Sins of Our Fathers | Author Blog

Here I am, sitting in the TV room where I can get my broken foot elevated and I have made an amazing discovery.

Writing in the TV room is not that easy.

This of course reminds me of the post some time ago: Writing WORK Space.

The TV room is most certainly not the best of writing work spaces. Particularly when the TV is on or when others whom one shares his living space with desire to watch that mind numbing moving picture box.

On another note, I’ve discovered that coloring in the coloring book someone gave me to ease the boredom is very easy to do with the TV running.

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Update:
When old I Love Lucy reruns are on it is even harder to work on writing.

I find myself in the position where the axiom, “make the most of what you’re given,” must become a daily mantra for me.

I broke the outside metatarsal of my right foot Saturday night. According to my “bone doc” I broke the worst bone to break in my foot in the worst place to break it. Which she translated into, keep the foot elevated and “stay off it” or it won’t heal properly and surgery will be necessary.

So I am locked in more or less for the next six to eight weeks. I’m all ready going stir crazy.

The plan is to concentrate on writing. After all, a great deal of what I normally would do is now beyond my ability. But writing, now writing is not. In fact I find myself with more time than I’m comfortable with because I now have no excuse!

Haha.

Time to get at it.

News on the novel. I sent out four copies of the book to four different women, only one with whom I am a very close friend. I had a great report from one of the women that read it in two days because she couldn’t put it down. She said it changed how she viewed what was behind the recent tragic events at Virginia Tech. That is a good thing I think. The close friend also is devouring it and finding it an engaging page turner as well.

So I am much encouraged. I can’t wait to hear from the other two.

I love good dialogue. It moves a story along and provides key insights into character.

I’ve found that [tippy title="great movies"]I love classics. Casablanca, Bringing Up Baby, Arsenic and Old Lace, and Harvey to name a few. Oh, and then there’s the Thin Man movies! I know, not exactly award winning movies but the character interplay and chemistry is wonderful.[/tippy] and television shows are a great source for good examples of dialogue. Particularly the scripts.

Check out SimplyScripts.com for some free down loadable scripts.

I think that one of the reasons I so like the classic movies is because they lacked the graphic capabilities computers give us today and so the directors and writers were forced to rely more on dialogue to transport the movie from point A to point B.

This reminds me. I have a scene in [tippy title="my novel"]Sins of Our Fathers[/tippy] with Detective Brooke Simmons up late looking through crime scene photos with her fat cat Ham and the Cary Grant/Katharine Hepburn movie, “Bringing Up Baby”, playing on the television. I love this scene for it’s peak into Brooke’s home life.

Of course one need not read movie scripts alone for good dialogue. Plays are also a great learning tool as are your favorite books. I’ve always been fond of the [tippy title="Nero Wolfe"]I absolutely loved the A&E television series and was so sorry to see them cancel it![/tippy] mystery books by Rex Stout. The dialogue between Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin is stunning at times.

One of dialogue’s great purposes for us as writer and for readers is that it helps the reader to connect personally with the characters. When done correctly the reader’s attachment propels the reader to keep turning the page.

Also, dialogue is key to “showing” verses the lazy and boring means of “telling”. When there is “showing” in a story it again connects with the reader allowing the reader to experience the story.

“Telling” on the other hand can often be little better than forcing your neighbors to watch your vacation movies of Jr. walking around with a fat drooping diaper. In the end, writing that “tells” instead of “shows” just puts the reader to sleep and doesn’t really give a good reason to lick the finger and turn the page.

So next time your watching your favorite movie or television show, pay close attention to the dialogue and it’s nuances. You may learn something and become a more discerning writer and reader.

Writing is hard.

It requires diligence.

Life often gets in the way.

It’s been happening that way lately. And because of it I’ve been getting off track, forgetting my vision, and getting focused on things that really are nothing but distractions.

I’ve completed the book proposal. Completed in the sense that all the words are there. More words than necessary really. So I should be working on boiling it down and editing it so it sings.

Should be.

I just haven’t had the energy lately for much of any writing. Partly because I just passed my birth day. I don’t tend to like my birthdays. One of those things that’s done a good job of getting me off the vision.

Anyway. I suppose this post is as much as a means to update on the progress my novel as it is to motivate and get me back on track.

Part of getting back on track is scheduling. I need to sit back down and start scheduling work time for writing. Lately I’ve been letting circumstances dictate the moment’s work and that’s not good because I never get to write.

So I’m going to stop, evaluate and schedule.