Tags

I have a terrible cold today, but that hasn't stopped me from writing! I churned out around 6,000 words, including 2,000 for The Witch's Daughter, 2000 for Magnetic Resistance (my L&O fanfiction), and 2000 more for my newest fanfic, It Happened One Night. How did I get so productive today? I have no idea. Once it started, the writing bug just refused to leave.

Today, I am going to talk about 'dialogue tags'. They are the little blurbs scattered throughout your dialogue that basically work as "he said" or "she said". That is a very simplistic explanation. The tags do not need to describe the voice, but they usually contain an action that refocuses the reader's attention on who is speaking and what emotions are passing between the characters. Here are some examples of dialogue tags from my work today.

First, you have to come up with the dialogue. Here is the first line of dialogue from chapter fourteen of Magnetic Resistance, which I wrote today.

"Hey, Elliot, do you know any French?"

Now, we have to clarify who is speaking, how they are speaking, what they are doing... just something to give the reader a mental image. To do this, we are going to add a 'tag' onto the end of the piece of dialogue. The following is the actual first line of the chapter.

"Hey, Elliot, do you know any French?" Olivia asked as she walked in to the bullpen, a cup of coffee clutched in her right hand...

This is a pretty standard dialogue tag. Tags can be either long or short. For example, I could have clipped the sentence at 'Olivia asked.' If you add too many long tags, it will get boring, but adding too many short ones is equally distracting. You want a balance. Similarly, you do not want to use the same words for all of your tags. Alternate between 'said', 'asked', 'whispered', 'shouted', 'confessed', 'pleaded', ect. However, do NOT overuse your tags and flood the reader with unnecessary words. It is a fine balance.

I generally do not put more than three tags in a row unless I am writing about a large group. I like to use two and then insert a line of pure dialogue, like so...

"What does that mean?" Olivia asked.

"It means, 'what would I do without you?'"

"And this one? Je t'aime means 'I love you', right?"

"Yeah," Munch confirmed. "And Amour de ma vie means 'love of my life'.

Tags can also precede a piece of dialogue instead of following them. This type of tag is rarer than the first one (tags that follow the dialogue). Here is an example of a dialogue tag that comes before the spoken words. It is from The Witch's Daughter.

I groaned, giving my head a brief shake to try and clear away the blurriness at the edges of my vision. “A good shield in the wrong place is not very helpful.”

Just for kicks, here is a second example from Magnetic Resistance

"And how many people know that you like it to hurt a little?"

This time, it was Alex's turn to blush. "A grand total of one. You think I let myself trust just anyone?"

Like the first example, these tags can be clipped or stretched based on the writer's preference. I could have stopped it at 'I groaned' before going in to the dialogue.


There is one place where I do NOT recommend using tags: instances of rapid, back and forth dialogue between two people. Here is an example. The speakers have already been identified earlier in the scene, and no tags are needed.

"Aw, that was years ago. Get over it."

"Don't you have some kind of gun rally to attend, some death penalty case to support, or some woman in DC to screw?"

"Nope! I have nothing but time for you, my dear Alex. You know you're my favorite."

Finally, here is a longer chunk where you can see dialogue tags in action!

"Don't worry about it, Alex, she's definitely interested," Abbie said, picking up on her friend's dazed and slightly confused expression. "I've watched her watch you for years. Given the chance, that woman would beat you like a rented mule." When two blue eyes widened, she added, "would you prefer ride you hard and put you away wet?"

Alex groaned. "I don't know which of those two was worse. Drop it, Abbie, or I'm going to stab you through the hand with my fork!" She brandished the utensil in a threatening manner until a throat cleared loudly beside them.

"Ya need some more water, hon?" asked their waitress.

Alex kept her composure. Now that Olivia Benson was not in the room, it was easier to remain calm and professional. "Yes, please," she told the waitress, purposely not reacting to the loud smack of her gum. "Thank you," she added when the waitress took her glass.

Once they were alone again, Abbie started laughing. Alex shot her a pointed glare. "I think you make a game of embarrassing me, Charmichael, and you probably even keep score."

Abbie didn't deny it. "I'm just trying to help you loosen up, Cabot. But since Olivia Benson was sleeping in your bed last night, maybe she'll do the job for me."

The Waiting Game

Now that I have returned from my vacation (it seems like I am hardly at home this summer) with no traveling left to do, I have time to relax, get some serious writing done... and bite my nails down to the skin while waiting for a response from Bold Strokes about my submission. It is nerve-wracking to send something in for publication. Even while you are busy working, having fun on the beach, or preparing to start your next writing project, it lingers in the back of your mind.

It has been roughly ten weeks since I sent in The Second Sister, and boy, hitting the 'submit' button was hard. Doing it electronically was probably easier than mailing it in, however (they prefer electronic submissions anyway). At least that way, I didn't have time to change my mind. Once I double clicked on the 'Send' button, there was no going back. I admit that it took me a few minutes to gather the courage to do it. Bold Strokes did confirm that they received my submission and that they are reviewing it, so at least I don't have to worry that it got lost somewhere in cyberspace. Their website says that submitters are usually contacted 12-14 weeks after the initial inquiry, so I still have more time to wait and worry.

