Wednesday, June 10, 2009

One Plus One Equals One

Our brains are powerful things. Even though I usually advocate focused writing, sometimes creating a passage that reaches a bit of mania can energize a story for the better. One way to do this is to combine scenes or character interactions.

We’ve probably all written a relatively mundane scene. Suppose character A is having a conversation with character B (Traci, this might partially address your question about a character who has to tell back story). Suppose, also, that character A then has to go on to have a conversation with character C. Possibly, you could end up having two relatively boring character interactions back to back. In your revisions, one thing to try is to overlap these two scenes so that character A is talking to B and C at the same time.

Here’s a passage from Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything Is Illuminated. In this scene, a Ukrainian tour guide, Alex, is having a conversation with his grandfather about trying to find a particular city. At the same time, Alex is also trying to talk with his American customer, Jonathan. On their own, either of these two conversation might not have had much life to them, but by combining them, a colorful scene is created, topped off by the Grandfather’s blind seeing-eye dog, Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior:

“How do we get there?” Granfather inquired me, who was in the front seat, because when I am in a car I always sit in the front seat, unless the car is a motorcycle, because I do not know how to operate a motorcycle, although I will very soon. The hero was in the back seat with Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior, and they were attending to their own affairs: the hero masticated the nails of his fingers, and the bitch masticated her tail. “I do not know,” I said. “Inquire the Jew,” he ordered, so I did. “I don’t know,” he said. “He does not know.” “What do you mean he does not know?” said Grandfather. “We are in the car. We are primed to go forth on our voyage. How can he not know?” His voice was now with volune, and it frightened Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior, making her bark. BARK. I asked the hero, “What do you mean you do not know?” “I told you everything I know. I thought one of you was supposed to be the trained and certified Heritage guide. I paid for a certified guide, you know.” Grandfather punched the car’s horn, and it made a sound. HONK. “Grandfather is certified!” I informed him, BARK, which was faithfully faithful, although he was certified to operate an automobile, not to find lost history. HONK. “Please!” I said at Grandfather. BARK. HONK. “Please! You are making this impossible!” HONK! BARK! “Shut up,” he said, “and shut the bitch up and shut the Jew up!” BARK. “Please!” HONK! “You’re sure he’s certified?” “Of course,” I said. HONK! “I would not deceive.” BARK! “Do something,” I told Grandfather. HONK! “Not that!” I said with volume. BARK! He commenced to drive the automobile that he was fully certified to drive.

As writers we may initially be scared to write such a scene, because we’re not sure that a reader will understand it. But, notice how our brains can deconvolve this mess and get all the information we need. Moreover, because the brain is constantly working throughout the passage, I think it becomes a more interesting read. Of course, there are multiple ways to revise a boring passage, but this is one way that might not come intuitively to us. And, it doesn’t only work with dialog. Action scenes and descriptions can also be shuffled together to give your writing new life.

17 comments:

  1. I think that a scene like this is made possible because Alex has a distinctive comic voice. And, of course, because Mr. Froer is a really good writer.

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  2. I've actually done this when writing character charts and goofing around trying to figure out character relationships and the like. But to do it in the actual story. Gasp. Sounds like a great idea, Davin.:)

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  3. I tried to combine as many things into scenes as I could in my last book, so that there was never any purely expository scene, that every scene had conflict, theme and moved the story forward. I think that writing short stories helped me a lot with that technique, where you've got a limited amount of space to do as much as you can. This is a good post, Davin. I think a lot more could be said about this. Happily for everyone, I'll let others say it.

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  4. I didn't care for the example, but you brought up an interesting point. Perhaps I should mix things up a bit, as the teenagers say. Young power!

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  5. Davin, thank you. I am working on a scene where I decided to do this. I think we're on the same wavelength today. This scene alternates a present conversation with a past conversation, and in doing so, I am avoiding that horrible flashback I haven't been able to work out. I think this might work. Your post has helped me with some other ideas, as well, so thank you.

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  6. I really didn't like the scene myself. I can see what your point is with the post (a good idea to discuss to be sure), but I don't agree that this example is a good one. It was too difficult to follow the scene. But since so many others seem to like it, maybe it's just me.

