Write Good or Die

visual/thematic image system in your books?
    Well, start by becoming more conscious of what image systems authors are working with in books and films that YOU love. Some readers/writers don’t care at all about visual image systems. That’s fine—whatever floats your boat. Me, with rare exceptions, I’ll toss a book within twenty pages if I don’t think the author knows what s/he’s doing visually.
    What I do when I start a project, along with outlining, is to keep a list of thematic words that convey what my story is about, to me. For The Harrowing , it was words like: Creation, chaos, abyss, fire, forsaken, shattered, shattering, portal, door, gateway, vessel, empty, void, rage, fury, cast off, forgotten, abandoned, alone, rejected, neglected, shards, discarded… pages and pages like that.
    For The Price —bargain, price, deal, winter, ice, buried, dormant, resurrection, apple, temptation, tree, garden, labyrinth, Sleeping Beauty, castle, queen, princess, prince, king, wish, grant, deal, contract, task, hell, purgatory, descent, mirror, Rumpelstiltskin, spiral…
    Some words I’ll have from the very beginning because they’re part of my own thematic DNA. But as the word lists grow, so does my understanding of the inherent themes of each particular story.
    Do you see how that might start to work? Not only do you get a sense of how the story can look to convey your themes, but you also have a growing list of specific words that you can work with in your prose so that you’re constantly hitting those themes on different levels.
    At the same time that I’m doing my word lists, I start a collage book, and try to spend some time every week flipping through magazines and pulling photos that resonate with my story. I find Vogue , the Italian fashion mags, Vanity Fair , Premiere , Rolling Stone and of course, National Geographic particularly good for me. I tape those photos together in a blank artists’ sketchbook (I use tape so I can move the photos around when I feel like it. If you’re more—well, if you’re neater than I am, you can also use plastic sleeves in a three-ring binder). It’s another way of growing an image system. Also, it doesn’t feel like writing so you think you’re getting away with something.
    Also, know your world myths and fairy tales! Why make up your own backstory and characters when you can tap into universally powerful archetypes? Remember, there’s no new story under the sun, so being conscious of your antecedents can help you bring out the archetypal power of the characters and themes you’re working with.

    Alexandra Sokoloff— http://www.alexandrasokoloff.com
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21. Talking Points: Dialogue
    By Scott Nicholson
    http://www.hauntedcomputer.com

    Sometimes you just have to talk it out, even when you don’t know what you’re talking about.
    That’s why narrative fiction so heavily relies on dialogue. It creates conflict, gives information to the reader, moves the plot, develops the characters, and builds a sense of place. In short, it does everything, all the time, just like every element of your work should, whether it’s fiction or non-fiction.
    Speech denotes class, racial, cultural, educational, and geographic differences. Make sure each character speaks consistently. In real life, our grammar can change depending on the company we’re keeping, but in fiction you have to keep it simple for the reader. The character who says “ain’t” on page three shouldn’t be saying “most certainly is not” by page 300, unless that character has gone to Harvard during the middle chapters.
    Beware of dialect. When conveying dialect, a little is usually plenty. Otherwise, it becomes parody and you lose the reader. For example, your Dodge City sheriff shouldn’t say, “I’m amblin’ over yonder to wet muh whistle.” Your Southern character shouldn’t lose all the g’s in her action verbs: enough “fussin’ and feudin’” and your reader’s eyesight will blur. Use colloquialisms in moderation, and let your grammar do most of the work instead of relying on tics, tricks, and dropped letters. “We don’t have no pumpkins,” or “We ain’t got no pumpkins” is fine, but make sure all the characters don’t talk alike. And you might need to only drop the effect once or twice to plant the idea in the reader’s mind.
    In my novel The Manor , I have a minor character who is a Southern belle. She is educated, and therefore I simply said she was from the South and