Today I have the day off work and I'm shooting for a two-fer: 3300 words. Here's my challenge: what to do with their hands?
One of my writing professors once suggested I read some Raymond Chandler to get a better handle on dialogue. It was good advice, almost as good as just listening to how people talk. So far, my characters' speech is flowing fine (don't get me wrong, there's a hella lot of cleanup to do later, but I'm not sweating it right now as long as I'm getting the words out), but they just don't seem to know what to do while they're speaking. Are there gestures? How much is too much exposition about what's going on around them? How can their gestures show, so I don't have to tell?
It makes me realize the real greats of modern realistic literary fiction and really good historical fiction make this part look so easy. If I had any time to read right now, I'd go back to my favorite novels and overlook the life-breathing characters and snapping dialogue and engaging plots and just look at all the cartilege, all the bits that tie these things together. In the meantime, I'll probably go screenwriter and concentrate on what they're saying.
So, fellow writers or people watchers--what tips? What do you do when you don't know what to do with their hands?
daily word count update, 11:40 p.m.: 3353
Hi Nancy! Catching up on your posts, and thought I'd offer a thought fomr my very NOT writer mind. Sometimes I've seen (both in literature and in performance art) characters made richer by having little tics or habits. Three that come to mind:
ReplyDelete1. Ocean's 11 - the character played by Brad Pitt is eating something in EVERY scene (I heard in the original the charcter was always smoking).
2. I saw a cool rendition of Shakespeare's Othello where the villian, Iago, stuttered.
3. The authors of a favorite book series I read as a teen created a character who had a raspy voice. I don't recall how they worked it in, but it was done well enough that I always associated that characteristic with him.
Maybe there's some inspiration there, maybe not. But I know when I make those rare atempts to create some form of art, my inspiration comes from odd places, so I thought I'd offer what I had.
Hi, Pat--this is a great suggestion, thank you!
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