8 Techniques for Writing a Fast Read (Part 2)

5.  Dialogue is one of the most important techniques you can learn. 

While I will write specifically on dialogue in a later post, for now I’ll just say that you should keep your dialogue realistic and plentiful.  Dialogue is even more important than action when it comes to driving the piece forward, because human interactions almost always have conflict and conflict is what keeps a story going.  Try writing a story twice:  Once using only dialogue, and once using only description.  This will help develop your dialogue to be more descriptive, and help make your description more compelling.

            6.  Resolution kills momentum.  

The temptation will be to tie everything together in neat little packages as often as you can because we, like everyone else, like to resolve conflict.  But conflict is what keeps a story going.  The solution is to end every chapter with a cliffhanger, especially in a layered story where you are dealing with Bobby and John trying to diffuse a bomb while Jenny and Margaret are interrogating the terrorists in the next room.  Go back and forth, ending with the bomb about to go off…  then the terrorist is about to crack…  You’ll find that if you do this enough, eventually your piece will demand a break and THAT is when you describe the house, or the hill, or the backstory that led to now.  When the reader is wondering what is going on, they are compelled to read in order to find out.  And when they are out of breath, they will appreciate the description, so long as the story eventually takes over again.

            7.  Find great test readers and listen objectively.

If you push the envelope too hard, you will confuse your reader and they will put the book down.  So, some finesse is in order.  The only way to know how much finesse is to have someone else read it and tell you what they think.

What is a great test reader?  They should have these attributes:

a.     They read your work thoroughly (no skimming) in a timely fashion.

b.     They are supportive, but HONEST about your work.

c.      They offer good suggestions as to how to improve it.

You’ll find that, if you make your writing compelling, you will have little if any trouble finding test readers.  But that will only happen if you listen to what they have to say.  Do I change everything my test readers ask for?  Of course not.  But I at least consider every suggestion and visualize what the writing would be like if I did what they suggested. 

8.  Remove your emotional connection to the work.

When I write, the first draft is passionate, but everything after that is just refinement of my product.  I remove all emotional connection to the process after the first draft because if I don’t, I won’t ever want to change it.  Very few writers get it right on the first draft, or even the second or third.  It’s important to take it as far as you possibly can before seeding your work to your test readers, or else you will alienate them.  And without test readers, you will never fully entertain your final readers with a fast-paced well-rewritten novel.

Thanks for reading!

-JJ McMoon