John Matthew Fox helps authors write better fiction. He is the founder of Bookfox, where he creates online courses for writers, provides editing and offers publishing assistance. He is the author of "The Linchpin Writer: Crafting Your Novel's Key Moments" and “I Will Shout Your Name,” a collection of short stories.
This Simple Mistake is Ruining Your Dialogue
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Hi Bookfoxers, Do you practice "polyphony" in your writing? Polyphony is a variety of voices in a novel. A bad novelist will make every character sound like each other (or make every character sound like the author). It's bad because it's boring. And it's bad when the voice doesn't match the character. For example, "Parable of the Sower" by Octavia E. Butler succeeds as a sci-fi novel on many levels. It's a classic. But her fifteen year old narrator sounds like a grizzled 50-year-old sage. I never believed that she was fifteen years old. That's because the author was putting her words and wisdom into the character's mouth, rather than exploring how a fifteen year old would speak. Note well: One sign that you haven't captured the voice of your character is if they sound exactly like you do. And once you've created a single voice that's different than your own, then you can do that for all the remaining characters in your novel. David Mitchell is the patron saint of polyphony. David Mitchell's "Cloud Atlas" is a masterclass in how to create unique voices that sound wildly different from each other. Listen to the variations between these six voices: 1. Adam Ewing, Historical with Formal, Archaic Diction: "The chapel bell was summoning the godfearing of Ocean Bay & I hurried thitherwards where Henry waited, trying to forget the recent foulnesses witnessed at my lodgings." 2. Robert Frobisher, Staccato sentences with Colloquial Language: "Decent hotels won't let me taint their lobbies now. Indecent hotels demand cash on the nail. Am barred from any reputable gaming table." 3. Luisa Rey, Plain, Straightforward, Matter-of-Fact:
"I'm a journalist. I was hoping to interview a few of you." 4. Timothy Cavendish, Lively, Self-aware, Educated, Rollicking: "One bright dusk four, five, no, my God, six summers ago, I strolled along a Greenwich avenue of mature chestnuts and mock-oranges in a state of grace." 5. Sonmi-451, Robotic, Polite, Futuristic Portmanteaus Archivist: is your youth geniune or dewdrugged? Why were you assigned to my "unprecented case"? I don't mean to offend you. 6. Zachry, Strong Dialect with lots of Slang "Old Georgei's path an' mine crossed more times'n I'm comfy mem'rying', an' after I'm died, no saying' what that fangy devil won't try an' do to me." If you try reading each of those out loud, you will get a sense of how wildly different each character speaks in this novel. Writing Challenge: Here's a good test. Take a line of dialogue from each of your main characters, and strip away any identification (names, or dialogue tags). Can you tell the difference between your characters? Does each line sound different? I'm going to give you some more sophisticated advice, but first, a message from our sponsor:
Advanced Advice Polyphony is not only a diversity of voices. It's also a diversity of viewpoints. So if all your characters sound different, that's brilliant. Now the challenge is to make them think differently. Not just think differently, but also portray a character with those thoughts in an authentic way, resisting the urge to oversimplify them or villainize them. For instance:
Dostoevsky, in "The Brothers Karamazov" did this quite well. He featured four different characters with wildly different viewpoints, but gave them all their proper space and time and voice:
And even though Dostoevsky was a theist, he wrote one of the most memorable challenges to belief in God ever written: "The Grand Inquisitor." Polyphony is really about creating real characters on the page, characters that feel distinct and like they exist in the real world, and that are not projections of yourself. Happy Channeling of Voices! John Matthew Fox PS. My friend April Davila, who is a fantastic writer and writing coach, is running a free seminar on completing your half-finished novel. She's offering it at three different times and dates, so pick one that fits with your schedule:
If you like the seminar, she's also offering a course with both recorded elements and weekly coaching. Click the link to check it out! |
Bookfox
John Matthew Fox helps authors write better fiction. He is the founder of Bookfox, where he creates online courses for writers, provides editing and offers publishing assistance. He is the author of "The Linchpin Writer: Crafting Your Novel's Key Moments" and “I Will Shout Your Name,” a collection of short stories.
Hi Bookfoxers, Today we're answering this reader question: I am writing a fictionalized version of my maternal grandmother's life in her voice, based on dramatic stories my grandmother told me over the years. I am embellishing some of the stories, and keeping them intact in others. But at this point, they seem like vignettes that I'm not sure how to tie them together. I keep thinking I need, "a clothesline to hang them on". I've thought of interjecting myself, using my memories to tie them...
Hi Bookfoxers, I'm continuing to answer readers' questions, this time from someone who will stay anonymous, in case their neighbor reads this newsletter as well: Despite holding an MFA from a prestigious university and a recent acceptance for traditional publication for my second novel, I still have what is referred to as "imposter syndrome." I knew it was present, perhaps beneath the surface, but what drove it home was when a neighbor asked me to review his manuscript. He planned on...
Hi Bookfoxers, I've started to answer questions from readers in this newsletter, and this one comes from Brenna Labine: Any advice on toeing the line between too much visual description and the right amount of scene/character description? Great question, Brenna! Your question is really a question of pacing -- how can writers keep the reader's interest while simultaneously fully fleshing out the world of the book? If you don't give enough description, the reader won't be immersed. While if you...