Patti O'Shea's Blog, page 161
September 20, 2012
Your Characters Talk Funny
I reread a few old favorites of mine recently and I've noticed one thing in a few of them that makes me absolutely crazy: Characters using each other's names in dialogue constantly.
Was this a writing trend of some sort that I didn't know about? I ask because a lot of authors I really enjoyed have done this to the point where it distracts me from the story. I guess it mustn't have bothered me to this degree back before I started writing seriously, but now? It makes me lose my mind. One book had a long paragraph of dialogue and the hero used the heroine's name three times in that stretch. It was so jarring that I stopped reading and counted.
I've blogged about this before because it really is hugely annoying and it's very unrealistic. Two people alone having a conversation will almost never use the other's name. I promise you this.
If you're a writer, listen to a conversation with only two people present. Listen to as many conversations as you need until it registers. People rarely use each other's names when they're talking unless there are more than two people and someone is speaking specifically to one person and not the group.
Character dialogue should mirror the way people truly talk in some ways—like almost never using names—and not in others. (An example of this is no one wants to read the boring, pointless small talk that's part of real life.) I always do a search for my hero and heroine's names while I'm revising my story and I look for instances of use in conversation. Nine times out of ten, I delete the name. You don't need it.
If you're worried about making it clear who's speaking, do it with a simple he said, she said. Or with movement/emotion:
Rough, but you get the idea.
Don't believe me about how two people don't use each other's names when they're talking? Go some place easy to overhear conversations. Park yourself there and listen.
This will also help you to write different people than what you're used to hearing every day. I've been doing a lot of listening since I moved to Atlanta. I'm being exposed regularly to very many different ways of speaking, of putting sentences together, than what I was used to hearing in Minnesota. There are two men from Tennessee in my department, but one's from the east of the state and the other from the western side, one rural and one urban. They talk very differently from each other and have different accents.
That cube also has someone from New York. Next cube over from there has someone from Boston. Across the hall is a man who's from Greece. My cube mate is from Texas and doesn't have what I think of as a Texas accent. There's also Alabama, California, and many other states represented. I'm learning. This is what a writer does. You listen. You learn. You take this education and bring it to the page when you write your characters—especially dialogue.
Was this a writing trend of some sort that I didn't know about? I ask because a lot of authors I really enjoyed have done this to the point where it distracts me from the story. I guess it mustn't have bothered me to this degree back before I started writing seriously, but now? It makes me lose my mind. One book had a long paragraph of dialogue and the hero used the heroine's name three times in that stretch. It was so jarring that I stopped reading and counted.
I've blogged about this before because it really is hugely annoying and it's very unrealistic. Two people alone having a conversation will almost never use the other's name. I promise you this.
If you're a writer, listen to a conversation with only two people present. Listen to as many conversations as you need until it registers. People rarely use each other's names when they're talking unless there are more than two people and someone is speaking specifically to one person and not the group.
Character dialogue should mirror the way people truly talk in some ways—like almost never using names—and not in others. (An example of this is no one wants to read the boring, pointless small talk that's part of real life.) I always do a search for my hero and heroine's names while I'm revising my story and I look for instances of use in conversation. Nine times out of ten, I delete the name. You don't need it.
If you're worried about making it clear who's speaking, do it with a simple he said, she said. Or with movement/emotion:
Mary put her hands on her hips and glared. "If you think you're putting my sister behind bars, you better think again. She's innocent and I'll prove it if it's the last thing I do.""You go right ahead. We have enough evidence to lock her up for a good, long time." John pulled his hands from his pockets and moved behind his desk.
Rough, but you get the idea.
Don't believe me about how two people don't use each other's names when they're talking? Go some place easy to overhear conversations. Park yourself there and listen.
This will also help you to write different people than what you're used to hearing every day. I've been doing a lot of listening since I moved to Atlanta. I'm being exposed regularly to very many different ways of speaking, of putting sentences together, than what I was used to hearing in Minnesota. There are two men from Tennessee in my department, but one's from the east of the state and the other from the western side, one rural and one urban. They talk very differently from each other and have different accents.
