Forgive My Meta Indulgence...

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

'Thanks for the tea. Wow, it's hot.'

'The woman asked me if I wanted extra milk. I should have said yes. Well spotted on getting this couch, by the way. We timed it perfectly.'

'Yeah. Busy isn't it. I hovered for a while, before that couple left. We can catch up in comfort.'

'Excellent. So, how's the book going, Nicky?'

'Thanks for asking. It's getting to be a bit of a slog at the moment. I'm trying to plough through but I've hit a wall.'

'What's the problem? Something that can be fixed?'

'I'm sure it'll be fine. It occurred to me during a reread, that I need more dialogue in the earlier chapters.'

'Why?'

'Because without it, there's a tendency to fall back on too much exposition.'

'What's exposition?'

'Good question. It's that thing where writers add backstory and information about a character, instead of showing the same facts through dialogue and action.'

'And it's a problem?'

'Too much of it can be. It can take the reader away from the immediacy of the plot, and bore them with too much waffle.'

'Can you give me an example?'

'Course I can. Imagine I was writing a story where I said that two friends had met for a cuppa in a busy cafe, and the tea was too hot to drink at first, but they nabbed an empty couch to sit on, and then started chatting about a writing project. I could do that in a waffly paragraph where I tell the reader what is happening, or I could show those facts through their conversation. It's a much quicker way of getting into it.'

'Clever.'

'I know.'

'Give me another one.'

'Ok, well if it's raining outside, I could describe the character holding an umbrella, or avoiding puddles. That way the fact it's raining is explained through the action of the character, not by the author having to say it was raining.'

'I get it. Show don't tell. So, you think you've put too much exposition in your early chapters?'

'Yeah.'

'What can you do about it?'

'I'm working on it. One way is to add more dialogue. That's probably the easiest way to improve it. The problem is, my early chapters are supposed to highlight the social isolation of the characters involved. The small amounts of dialogue that exist already are with people that have no emotional links to the main characters.'

'Like who?'

'Well, I have a whole section where one of the key characters has five seconds of chat with the guy who serves her in the supermarket. That's after about three pages of prose.'

'Prose?'

'Waffle.' 

'Ah.'

'The point is that he's the only person she verbally communicates with that day. For me to add in a whole bunch of other dialogue would take away the effects of loneliness that I'm trying to highlight.' 

'Is there nothing else you can do?'

'I have some other options. I'm using emails and Facebook messages to break up longer paragraphs. The character might have had no one to chat to that day, but I can show her typing an email, or reading a text. That way I can stick to show don't tell . She can show her feelings by typing them to a friend. And if she feels really isolated, she might end up deleting the message before she sends it. That way the character remains socially isolated, but we see this without being told it by the author in unwieldy paragraphs, over and over again.' 

'Wow. That's brilliant. You're so clever.'

'Ah, Thanks.'

'So, the wall you've hit...?'

'Yeah. I've paused the rough draft at a critical point. I want to make sure I've locked in the first half of the book, and developed the characters as deeply as I can, before I get to the emotional crux of the thing.'

'Were you worried it wasn't working?'

'I suppose I just wanted to make sure that the motivations and behaviour of the characters were inevitable by the way I'd set them up. Their choices have to make sense. And reading back, I felt I could have set them up better than I have so far.'

'You panicked?'

'Yeah. I think I did.'

'Well I don't care what you say, I think you are marvellous, Nicky. A genius. I don't know how you do it, week in, week out. Simply inspirational. You must keep up the good work. Society needs your books. Society needs you.'

'Ah thanks, Malala. That's a lovely thing to say. And how are things going for you, post Nobel prize?' 

End Scene.

(Psst. Have a lovely week, folks.)