doesn't Support Your Writing

By
If you can empathize with the title of this post, then you're not alone.  So many writers, myself included, can honestly say they have family members who don't support their writing.  Some may go so far as to tell you they don't even want to hear about what you're working on, what you've done, what your goals are.  That hurts. But think about it this way, in some ways is writing any different that an other life decisions your family may not agree with?  I'm sure, if you're like me, you get very defensive when it comes to your writing.  In fact, I'm not going to deny that it places an iron wedge in the relationships.  After all, if your focus in life is your writing, and they ask so what have you been up to ...what are you supposed to do lie, remain quiet, answer another way even though you're so excited about your current WIP you'd tell a stranger?  Ticking clocks are heard in the background while you decide.
Read more

A Big Decision...

By
Image
For those of you who know me, and follow me on Twitter, you may be aware that I’ve been debating whether to pursue publishing traditionally, or take the plunge and self-publish.  With all the “buzz” on the internet, and after great consideration, I have decided to go ahead and self-publish. I had asked myself, does this mean I’m giving up ?  And, the answer is irrevocably no.  Self-publishing used to carry a type of stigma that somehow labelled the work as adhering to a lower standard, but things have changed.  Authors are taking pride in their work like never before, and just because of the increasing ease to self-publishing, they’re not allowing this to affect the quality. In making my decision, I also considered the fact that just because a book is published traditionally it doesn’t mean that it will meet with success.  Many self-published books have received awards, honourable mentions, and have met with even more-than-modest sales.  In fact, there’s ...
Read more

Write What You Love

By
We've all heard the advice, write what you know.  There's been a lot of debate over this piece of advice.  Some see it as valid direction while others argue that there wouldn't be any books if we just wrote what we know.  For example, how many mystery novels are written by real-life detectives?  And, I guess that advice is null when it comes to fantasy genres, and historical fictional works.  No fairy from Neverland wrote a book, and no one from over a hundred years ago can write a book currently.   But, this doesn't mean that we can get sloppy, in fact more work is involved, and this is why writing what we love supersedes all, in my opinion.  How else would we get motivated, and stay motivated to see a novel through to the end? In fact isn't it love for what we’re writing what pushes us through to the conclusion even when we may find the interest in our book weaning, or through the rough middles?  Isn't it the love for what we're writing that f...
Read more