by Bobbie Christmas
Q: What is the necessary balance between dialogue (that shows) and exposition (that tells but advances the story)?
A: Exposition is usually background information and rarely advances a story; it halts it. Perhaps you mean narrative that advances the story. If that’s the intention of your question, then if your novel is about 70 percent dialogue, 20 percent narrative, and 10 percent exposition, you’ll be on the right track for keeping contemporary publishers and readers happy.
Q: I’m working on a novel in which the characters travel to a country where they do not speak the language, so they hire a guide/translator. I want to show the experience through the eyes of a foreigner and have it ring true, but obviously I don’t want the reader to get bored by my constantly describing an action or tone of a speaker and then having it translated by the guide/translator character. I feel like I’m finding a good balance and keeping it readable, but I would really love any advice on how best to handle this issue.
A: You’re on the right track to think in terms of moderation and balance. An occasional foreign word or phrase that the translator explains would be interesting, but giving the foreign sentence and English translation every time would bore readers. I like the idea of the native performing the action and the translator explaining. I’d be captivated, for example, if a scene showed a native waving his hands and pointing and the translator saying, “He says we can’t catch a taxi here; we have to walk down to the next corner.” As a creative writer, though, I would not use the same method of showing the speaker’s action and telling the translation every time. Always avoid patterns and look for balance in the use of each method. Sometimes the foreigner can try to guess what the speaker is trying to say. Sometimes the translation can be given in narrative. Sometimes it should be word for word and at other times paraphrased. Vary the techniques, use a comfortable balance, and the content will stay interesting to readers.
Q: How can I get away from factual writing and make it humorous?
A: You might still be able to write about facts that are funny. Logic may have no place in humor, but illogical situations that are real can be hilarious.
On the other hand, if you want to move away from the factual, the issue may be one of balancing between the right brain and the left brain. The right side of our brain is allegedly the creative side and is spontaneous and clever, likely to find humor in things. The left side of our brain supposedly thinks in a more organized, linear fashion, wanting to make logic out of everything and sometimes fill in all the details.
When we talk spontaneously, we generally draw on the right side of our brain, but when we write, we have to think of all the details that go into writing, such as sentence structure, paragraph structure, grammar, punctuation, word choice, word order, and so forth. Humor, on the other hand, requires setup, timing, and initiation. It spurns wordiness, metaphors, similes, adjectives, and adverbs. When we write, though, we want to add all those things. For that reason, try dictating your stories, rather than writing them.
Use a digital recorder or voice-to-text and record yourself speaking as if telling your humorous stories to your friends. When you analyze the results afterward, you may find you have captured the perfect balance and an original humorous tone without the wordiness.
Bobbie Christmas, book editor, author of Write In Style: Use Your Computer to Improve Your Writing, and owner of Zebra Communications, will answer your questions, too. Send them to Bobbie@zebraeditor.com.