ANATOMY STUDY GUIDE 101

Any advice on back and forth dialogue? Like properly portraying an argument? I think all the spaces will get bothersome to the reader...

(Since arguments are the hardest type of back and forth dialogue to master, and other dialogue follows the same structure but in a more flexible manner, I’ll focus on arguments specifically…)

Writing an argument.

Everyone’s process for this is a little bit different, but here’s a look at mine, which has helped me reach the best end result (after many failed argument scenes in the past):

1. Dialogue. I like to write this as a script of sorts first, playing the scene in my head and only writing down the words and some vague comments regarding what the characters might be experiencing or doing. I leave breaks in the dialogue where the characters naturally pause from build ups of emotion, and add in all the em-dashes and ellipsis my heart desires (despite knowing a lot of them won’t make it through the reread, much less the final draft.)

2. Action. Not only does having your characters do things while they argue make the whole scene feel more realistic and plant it within the setting, but it also provides a great way for your characters to express things they don’t have the words to say. These “actions” can be facial expressions and body language, movement, or interaction with the objects in the setting, such as gripping a steering wheel too tightly or slamming a cupboard or tensely loading a gun.

3. Emotion. I save this for last because I find emotion very hard to write into narratives, but no matter when you write it or how you feel about it, feeling the pov character’s internal emotions is integral to the reader’s own emotional connection to the argument. Remember though, emotions should be shown and not told. Instead of saying the character is angry, describe what that anger is doing to them physically (how it makes them feel), and what desires it puts in them (how it makes them think.)

Other equally (if not more) important factors:

- Build tension slowly. Arguments will never be believable if the characters go from being calm and conversational to furious and biting in a single paragraph. The reader must feel the character’s anger build as their self-control dwindles, must hear the slight tension in their voice and the sharpness of their words as the scene leads up to the full blown argument.

- Vary sentence length. Arguments in which characters shoot single short sentences back and forth often feel just as stiff and unnatural as arguments where characters monologue their feelings for full paragraphs. If a character does need to say a lot of things in one go, break it up with short, emotional reactions from the other characters to keep the reader from losing the tension of the scene. Likewise, if characters don’t have bulk to their words, try including a few heavy segments of internal emotional turmoil from the pov character to make the argument hit harder instead of flying by without impact.

- Where did this argument start? Most arguments don’t really start the moment the words begin flying, but rather hours, days, weeks, even years before. If you as the author can’t pinpoint where the character’s emotions originated and what their primary target or release point is, then it’s unlikely the reader will accept that they exist in the first place.

- Characters want things, always. Sometimes arguments center around characters who vocally want opposing things, but often there are goals the characters hide or perhaps even from themselves. Think about what goals are influencing the characters in the argument while you’re writing it in order to make sure everything is consistent and focused.

Keep in mind that you don’t have to do all these things the very first draft. My arguments consistently have little emotion and even less build up until the second or third draft. As long as you return to these things as you continue to edit, the final result should feel like a fully fleshed out and emotional argument. 

For more writing tips from Bryn, view the archive catalog or the complete tag!

Walnut shells cut in half.

folklore botanical stamps 💐 [zoom for hq]

Your 20s are for lusting after furniture you can’t afford actually

favorite poems compilation <3

making bad art and dressing weirdly and collecting random things and listening to silly music is actually so important

Conveying Worldbuilding Without Exposition!

(As requested by both an anon and @my-words-are-light​)

One of the hardest parts of writing speculative fiction is presenting readers with a world that’s interesting and different from our own in a way that’s both immersive and understandable at the same time. 

Thankfully, there are a few techniques that can help you present worldbuilding information to your readers in a natural way, as well as many tricks to tweaking the presentation until it’s just right.

Four basic techniques:

1. The ignorant character. 

By introducing a character who doesn’t know about the aspects of the world building you’re trying to convey, you can let the ignorant character voice the questions the reader naturally wants to ask. Traditionally, this is seen when the protagonist or (another character) is brought into a new world, society, organization. In cases where that’s the natural outcome of the plot, and the character has a purpose in the story outside of simply asking questions, it can be pulled off just fine. But there’s another aspect to this which writers don’t often consider: 

Every character is your ignorant character. 

In a realistic world, no person knows everything. Someone will be behind on the news. Someone won’t know all the facts. Many, many someones won’t have studied a common part of their society simply because they aren’t large part of that fraction or don’t have the time for it.

Instead of inserting an ignorant character and creating a stiff and annoying piece of expository dialogue, find the character already existing in the story who doesn’t know about the thing being learned.

2. Conflicting opinions.

A fantastic way to convey detailed world building concepts is to have characters with conflicting viewpoints discuss or argue about them. Unless you’re working with a brainwashed society, every character should hold their own set of religious, political, and social beliefs. 

Examples of this kind of dialogue:

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Moo Deng, a famous baby hippopotamus at Khao Kheow zoo in Thailand ♡

Bonus:

Alejandra Pizarnik, tr. by Yvette Siegert, "Extracting the Stone of Madness", Extracting the Stone of Madness: Poems 1962 - 1972