TO SAY OR NOT TO SAY “SAID”

by Jacqueline Jules

A couple of years ago, a teacher asked my advice on a student’s writing. The conversation went something like this:

“I’m hoping you, as a published author, can work with Mary Ann and give her some pointers. Her writing is so good, I don’t know how to help her anymore. All I could do was encourage her to substitute the word, “said,” because she overused it.”

The discussion made me cringe. The teacher’s writing instruction (which I later learned was part of her county curriculum) was completely contrary to the advice I had heard from editors speaking at writing conferences.

There are much better ways to improve a story than to go through and substitute the word, “said.”

If you examine most published novels, you will see that authors use “laughed, grunted, whispered, squeaked, shouted, etc.” sparingly. Speakers need to be identified without distracting the reader, so the majority of tag lines should not stand out. 

In an August 2013 blog, Kristen Lamb posted “Six Easy Tips for Self-Editing Your Fiction,” http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2013/08/21/six-easy-tips-for-self-editing-your-fiction/  Her advice follows what I had heard before from editors: “Said becomes white noise. Readers don’t “see” it. It keeps them in the story and cooking along. If we want to add things like laughing, griping, complaining, then fine. It just shouldn’t be the tag.”

For a fun lesson on writing dialogue, check out Mary Quattlebaum’s post from January 2012 http://penciltipswritingworkshop.blogspot.com/2012/01/dialogues-and-two-person-poems.html  In this post, Mary challenges students to write a dialogue poem between a big animal and a small animal. ie: mouse and lion, ant and elephant, etc.

Other writing challenges for students:

Write a family conversation. ie: child and parent, two siblings

Write a conversation between two foods in a refrigerator or kitchen cabinet.

Write a conversation between two friends in an argument.

Write a conversation between a cat and a dog.

Dialogue should move a story forward and reflect the personality of the speaker. Choosing words carefully, rather than spending time with a thesaurus on tag lines, is a much more effective method for creating good dialogue in a story.

www.jacquelinejules.com

VEHICLES FOR CREATIVITY?

by Jane Harrington

I was listening just the other day to an NPR interview of Julie Bruck, the poet who just won the Governor General’s Literary Award in Canada (an honor about equal to our National Book Award). She recited an excellent poem about children and animals, and then went on to talk about how she keeps creativity moving along in her own life and the lives of her writing students. One way: Caves.

Yes, we writers and illustrators know about caves. At least those of the mind, where we have to regularly crawl into quiet nooks in order to hear the muse. And it was in that context that Julie spoke of caves, but it got me thinking of some creative hideaways of childhood. You know—the forts we made in our rec rooms, from couch cushions and blankets. These places had detailed backstories involving the Wild Things or the Star-bellied Sneeches, or sometimes they were train cars filled with escaped circus animals or dogs that found a door left ajar at the pound. The memory of these cozy conjuring compartments got me wondering if getting students to make “writing caves” at home might be a way-fun method to combat distractions and (oh, I’ve heard it from the mouths of babes) writer’s block. My own college-aged students would laugh at the notion of making a hideout—though secretly want to do it!—but the elementary set would probably hop right aboard.

Another vehicle for creativity that Canada’s poetess spoke of was…a vehicle! She free-writes something she calls “car pages” while sitting in a parking lot, and she asks her students to do the same. A lot of these ramblings seem to become excellent poems. So, that got me thinking, too. I don’t know about you, but I get the most amazing ideas when I am behind the wheel of a car. (Of course, I can’t write anything down, which is enormously frustrating, but….) What if we were to challenge our students to do some “backseat scribing”? Using Naomi Shihab Nye’s idea (from Mary Quattlebaum’s post of last week) the car could be that playful space filled with metaphor. I mean, what could possibly be a better symbol of protection than a seatbelt? Or maybe kids would get a kick out of creating dialogue between car parts, as with the side dishes in Jacqueline Jules’ November 19 post or Mary Amato’s “Talking Toothbrushes” (November 5). “Get your hands off of me!” the sassy steering wheel might say to Mom.

And, of course, verses borne of the world going by outside car windows or the folds of a fort—well, that’s poetry in motion, you’d have to say.

www.janeharrington.com

TALKING TOOTHBRUSHES

by Mary Amato

One of my most popular creative writing exercises is very simple. Choose two inanimate objects and imagine they are having a conversation. You can make this into a fun classroom lesson that you can use to discuss voice, dialogue, character, and point of view.

1. Define what an inanimate object is.

2. Brainstorm a list of objects—perhaps even asking each student to come up with a list of 8-10 objects. Put all the suggestions into a big bowl and ask students to each draw two objects.

3. Give them 5 minutes to write a dialogue between the two objects. If a student gets stuck, suggest that one character asks the other, “What do you want?” Discuss what was easy or hard about this. Brainstorm how the conversations could be revised, if desired.

Look at how plays/scripts are formatted and talk about how formatting dialogue can help a reader to understand who is talking. Allowing students to act out their dialogues in pairs is really fun and motivating. Enjoy!

www.maryamato.com