Introduction

I think most people in this club know me or know of me, but I'm Zentru'la, new Professor of Writing.

It is my opinion that the most effective way to learn writing is to discover it through regular practice and, most importantly thought and reflection. My aim as Professor is to help people find their potential as writers, whether they joined last week or last century. I want to create useful content that isn't just a course that you do once and forget about.

To that end I'm going to run a series of news posts that act as a ‘lecture series’ in which I take an aspect of storytelling and examine how we can improve on it in our own writing. While I'm fairly experienced by DB standards, I am not a professional writer so I'll be drawing heavily on the teachings of world-leading authors including Brandon Sanderson, J. K Rowling and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

None of this advice is set in stone, and I think one of the worst things you can do is get stuck into the idea of hard rules that say YOU MUST DO THIS. What I present in these lectures are supposed to be things to think about when you write your next story.

If anyone does strongly disagree with anything in any of my posts, I'd encourage you to drop your thoughts in the comments. I once read a Twitter argument between two professors in which I learned way more about why they felt the way they did than I would have done reading their papers.

Engaging Dialogue

This first lecture is mostly drawn from NY Times Bestselling author Jerry Jenkins' YouTube Channel. The video has 6 main tips and then some miscellaneous advice, but it's the miscellaneous advice that really had a massive impact on how I write dialogue going forwards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpWKp-fnZuU&t=733s&ab_channel=JerryB.Jenkins

Something we can all take from this is in overusing attribution tags. Jenkins once wrote an entire novel without a single attribution tag, not one use of said, exclaimed, shouted, etc., and his editor didn't even notice. I did this once too and Appius didn't notice. He recommends using dialogue tags only when the reader wouldn't know who is speaking.

If you do need attribution tags (according to Jenkins), 'said' is all you need, and using words like answered, declared, stated, etc. to avoid the use of said is archaic and usually given as advice by people that are 'unpublished'. He says the amateur writer often writes something like:

"I'm beat," exclaimed John tiredly.

Which tells rather than shows, uses the archaic exclaimed, and adds tiredly, which needs no explanation. The pro would write:

John dropped onto the couch. "I'm beat."

You don't need to be told that he's tired. You're shown through his actions. This is a much more dynamic, and interesting way of showing that John is tired.

A DB Example

One of the best examples I've seen recently in the DB comes from Taldryan's Jorm Na'trej, in, of all places, an RP session.

"We've got rooms, Orson. Clean ones." The barman crossed his arms and shoved his jaw forward, pointing his chin prominently at the suited man. "Taking one might be a good idea."

He never describes how the words are said. He doesn't even say who said them. But the barman's assertive mannerisms show you this. More eagle eyed readers might notice the bartender copies the mannerisms of Orson's commander, General Zentru'la, who is often described by his prominent chin, and realise that the barman is relaying orders by proxy while maintaining cover in presence of the enemy. Jorm achieves all this with the simple act of crossing his arms and shoving his jaw forward.

This is all shown to us through the bartender's actions rather than being told in narrative summary. 'Show, don't tell' (and why I think simply stating that doesn't actually help anyone) will be a topic in its own right later.

Closing Thoughts

I hope this was either enjoyable or helpful to read. Next time you sit down to write a story, consider playing with some of these writing techniques and see if it helps make your dialogue stand out.

If it would help anyone, I'm more than happy to take a look at anyone's recent writing and give my thoughts and suggestions on ideas to explore that might help. I'm not great at going through writing with a fine-tooth comb and correcting everything but I'm getting better at the big-picture things.

The next lecture will be after the war, and hopefully with guest lecturers from the gold nova winners!

Professor Zentru'la