Linguistics 101 with Mike Dellosso

Hi you awesome Inkwell Inspirational Blog Readers! Jillian Kent here to introduce you to someone who doesn’t write romance. But he does write incredible, truth-filled, thriller novels. Mike's books are published by Strang/Realms, the same publisher who will be releasing my first historical romance novel in May 2011. When you read Mike's books you're bound to look at life . . . and death differently. Mike also has a lot to say about language that I think you’ll enjoy. Therefore, we welcome you to Linguistics 101.

Okay, class, find a seat and quiet down.

Uh, sir . . . yes, you . . . please put the iPod away, pull your pants up before they wind up around your ankles, and sit down.

And you, you there, what are you hiding behind your back? Flarp? Really? My third grader plays with that stuff. Put it away, please.

Okay, class, settle down. I’d like you all to get out a pad of paper and a pen, open your eyes and ears, and close your mouths. Welcome to Linguistics 101. The first lesson we’re going to talk about, and the most important for dealing with language in fiction is mastering the art of spying and eavesdropping. I know it sounds sinister, and no, we’re not training you for the KGB, but trust me, these two little techniques are very useful. And hey, if you don’t like the terms spying and eavesdropping you can always call them by their more domesticated term: being nosey.

Language, both verbal and non-verbal, is a very important element of writing fiction. Your readers don’t want pasty dialogue that sounds like you scooped it out of some can, they don’t want flat characters acting out their roles like preprogrammed robots, they want realism. They want to be able to feel as though the characters of your story are real and living people inhabiting a real and living world.

The best way to learn how to incorporate authentic language into your stories is to watch, study, record, and obsess over real and living people.

Now, I’m a people-watcher by nature, always have been. I grew up with a severe stuttering problem that kept me from talking too much, very little, in fact. In a group of people I was the quiet one, the observer . . . the watcher (sounds creepy, doesn’t it?). But I learned to observe people, to read them, and know what they were saying when they hadn’t spoken a word or what they were really saying when they did speak. I watched body language; I listened to conversations.

Watch and listen; spy and eavesdrop. Those are the essential ingredients to capturing realistic language in your fiction.

So here’s what you do, your assignment. Go to a mall, a grocery store, your church foyer after the morning service, or some other high traffic area and just sit and watch people. Take note of their body language, their hand gestures, facial expressions, posturing. The way they laugh, express surprise, fake a smile. Watch their eyes, their mouth, their hands and feet. Study them. Put them under a microscope and scrutinize their every move. Then get up and mill around and listen to conversations, not to get ammo for juicy gossip but to learn how people really talk. Listen to the words they use, the colloquialisms, the slang, the familiar expressions. Listen to the choppiness of conversational speech. Take note how often they cut each other off or finish each other’s sentences.

Then go home and take notes, jot down what you saw and heard. Copy conversations so you get the feel and rhythm of dialogue between two or more people.

Look, all of us have read books where we stopped in the middle of a section of dialogue and said, “Oh, c’mon. People don’t really talk like that.” You don’t want someone saying that about your writing. You want the reader to move right through without skipping a beat because the dialogue you’ve created is so realistic that it’s no different than the conversations they hear at work, at home, at church, or in the store.

One more thing, one final assignment. Find an author in your genre who has mastered dialogue and body language and read his or her work, not for pleasure but to learn. For me, it’s Stephen King. I’ve never read an author with such a keen sense of language as King. For you it may be someone else.

Now, go get your spy gear and get to it. I can’t wait to read what you come up with. And yes, you can take your Flarp out now.

Mike Dellosso is the author of three novels of supernatural suspense, his most recent being Darlington Woods. When he’s not creating fiction Mike also writes a bi-weekly column for his local newspaper and is an adjunct professor of writing at Lancaster Bible College. He lives in Hanover, PA with his wife and three daughters.

http://www.mikedellosso.com/