Jack Whyte at SiWC

Jack began his presentation as follows: "Dialogue with the master. Heh, I don't feel very magisterial at the moment." Good times ensued.

Workshop Description:

Dialogue with a Master. New York Times bestselling author Jack Whyte shares his secrets of believable communication on the page.

On one character talking over several paragraphs: put opening quotes on each paragraph. Don't put ending quotations until they are done speaking.

Don't over-explain.

Show physical body language. It carries the message. You don't need a bunch of said, answered, etc. A twitch of the eyebrow, a nod of the head registers engagement, conviction, confidence.

3-4 people in a conversation. There is a great example in Robert McCammon's The Queen of Bedlam. (Main character walks into a room of strangers. 6 or 7 people sitting around a table. They talk to each other, the main character, there is cross-talk in front of him).

Greetings - Have someone do a general greeting. You can say it happened without using dialogue.

THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT BOREDOM ON THY READER

You provide the blueprint - need to have worked out every idea in your head. Ex. If the character crosses the room, you had better give the reader warning this is happening. They can't just flash from point to point.

If there are several smells in a room, 1 will be a primary smell and the rest will be secondary, etc... 1 will overwhelm the other.

Accents - same language, same words, different way of holding mouth. Overtones are nuance.

Early, establish time introducing a character. Paint a picture of them. Put in standard english with the occasional vowel difference. You can use sentence structure as a tell.

Britain - dialogue changes from town to town.

It is not the way you speak, it is the words you use. Ex. trunk vs boot.

Maybe write an author's note or a simple glossary.

Historical writing - be aware of modernity. Ex. Measuring distance, time (moments, not minutes). Be constantly on guard!

Inside dialogue, use contractions. Outside of dialogue, DON'T.

If it is boring or doesn't move story forward, cut it. Throw it out.

What the story is doesn't matter. Your responsibility is to make it as absolutely limpidly clear as possible.

Dialogue is for character sharing, not information. Hear voice. That is when events begin taking place. Parts of character become etched into place. Good parts, flaws.

You don't have to say how many cavities the character has. Give a brief description and imagination does the rest.

Recommended Reading:

The Queen of Bedlam

Robert McCammon

The Religion

Tim Willocks (Harrowing siege and battle scenes)

John Irving and Pat Conroy

Great dialogue. Deal with strange family situations.

Dickens

You may learn more about Jack Whyte and his books on his website.

Anne Perry, Jack Whyte, Robert McCammon, Diana Gabaldon Moderator: Anthony Dalton at SiWC

All right, here is a new game for you. Take five amazing writers. Put them in a room and let them talk with one another. See what sort of notes you come up with.

Here are the results from the first time I played this game:

Making History. Non-fiction author Anthony Dalton moderates this panel of historical fiction superstars as they share their secrets of bringing real history to life in fiction. With authors Diana Gabaldon, Robert McCammon, Anne Perry, and Jack Whyte.

DG - Her favorite book is the one she is working on.

JW - History has unchanging elements. The writer must demystify it. They need to make it relevant to current readers.

Do you need to write a glossary?

JW - Have to do it for editor.

AP - Having a street map is useful.

JW - (On writing accents) Change as few vowels as possible to differentiate each accent for character. Write in normal, idiomatic english otherwise.

DG - Loch Ness smells like cold mud and dead fish.

Maps, small alleys, bylanes. (Not sure. Describe them? Get historical maps to be more accurate? I don't know.)

JW - Nelson's navy in the 16th and 17th century cut down (clearcut) the oak forests in the Highlands to build the navy. They never grew back.

On including real people in historical fiction

Allow real people to cross the street in front of fictional characters, etc. Otherwise, unless you know they do it (it is written down somewhere), don't make them do it.

And this is all I wrote down.

It would appear I ignored Robert McCammon. I didn't. The man was absolutely spell-binding. He spoke quietly and everyone leaned forward in their seats to catch every word. What I found most interesting is what he didn't say. He took a ten year break where he did no writing. Then he started again. What did he do during these ten years? He went for a lot of walks.

Then he wrote The Queen of Bedlam, a book Jack Whyte described in a later session as a book so beautiful (I'm paraphrasing here), it spurred him to invite Robert to the SiWC. A book with an amazing example of the use of dialogue in one of the opening scenes.

I know they discussed editors. I know they answered questions from the audience. I doubt I blinked more than once a minute through the entire sitting. Like all the other SiWC seminars, it was a truly amazing experience. Bravo to the SiWC planning committee and if anyone is still on the fence about whether or not to attend, I vote you do. You are taking votes, aren't you?

Websites

Anne Perry

Jack Whyte

Robert McCammon

Diana Gabaldon (Did I mention I love her podcasts?)