That cube also has someone from New York. Next cube over from there has someone from Boston. Across the hall is a man who's from Greece. My cube mate is from Texas and doesn't have what I think of as a Texas accent. There's also Alabama, California, and many other states represented. I'm learning. This is what a writer does. You listen. You learn. You take this education and bring it to the page when you write your characters—especially dialogue.
September 18, 2012
I Got Files and Files
Among the many get-ready-to-sell-the-house projects I had in Minnesota was to go through my files. I have two filing cabinets in my basement and a huge lateral filing cabinet in my office. I started with the one in my office and found very little that I could get rid of. This wasn't a big surprise, but I had hoped there'd be more I could toss than I did.
The basement filing cabinets were a different story. They were also an interesting archaeological experiment for me.
Of note is the fact that I had one story with about eight different print outs filed away. It might have even been more than eight, but I didn't bother counting since they were all mixed together. This would be the same story that I had about 90 copies on disk. Okay, slight exaggeration, but I did have a lot of copies of it. Maybe because it went through so many revisions or maybe because I could never remember which was the latest version and kept saving new ones. Who knows?
The other thing that really jumped out at me—and took me by surprise—was all the pictures I had squirreled away in the files. I had no memory of doing this, but apparently I was using pictures of characters and clothes long before I started saving them to my hard drive. Hey, I was pinning before Pinterest. Heh!
And then there were the sheer number of files. Once upon a time, I used to put each idea in its own folder. This I remembered doing and I remember sliding through them looking for things to write. This was back in the day where I started lots and lots of first chapters, but never got much beyond that. Some day I'm going to have to work on consolidating all those ideas into one place because this doesn't work, but that's a project for later.
I didn't spend much time looking at anything I'd written back in the day, but the little bit I glanced at was cringe-worthy. And it was another moment where I thought about sending thank you notes to the editors who rejected me. (I'm also really glad self-publishing wasn't as easy then as it is now. I'd die of embarrassment if I'd put any of that stuff out there.)
The basement filing cabinets were a different story. They were also an interesting archaeological experiment for me.
Of note is the fact that I had one story with about eight different print outs filed away. It might have even been more than eight, but I didn't bother counting since they were all mixed together. This would be the same story that I had about 90 copies on disk. Okay, slight exaggeration, but I did have a lot of copies of it. Maybe because it went through so many revisions or maybe because I could never remember which was the latest version and kept saving new ones. Who knows?
The other thing that really jumped out at me—and took me by surprise—was all the pictures I had squirreled away in the files. I had no memory of doing this, but apparently I was using pictures of characters and clothes long before I started saving them to my hard drive. Hey, I was pinning before Pinterest. Heh!
And then there were the sheer number of files. Once upon a time, I used to put each idea in its own folder. This I remembered doing and I remember sliding through them looking for things to write. This was back in the day where I started lots and lots of first chapters, but never got much beyond that. Some day I'm going to have to work on consolidating all those ideas into one place because this doesn't work, but that's a project for later.
I didn't spend much time looking at anything I'd written back in the day, but the little bit I glanced at was cringe-worthy. And it was another moment where I thought about sending thank you notes to the editors who rejected me. (I'm also really glad self-publishing wasn't as easy then as it is now. I'd die of embarrassment if I'd put any of that stuff out there.)
September 16, 2012
Absolute Zero
More science. I am a major science geek.
September 13, 2012
No Surprises, Please
Some people love surprises. Some people are spontaneous, willing to drop everything and switch directions on a whim. I am not one of these people and I never have been.
I'm planner, a worrier. I have contingencies for my contingencies. A rapid change of plans? Forget about it. I've worked for a major US airline since before 9/11, but even when security wasn't like it is now, I never just hopped on a plane on the spur of the moment. I never got bumped off of one flight and decided to go somewhere else instead. That's not how I roll.So one morning while I was home—still in my pajamas and drinking coffee—the cell phone rings. It's my dad. He talked to the painter and he'd be over in 90 minutes to take a look around.Panic!First thing I did was jump in the shower. After I got out, I ran around trying to make the house look presentable. I'm taking rooms apart as I try to get rid of junk and it was mass chaos everywhere you looked.But I've also got chaos exploding in my brain. My planned out day is now shot to hell and I'm mentally scrambling to reorganize some sort of schedule. This is absolutely the kind of thing that I hate—spontaneous events. Blech!I don't even like good surprises. As a kid, I always hunted down my Christmas presents no matter where my parents hid them. I had to know what I was getting. It wasn't so much impatience as my need to never be taken by surprise. For real. I was usually okay with anything I got for the holiday, so it didn't matter to me what I found, I just needed to see it.Is there any woman alive who thinks it's a good thing to get a phone call saying that someone is coming over in 90 minutes when it looks like the house has been ransacked? I didn't think so. :-) This was definitely in the bad surprise category.
