The journal is the most distilled form of narration in fiction. In essence a character is jotting down their thoughts as they see fit. They are their only audience and are logging those thoughts for their own benefit. There is no outside influence to alter what they put onto the page. This can lead both … Continue reading The Journal: A Narrative Squared Problem
Tag: Dialog
Solely Spoken
After rereading Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants I noticed a similarity in style to that story and what I’m currently writing. There’s a high bar of quality to match and it has me contemplating the techniques used and how else they can be applied. If you’ve never read the story go straight there. It’s four … Continue reading Solely Spoken
Speeches in Fiction
I could carry on and on towards this subject without break or pause and it would sound like a lot of the reports you’d hear throughout school. Hopefully only the reports you heard and not the ones you gave (I wish everyone started with a firm basis in speechcraft). Yet it’s only too easy an … Continue reading Speeches in Fiction
Scene Breakdown
Learn from my mistakes.
Motivation for Dialog
A few years ago a fellow writer told me he had difficulty writing dialog saying it was almost foreign compared to narrative prose. I gave myself as an example and advised he try writing pure dialog without any narrative prose only keeping what could be fit inside quotation marks. The suggestion came with the classic … Continue reading Motivation for Dialog
Colin Klawans 