Still, there are no regrets on this front. Maybe I could have edited the novel more (although I did a pretty thorough job the first two times). Maybe I could have scrapped the whole thing and done it better the second time. Maybe I'm not ready to be a published author. But if I sat around waiting until I had the perfect novel to submit, I would never be able to share anything with anyone. If Rembrandt spent years agonizing over the tiny, imperfect spot in one of his first paintings, who knows, maybe the masterpieces he painted later never would have been created. If Beethoven had been too self-conscious to write his first symphony because of Mozart's lingering shadow in Vienna, the others would never have been written. Writers are always growing and changing (and hopefully improving), but there is no such thing as a 'perfect' novel, just as there is no such thing as a 'perfect' piece of music or a 'perfect' painting.

It's important to suck it up and put yourself out there over and over again - even if someone does not like your work, even if you get rejected. You have to develop a thick skin and the ability to accept criticism graciously. If you never try, you are never giving anyone a chance to say 'yes'. And someday, I hope that the 'yes' will be for me. I know it will be worth the work it took to get there.

Writer's Notebooks

Writer's notebooks are a special place full of special words... And some not so special words. Honestly, they are a dumping ground for your brilliant, not-so-brilliant, average, and just plain horrible ideas. If you have an idea, it should go in your writer's notebook. That way, it's out of your brain so that there is room for new ideas (hopefully better ones).

I usually keep more than one writer's notebook at a time simply because I can't be bothered to pick one. If you do pick one instead of using multiples, then you should decorate it with inspiring pictures and designs. My current writer's notebook is a black 70 page with random blue pen drawings on it, and I've been using it at the beach. Pretty cool.

Anyway, about a writer's notebook. It's a central clearing house for all of your character sheets, lists, ideas, scenes, poetry, rants, diary entries, doodles, ect. You can tape pictures in it, attach colorful tabs, add a useful page of descriptive adjectives (I have a couple with sex adverbs and adjectives on it that I occasionally refer to).

The hardest thing about keeping a writer's notebook (and the best reason to keep one) is that it requires you to turn off your internal censor. Write everything: the good, the bad, and the ugly. This can help keep your muse churning out newer, better stuff. It is a good way to prevent the well from running dry. It's purging the bad in order to move on to the good. Besides, who knows, maybe you will end up noticing that your "bad" ideas aren't so bad after all.

Even if you can't think of anything significant to write, the act of writing not-so-inspired words flicks on a switch inside your brain. As you continue writing, the words will come easier. The phrasing will improve. As long as you carve out time in your day to write, eventually you will come up with something worth reading and transferring to your computer. You can always use that process as a chance to improve and edit your words.

Now, go write! Have fun! Take your new writer's notebook for a spin, or add to one you started previously. Just write something while I enjoy myself at thie beach... Later.

A few sentences can go a long way. As a dedicated blogger and writer, I try to write a few sentences every day, even when it is difficult and/or inconvenient. While the rest of my family drove seven hours to Maryland for our family vacation, I was crouched in the back seat writing on a laptop with a dying battery. My reward was several thousand words added to my word count. I have written on napkins, notecards, in email inboxes on public computers, on my celllohone, even on my hands when a journal isn't available.

Today, go out and write. Write a poem. Try a short story. Start a fresh novel. If you have a pen or a computer anywhere nearby, go get it. No excuses. Your family and friends might think that you are crazy. I know that mine do. Eventually, they will get used to it and you can train them not to bother you. Genius and creativity wait for no one! Now, go write.

Don't feel so inspired? Are you less spontaneous than me? Consider starting a Writer's Notebook. You can google it to find out more on how to keep one, but here's a basic summary: it's a place to keep all your snippets, scraps, lists, and ideas, all of your spontaneous thoughts and all of your daily observations. It is an important tool that all writers should use. Anyway, more on that tomorrow. Time for me to continue with my vacation!

Coming Back To Yourself

First of all, I would like to apologize for the long break in updates. I was away at flute camp in the Adirondack Mountains, but I'm back home now and ready to continue my blog. This is kind of a personal post, but I hope that you will find something useful in it anyway.

Lately, I have been struggling with depression and my own personal demons. Many writers face them, as do musicians, artists, philosophers, scientists, and all of the other disciplines that require creativity and emotion. Being able to put feelings down into words requires insight into the human psyche that can be frightening, intense, and painful. We experience the full spectrum of emotions, and many writers do not know how to turn these off.

In my own struggles as a musician, a writer, and a lesbian, it has been difficult for me to come to terms with who I am and what I feel. The option of suicide has come up at various points in my life, but the support of my lover, my rock, kept me from choosing that path. Other writers, artists, and musicians have not been so lucky.

It is important that, while you are absorbed in other worlds and are trying to share the pent-up storm of emotions inside of you in the hopes of touching someone else somewhere in this bleak world, you can come back to yourself. Find a grounding point, a 'green light' (as Fitzgerald would say), something to reach out for, something to cling to. Something to come back for.

Build a support system. When you fail, when you cry, when you feel lost, you need something to hold on to. This can be a parent, a lover, a hobby, God, a friend, even a future goal or a 'purpose'. Do not lose yourself in the worlds you have created. Do not be tempted to use them as an escape from your feelings or your own life. If the creator dies, so do all of their creations.

Coming back to yourself can be difficult. It can be painful. It will burn and ache and you will have to face all of the twisted ugliness inside of you that you tried so hard to forget. But living is worth it. Not just breathing, not just existing, but living - feeling, experiencing. You will never forgive yourself if you abandon life - whether through suicide or through locking yourself up in a fantasy world that you have created. You only have one chance. Cling to it with both hands and do not let go.