The Name Dilemma

Another post after another long wait… well, I keep surprising the readers, don’t I? Anyway, let me dive straight into the point — naming characters is hard. I am sure those of you who are parents would know what I am talking about.

The name has to be just right because if it isn’t the tides can turn on you and your character will be stuck with a crap name forever. And we all know what happens to people with crap names. They get bullied. Period.

Thankfully, after too many trips down Google’s Baby name’s pages and irritating my roommate as I bounced names off her every two seconds, I have named all my characters and they fit perfectly.

But that is not the hard part.

Writing Report I

I have been working on Rage for a while now. For those of you who don’t know, it is the name of the book I am writing. And this time I am actually doing some work and not just lazing around and procrastinating the task at hand for the rainy days.

So here’s what I have finished till now:-

1. Outlines of all the story worlds and their intricate details are in place.

2. All the major characters now have a thorough background story and character sketch with tiny snippets of info that won’t turn up in the story but definitely made me burst out laughing.

One such snippet: One of my major characters knows how to play the flute really very well. And he is a gadget’s expert. So he made this flute in his free time that can be tuned to sound different at the twist of a knob. The funniest being the “Fart Opera”.

3. The villains are in line and ready to be unleashed. And the lead villain is giving me a serious case of the heebie-jeebies.

So all in all, I have done a lot of work and am feeling great now. And that’s all for today. See ya all next time.

-Ria

10 Tips for Writing Dialogues Like a Pro – Learning From Real People

Writing novels isn’t easy. If you think it is then you are either a run-away inmate of some mad asylum or a delusional passer-by who thinks writing is something people do when they have a lot of time to waste.

Well, there are many aspects of writing that are hard but dialogue writing can at times be the hardest of them all. Don’t believe me? Here’s an example:-

Paul: So Jack, I see that the light has turned red on the traffic post.

Jack: Yes Paul, it has been placed there so that traffic can flow without accidents. Isn’t that a marvelous idea?

Paul: Yes Jack, indeed it is. In fact I have learnt in my twenty years of driving a car that you should always…

… okay, I think that was torture enough. That there, my friends, was an example of an information dump (well, in a more dramatic way…). New writers are always prone to committing this big mistake while writing dialogues in their amateurishness (is that a word, I think it is). But no sane person in real life speaks like that. (Don’t tell me that you do, because if that’s true then you might be Dr. Sheldon Cooper’s milder cousin.)

Anyway, writing dialogues is an art. It needs a keen ear for realism and a knack for witticism that adds a punch to every line (not that your character should make witty remarks if her mother just died…).

So here are ten things that must be kept in mind while writing dialogues:-

The Art of Storytelling

Every art is a lesson in passion, sweat and sleepless nights. And so is storytelling.

Ever read a book that wormed its way into your brain, laid eggs in there and colonized all your thoughts for the next couple of weeks? And after the initial addictive phase remained smoldering in the back of your head, prepared to offer up a good topic for discussion in case you were ever asked the name of your favorite book?

That book, my friend, is an art, the finest wine in the story world (it’s always based on your preference any way). But did you ever wonder how much the author must have worked to put such an awe-inspiring work before you? I don’t think many people do.

Uninspired

Life without creativity is no life at all.

Have you ever felt that dark tingle in your bones, the chasm of bottomless misery in your heart, the rush of fiery poison in your blood when something you loved the most left you suddenly without a note? Terrible, isn’t it?

That’s how I feel these days whenever I try to write. It’s as if by some cruel twist of fate I have been stranded in the middle of nowhere with nothing in sight and no way of returning home – to my ink and paper.

Every time I sit before a piece of paper, or even my laptop for that matter, a burning restlessness scores through me. I haven’t felt this magnitude of helplessness before. I am trapped. All because of one thing – a writer’s block.

I am blocked. I can’t write. I can’t breathe. I can’t survive. It’s like someone is holding me under water for longer than I can hold my breath.

I pace inside my head. I pace outside. Nothing heals this wound. I am walled in all the sides and the enclosure is shrinking with every passing day. I can’t survive.

Inspiration is to creativity what oxygen is to life.

And right this moment I am sitting inside a chamber devoid of the oxygen I need to live. It’s painful, this lack of inspiration, this slow death of my creativity.

As I write this piece after almost three weeks of silence I can feel this tremendous energy blazing inside my soul, thumping on the walls as it looks for cracks to be let out. One sliver, that’s all it needs to break through.

Utterly uninspired that’s what I am now. Can anyone help me break out of this prison?