I hadn’t heard the expression “talking heads” before, but I just had an editor point it out to me. Suddenly I realized how guilty I am of writing scenes with talking heads. You know, the ones where the characters are chatting away in a blank space with nothing around them to ground the reader and transport them into the scene.
Yes — that is what “talking heads” means. Writing a scene with no anchors. Creating a sequence of dialogue between characters that isn’t placed in a vivid setting or surrounded with the right emotion.
As brilliant as your dialogue and physical beats may be, if they’re not placed in the right setting, they’re going to fall short. So, how do you create these anchor points and add that extra punch needed for a scene? Continue reading “Talking Heads: Dialogue Scenes in Your Book that May Lack Punch”
“Texas has a lot of electrical votes.” –Yogi Berra
Fantasy writers and readers have a reputation for being just slightly soft in the head. I mean, what adult believes in magic? But wait a moment. All forms of writing ask for a suspension of disbelief by the reader, and there are elements of “magic” in most genres. That’s the joy of reading. By creating an imaginary world for us, the writer pushes us towards a sense of wonder. But it is easy for an author to overuse the readers’ belief in the more wonderful story elements. Since they are…well…magical, authors may think they don’t have to follow the usual rules. But use of magic has rules of its own, because that is where the writer is in the most danger of pushing readers into disbelief. The following are a few principles of writing “magic” of all sorts that authors might wish to consider. 
It’s easy to fall into bad habits with our writing — lazy prose we’ve become so accustomed to that we don’t even notice it, even during the editing process. I had fallen into a really bad habit without even realizing it, and it wasn’t until I read an article on filter words that I had my lightbulb moment.