I'm planner, a worrier. I have contingencies for my contingencies. A rapid change of plans? Forget about it. I've worked for a major US airline since before 9/11, but even when security wasn't like it is now, I never just hopped on a plane on the spur of the moment. I never got bumped off of one flight and decided to go somewhere else instead. That's not how I roll.So one morning while I was home—still in my pajamas and drinking coffee—the cell phone rings. It's my dad. He talked to the painter and he'd be over in 90 minutes to take a look around.Panic!First thing I did was jump in the shower. After I got out, I ran around trying to make the house look presentable. I'm taking rooms apart as I try to get rid of junk and it was mass chaos everywhere you looked.But I've also got chaos exploding in my brain. My planned out day is now shot to hell and I'm mentally scrambling to reorganize some sort of schedule. This is absolutely the kind of thing that I hate—spontaneous events. Blech!I don't even like good surprises. As a kid, I always hunted down my Christmas presents no matter where my parents hid them. I had to know what I was getting. It wasn't so much impatience as my need to never be taken by surprise. For real. I was usually okay with anything I got for the holiday, so it didn't matter to me what I found, I just needed to see it.Is there any woman alive who thinks it's a good thing to get a phone call saying that someone is coming over in 90 minutes when it looks like the house has been ransacked? I didn't think so. :-) This was definitely in the bad surprise category.
September 11, 2012
Special Moments
One other thing happened on the trip that I wanted to talk about. My parents were with me and my dad was wearing his army museum cap when we stopped for the night in Illinois. A pack of motorcycles stopped with us at the hotel.
They reached the lobby first mostly because I couldn't identify the lobby. Most of the time there is something to give it away, but all sides of this motel looked exactly the same. There were six couples and we ended up behind all of them, waiting to check in.
As we're waiting, one of the men noticed my dad's baseball cap and asked him if he was a veteran. When my dad said yes, he was, something pretty awesome happened.
The biker said, "Thank you" and held out his hand to shake my dad's hand.
I don't think anything like that had every happened to my dad before that evening. If it did, he never said anything about it. I also think it meant a lot to him. Heck, it left me tearing up.
It was such a nice thing for this guy to do and it made me wish I could do stuff like that. I can't, though. I'm much to shy to attempt it. Written words are my thing. I dedicated one book to the men and women of the US military and I'll take the opportunity here on my blog to say: Thank you for serving.
They reached the lobby first mostly because I couldn't identify the lobby. Most of the time there is something to give it away, but all sides of this motel looked exactly the same. There were six couples and we ended up behind all of them, waiting to check in.
As we're waiting, one of the men noticed my dad's baseball cap and asked him if he was a veteran. When my dad said yes, he was, something pretty awesome happened.
The biker said, "Thank you" and held out his hand to shake my dad's hand.
I don't think anything like that had every happened to my dad before that evening. If it did, he never said anything about it. I also think it meant a lot to him. Heck, it left me tearing up.
It was such a nice thing for this guy to do and it made me wish I could do stuff like that. I can't, though. I'm much to shy to attempt it. Written words are my thing. I dedicated one book to the men and women of the US military and I'll take the opportunity here on my blog to say: Thank you for serving.
September 9, 2012
Time Travel
Why aren't time travelers visiting us? Or are they?
September 6, 2012
The Journey Home
In case anyone is wondering why I've been so quiet online lately, it's because I was up in Minnesota, working to get my house ready to sell, and there wasn't time to spare. I'll have a bunch of blog posts about that later.
