Archive for » March, 2010 «
I’ve only met and hung out with Corey Haim once. I know stories about him many don’t. I’ve seen him do things many haven’t. And it pisses me off to go into work this morning to find out he’s dead and all the wires are claiming potential overdose. While the overdose isn’t too much of a stretch, the fact that I read the story at about 8:30 am EST irks me to no end. Why? Because he was pronounced around 4:30 am PST. Do the math. He was probably still warm to the touch when I read that article. Talk about tactless.
I’m sure a lot of people are going, “oh gee, another child star dead.” He’s up there with Brad Renfro, Jonathan Brandis, River Phoenix and how many others. Stupid, idiotic deaths that could have been prevented. Unfortunately people can only be helped if they actually want it. If they don’t no amount of force will ever help them heal.
Corey considered himself a relapser for life. What does that tell you? Yes, he had “flu-like symptoms” just before he died. Not that that narrows it down much. It just means he was hot and a little sweaty. Whether it was a drug overdose or not, over two decades of ravaging his body with a slew of different drugs left him far too susceptible to any illness. So whether the autopsy determines if drugs were the cause of his death, they were the ultimate cause of his death.
Maybe now those demons will stop chasing him and he’ll be able to find whatever it was he was looking for. There’s now no more pain to drown out with drugs. Only peace. Those closest to him rode the roller coaster with him, whether they wanted to or not. Hopefully, now, they too can finally find peace with Corey.
Maybe some day people, especially kids, will learn from all those pointless deaths.
The Guardian’s Ten Rules for Writing Fiction
Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue. The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in. But “said” is far less intrusive than “grumbled”, “gasped”, “cautioned”, “lied”. I once noticed Mary McCarthy ending a line of dialogue with “she asseverated” and had to stop reading and go to the dictionary. (Elmore Leonard)
While Rowling’s use of the word ‘ejaculated’ as a dialogue tag is stretching the bounds of those tricky little buggers, I don’t think only using ‘said’ is a route to take either.
People say the word ‘said’ becomes invisible. For the most part, it does. Then you come across something like Raymond Carver’s ‘The Bath’/'A Small, Good Thing’ and the desire to light those saids on fire rises exponentially.
Not every piece of dialogue requires a tag. While I agree that the emotion should already be clear in the character’s words, sometimes a dialogue tag is needed for emphasis. Sometimes. I personally like to use motion. Correctly, I might add. Your characters can’t blink, smile, shuffle or twitch words no matter how hard you try. So replace that comma with a period and make the movement separate. But ‘said’ is a good bridge to combine speech with motion. Your character said as he rolled a pencil between his fingers. Actions speak louder than words and all.
If it’s clear who’s speaking, and the tone of the conversation is evident (which it should be), then dialogue tags aren’t needed. Movement is, especially if the block of dialogue is too long, but tags are not.
Dialogue tags should be used sparingly, even ‘said.’ While people say ‘said’ becomes invisible, you go ahead and read a story where every single line of dialogue uses ‘said’ as a tag and let me know if they’re still invisible (see above re: Raymond Carver). And when using them, keep them simple. A person only ejaculates from one part of their body and it’s certainly not their mouth. And just for anyone that’s curious:
asseverated – verb, to declare earnestly or solemnly; affirm positively
And I just realized I skipped number two on Elmore’s list. I’ll do that one next. Oops.
The Guardian has an excellent article (or two) about the 10 rules of writing as so stated by a slew of authors. I figured it’d be a good bet for me to go through them and give my two cents. Plus it actually gives me fodder for blogging. I think going one by one would be good. More stuff to write, you know? I’m not going to have set days for posting this. Just whenever I feel like it. This one I’ll combine two, both my Elmore Leonard.
Using adverbs is a mortal sin.
Mortal sin, huh? That’s pretty serious. While those heinous -ly words can be a major pain in the ass, like all things, I think they can be just fine in moderation. Sometimes, just sometimes, taking the lazy way out is okay. Sometimes it adds the flourish that may be just enough to bring the sentence home. Sometimes it’s just better than cutting it out completely or going off on a tangent in its place. So yes, I think they’re perfectly fine in moderation. But just like eating too many jelly beans, use them too much and you’ll end up with nothing but a pile of shit.
Never open a book with weather. If it’s only to create atmosphere, and not a character’s reaction to the weather, you don’t want to go on too long. The reader is apt to leaf ahead looking for people. There are exceptions. If you happen to be Barry Lopez, who has more ways than an Eskimo to describe ice and snow in his book Arctic Dreams, you can do all the weather reporting you want.
Oi. Never is such a finite word. While mood-setting weather is a horribly dull way to open a book, if it’s a twister sending a Buick at the character’s face, I think it could work. And I don’t think it lies totally in description, either. The atmosphere can be active. See re: twister. But opening chapter one with a dew-covered meadow after a light summer shower will but me to sleep before chapter two. Unless there’s something about to traipse through that meadow ready, willing and able to crush the supposed glittering beauty, spare me. Just get me to something relevant, huh?
But again, it depends. 90% of the time it’s not the place to start. But if it’s done right, it can kick ass. Considering the odds, if you’re not a gambler, I’d recommend saving your money and not risk it.