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  7. Writing scenes with more than two active characters are a challenge in and of themselves, even if they aren't having conversations at cross-purposes.

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  8. Interesting and great post, Davin (have I ever told you how much I like your name?). Anyway, what about when you have several characters in one scene and each one gets a line or two thrown in there...or the conversation breaks down to two characters speaking while the rest squirm in the background? Ha! I happen to have a lot of scenes like that and, at times, it's hard work to get a point across and paint a vivid picture of all the characters standing or sitting around, talking over dinner or at a club or whatnot.

    And, I agree, introducing backstory through character dialogue can be tricky sometimes, but more times than not, I find it amazing how easily backstory dialogue works into the story, especially when the backstory is part of the current conflict.

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  9. Robyn, be daring! If you're already doing exercises like this, then I bet you'll be really great at it when you do it for the actual story.

    Scott, yes, writing in short forms has taught me to cram more into a given paragraph. It's an art to make things flow, and to keep readers from feeling like they are pulled into different directions at the same time. Even with a lot going on, there needs to be some sort of focus.

    Mix it up, DJ Justus! The book is pretty zany and definitely not for everyone.

    Michelle, I'm glad this could be of some help. I'm excited to see what you do. Have you been writing a lot? I hope so!

    Eric, it's not just you. Plenty of people don't like this book. This isn't my favorite scene by any means, but I thought it got the point across.

    Tara, that's true. I actually think having cross-purposes can make things easier. I three-person joint conversation is much more challenging to me. But, it also allows you to reveal more about personalities and relationship dynamics. When I was trying to get better at this, I spent a lot of time eavesdropping on tables of people talking to one another. I learned a lot. Shakespeare and Tolstoy also taught me a lot about how to handle groups.

    Ashley, Thanks! Ugh, like I just said above, what you're trying to do is so hard for me. But, I really admire it whenever I see it done well. I'm always drawn back to the dinner parties in Anna Karenina whenever I want to do something like this. It's exciting and frustrating for me.

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  10. "deconvolve"??? is that even a word ;)

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  11. Davin, you were supposed to argue the merits of the book so I could outsmart you!

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  12. Edithroad, deconvolve is most definitely a word. True, I got it from my microscopy class, but it IS a word.

    Justus, the merits of the book: the narrators voice manages to be funny while revealing personality, both of the character and of the writer. Foer is able to write something that's clear even though a bunch of conventions are broken, including the only-newly-enacted-financially-gaining devise of using a new paragraph for each line of dialog. I'm going to go count some algae cells, and when I return, I expect to be outsmarted.

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  13. Kids these days. "Deconvolution" is a fancy scientist term for filtering out "noise" or "static" or whathaveyou. I imagine Davin uses fancy-schmancy computer-assisted microscopy tools in his lab with software to enhance the images.

    In other words, we can still get an accurate picture of the scene from the Foer book even though it's filled with barking dogs and car horns and too many people talking at once. Me, I liked the excerpt and I thought it was fun to read.

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  14. What a fun excerpt. I think it is easier said than done...but certainly something worth striving for. Anything to help break up those dry passages of text that sometimes bog the novel down, right?

    Love that Grandfather character!

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  15. Sorry, no outsmarting you this time, Davin; instead, you must answer a question. Why did you say "newly enacted"? And, do they really expect writers to make a new paragraph for every line of dialogue, or is that rule only applicable when changing speakers? So I asked two questions. Big deal!

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  16. Scott, sometimes, isn't it just enough for me to scream that I'm right?

    Tess, yes, that grandfather was a great character. I liked a lot of the characters in that book. Brod is actually one of my favorite character in literature, right up there with...Anna Karenina. Ahhhhh, feels good to get that out.

    Justus, I was just being sloppy. No, you don't need a new paragraph for each line of dialog. But, the reason the whole idea of using a new paragraph for dialog started was because writers were getting paid by the page, and they wanted to stretch their stories. So, by "new" I don't mean "Kris Allen new" but more "electricity new".

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  17. Davin: This is the internet. No assertion goes unchallenged!

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