Driving up from Atlanta was interesting. Like the driver in Illinois who tailgated me even though there was no one in the left-hand lane and she could have easily passed me. I mean this woman was right on my bumper. It irritated the hell out of me and I'm thinking to myself, when did they start driving like this in Illinois? This is what I'd expect in Atlanta, not here.
It took the chick a while to figure out I wasn't going any faster no matter how close she got to my car and finally, she does go around me. And guess what I saw as she went past? Georgia license plates. Fulton county, no less. For those of you unfamiliar, Atlanta is in Fulton county.
The other thing that struck me as interesting was reaching Minnesota. As soon as we went past the airport and was in my old stomping grounds, I moved into the left-hand lane. I haven't driven in the left lane since I moved in January because it's a flipping NASCAR race on the freeways in Atlanta and even going 15 mph over the speed limit in the right lane will get you tailgated.
Do you have any idea how awesome it felt to be able to drive in the left lane again? I always drove in the fast lane in MN because there I'm one of the speedier drivers. It was freeing and it was so much less stressful to drive there than in Atlanta. Yes, we still have the idiot factor, but at least the idiots are going slower and I don't fear for my life.
The other thing that stood out to me on getting home was the lack of bugs. I don't mean that as in the condo in Atlanta was inundated with them. It really wasn't despite how it felt. It was just that the bugs were bigger (palmetto bugs, shudder) or they were ickier (centipedes, anyone?).
I climbed into bed that first night at home and realized I hadn't checked the bed for spiders or other bugs. Then I realized that I didn't have to do that there. I do a bug check every night in Atlanta—just in case. I've never found anything—yet—but did I mention the bugs were bigger and ickier down here? I'd rather err on the side of caution than to get into bed with bugzilla.
Driving up from Atlanta was interesting. Like the driver in Illinois who tailgated me even though there was no one in the left-hand lane and she could have easily passed me. I mean this woman was right on my bumper. It irritated the hell out of me and I'm thinking to myself, when did they start driving like this in Illinois? This is what I'd expect in Atlanta, not here.
It took the chick a while to figure out I wasn't going any faster no matter how close she got to my car and finally, she does go around me. And guess what I saw as she went past? Georgia license plates. Fulton county, no less. For those of you unfamiliar, Atlanta is in Fulton county.
The other thing that struck me as interesting was reaching Minnesota. As soon as we went past the airport and was in my old stomping grounds, I moved into the left-hand lane. I haven't driven in the left lane since I moved in January because it's a flipping NASCAR race on the freeways in Atlanta and even going 15 mph over the speed limit in the right lane will get you tailgated.
Do you have any idea how awesome it felt to be able to drive in the left lane again? I always drove in the fast lane in MN because there I'm one of the speedier drivers. It was freeing and it was so much less stressful to drive there than in Atlanta. Yes, we still have the idiot factor, but at least the idiots are going slower and I don't fear for my life.
The other thing that stood out to me on getting home was the lack of bugs. I don't mean that as in the condo in Atlanta was inundated with them. It really wasn't despite how it felt. It was just that the bugs were bigger (palmetto bugs, shudder) or they were ickier (centipedes, anyone?).
I climbed into bed that first night at home and realized I hadn't checked the bed for spiders or other bugs. Then I realized that I didn't have to do that there. I do a bug check every night in Atlanta—just in case. I've never found anything—yet—but did I mention the bugs were bigger and ickier down here? I'd rather err on the side of caution than to get into bed with bugzilla.
September 4, 2012
Pinterest Peeves
There are a few things on Pinterest that make me crazy and it's not just authors doing it. Actually, for the most part, the authors in my stream haven't been overly obnoxious with the promo, although there have been days...
So what is annoying to me?
People who start a new board, pin 500 pictures on it in 10 minutes and then do the same thing with another board. They might never pin another thing on those boards, but the initial push fills my stream with picture after picture of the same damn thing. Today, it was some kind of chair. The same style, just different iterations.
People who pin what I consider gross-out images. Weird body piercings and manipulations and other things along this line just make me shudder. I am very squeamish--it's why I decided against medical school--and seeing some guy with a face filled with needles makes my stomach heave. Who even wants to document stuff like this?
A spin off of the above is the people who for some bizarre reason feel the need to create a board dedicated to serial killers and other assorted murderers. Again, why?
