Write To Be Heard

Write Like You Talk: Help With Voice, Character, Dialogue... and more!

Aaron D. Gansky, Diane Sherlock

• Publisher: Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781938499166
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Authorship
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Learning one skill will improve everything you write. Ready? Here it is: Write like you talk That's it? Yes, that's it. But it's not as easy as it sounds. It's a skill and like any skill, it can be learned and with some practice, you can master it. What's in it for me, you ask? First, writing will be easier, less of a chore. Instead of fighting the page, you will sound like you. You might even find you really like to write. Who knows. You might have a story inside you that other people really need to read.

SENSORY ELEMENTS

Sensory elements simply means using your senses to bring your story to life. You control what the reader sees, smells, hears, touches and tastes. Too much detail slows down the story, but that may be what you want to do. Sometimes, however, too much detail gets in the way. You don’t need a lot, but some detail helps the reader feel what the characters feel. The more vividly you create an entire world, the more opportunities you give the reader to “get lost in the story”—that point of wonder when reality falls away and the reader inhabits your fictional world. That’s magic.

SIGHT

This is often the easiest for writers to create, especially new writers. A lot of us see the story unfold like a movie. But don’t rely on sight too heavily; other things are going on, too! Who would you turn to for advice on the visual? Painters! Sculptors! So, go to a gallery or museum, choose a piece of art that speaks to you, and describe it as accurately and as specifically as you can. Write at least one full page.

What are the parts of the visual element? Well, there’s color, light, distance, brightness, and clarity—all of which you can use to describe a setting or a person. What does your character’s living space look like? What does your character look like? Are you going to describe someone on their own or in comparison to another person?

Now put the two things together. Take your description of a piece of art and, say, your description of your character. Do they suggest a story? Try using only visual choices in a story. Then remove them and tell the same story without referring to what we see.

And keep studying paintings and photographs.

SOUND

Sound is second only to sight in terms of how much writers pay attention to it. Humans are a very visual species, for the most part, but that doesn’t change the impact sound has on us. When describing sounds, think of these things:

How do your characters react to noise? Love it? Hate it? Do they make a lot of noise, or are they quiet people?

What kind of music do they listen to? Do they prefer headphones, speakers, live music, and/or making their own? Why? List a few of your character’s favorite bands or artists. They might have more of an impact on your character than you originally thought.

Has overexposure to noise damaged their hearing or affected their anger level? If they’re older, do they suffer from hearing loss? How do they respond to the world now that it’s more muted?

What are the small sounds your character hears when they are in a quiet environment? Think of their house, office building, apartment, girlfriend’s house, or boyfriend’s flat. Maybe they work with race cars, or maybe they’re a roadie for a band. But when everything settles down, in those moments of stillness, what are the subtle, quiet noises that hum nearly unnoticed in the background?

Is there construction down the road, heavy traffic, rowdy neighbors? Are the surfaces in their environment hard or soft? Hard surfaces tend to refract sound, making things louder. Soft surfaces absorb sound, and generally make things quieter—think walking on hardwood floors v. walking on carpet. Does your character live in a city or on a farm? Suburbs or wilderness?

Play with sound. Create moments of quiet, followed by moments of explosive noise. How do these sounds affect the pacing of your story? Do they slow down the significant moments and heighten tension or passion? Do the loud noises herald strong action that propels the story along at a violently fast pace? Try to use sound as you would a gear-shift in a car. Lower or quieter moments slow the reader down. Louder moments and higher gears burn octane and send the reader speeding down the freeway.

TOUCH

As you examine all of your senses and how you experience the world, pay attention to the sense of touch. Whereas your eyes give you sight, ears hearing, and so on, your sense of touch is all over your body. Hot, cold, hard, soft. Pain, pressure, pleasure. When describing touch, think of these things:

What would your characters experience by touch in their environment? Think of the dirt under their bare feet, the texture of the wallpaper, the spring of the keys on the keyboard, the roughness of sandpaper, the heat of a tea pot.

What might they react to? What about a touch they don’t expect? A hand on their arm—is it welcome or creepy? Physical touch can be as unnerving as it can be reassuring. What if they long for a particular touch, a gentle caress? Maybe they’re an adrenaline junkie that loves the physical hits in a football game.

Don’t forget to have them react if you get them cold and/or wet. Many times we forget that if someone falls into a river, they will be wet for a while, which can change their mood and their temperature. Do they begin to shiver? Do they become depressed? How long will it be before they dry off? How heavy are their clothes, soaked in cold water?

Touch is a critical sense for romantic elements. And not allowing two people to touch when they’re attracted to each other will create more tension. Describe what two people experience when they’re holding hands. Make their hands very different. One large, the other small. One calloused, the other smooth. One has long, thin fingers; the other’s are short and thick. Don’t forget the roundness of the knuckles or the cold sweat of the palm.

Instead of using a visual element, such as seeing blood from a cut, describe how the trickle of blood feels as it moves down an arm or leg (or neck, in the case of vampire attack). Describe its warmth, the tickling crawl of the viscous liquid. When you’re tempted to describe something in context of sight or sound, ask yourself how it might feel for that character.

TASTE

Taste is made up of several elements: sweet, salty, bitter, and sour (remember those diagrams on the tongue from biology class?) The Chinese believe we have a capacity for another element that includes pungent; the Japanese include umami, a savory or incomparable taste sensation. To get your mind thinking the right way, consider these things:

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Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• INTRODUCTION
• HOW THIS BOOK WORKS
• VOICE
• CHARACTER
• PLOT
• STRUCTURE
• DIALOG
• CONFLICT
• SENSORY ELEMENTS
• SETTING
• BEGINNINGS
• ENDINGS
• PARTING WORDS