Okay, so I seldom go back and revisit previous pins, but it's like a personal archive in a way. Serial killers? Really?
So what is annoying to me?
People who start a new board, pin 500 pictures on it in 10 minutes and then do the same thing with another board. They might never pin another thing on those boards, but the initial push fills my stream with picture after picture of the same damn thing. Today, it was some kind of chair. The same style, just different iterations.
People who pin what I consider gross-out images. Weird body piercings and manipulations and other things along this line just make me shudder. I am very squeamish--it's why I decided against medical school--and seeing some guy with a face filled with needles makes my stomach heave. Who even wants to document stuff like this?
A spin off of the above is the people who for some bizarre reason feel the need to create a board dedicated to serial killers and other assorted murderers. Again, why?
Okay, so I seldom go back and revisit previous pins, but it's like a personal archive in a way. Serial killers? Really?
September 2, 2012
Genome Surprises
More science, this time it's about three things that surprised the scientists who worked on the Human Genome Project and not in an excited, hurrah kind of way.
August 30, 2012
Kindle Fire
I realized that while I've reviewed the regular Kindle on my blog, I haven't reviewed the Kindle Fire yet, so here it goes.
The Fire was a lot heavier than I expected it to be. That's the thing that's stuck with me the longest since I got it last fall. I was actually shocked by the weight. It also comes with a cord that only plugs into the wall, not into a computer, but if you have a regular Kindle cord, it works just fine.
I've taken it into the kitchen to display recipes while I've attempted to cook. I've also used it to stream movies while I'm in the kitchen working. The small size is very good for this, not so easy to read recipes, however.
Downloading content or streaming movies is easy and it does this well.
I like reading books on the Fire. I've actually become so accustomed to reading on back-lit screens that I had trouble with the regular, e-ink Kindle not lighting up. Sometimes the page doesn't turn right away and it takes more than one tap, but it's a minor inconvenience.
The rest of my problems with the Fire are more annoying. Because of the small screen real estate, it's sometimes very difficult to tap links. Even increasing the resolution doesn't always help and I ended up buying a stylus. It's helped a lot, but there's another frustrating tapping issue--anything near the edges of the screen is less sensitive than I'd like. Just hooking the little caret at the bottom to pull up the menu can be a challenge.
What drives me absolutely crazy, though, is that it keeps freezing up when I'm using it to surf the web and there is no way to unfreeze it without rebooting. It happens all the time, usually 3 times a week and that's too much.
Worse than that was the time my Fire wouldn't start up at all. I found instructions on how to fix it in the Amazon forums, but this shouldn't happen to begin with.
Overall: The Fire is okay, but I wish I'd waited and gotten the iPad.
2.5 stars.
The Fire was a lot heavier than I expected it to be. That's the thing that's stuck with me the longest since I got it last fall. I was actually shocked by the weight. It also comes with a cord that only plugs into the wall, not into a computer, but if you have a regular Kindle cord, it works just fine.
I've taken it into the kitchen to display recipes while I've attempted to cook. I've also used it to stream movies while I'm in the kitchen working. The small size is very good for this, not so easy to read recipes, however.
Downloading content or streaming movies is easy and it does this well.
I like reading books on the Fire. I've actually become so accustomed to reading on back-lit screens that I had trouble with the regular, e-ink Kindle not lighting up. Sometimes the page doesn't turn right away and it takes more than one tap, but it's a minor inconvenience.
The rest of my problems with the Fire are more annoying. Because of the small screen real estate, it's sometimes very difficult to tap links. Even increasing the resolution doesn't always help and I ended up buying a stylus. It's helped a lot, but there's another frustrating tapping issue--anything near the edges of the screen is less sensitive than I'd like. Just hooking the little caret at the bottom to pull up the menu can be a challenge.
What drives me absolutely crazy, though, is that it keeps freezing up when I'm using it to surf the web and there is no way to unfreeze it without rebooting. It happens all the time, usually 3 times a week and that's too much.
Worse than that was the time my Fire wouldn't start up at all. I found instructions on how to fix it in the Amazon forums, but this shouldn't happen to begin with.
Overall: The Fire is okay, but I wish I'd waited and gotten the iPad.
2.5 stars.
