On Countersinking: Showing and Then Telling

This is inspired by Turkey City Lexicon - A Primer for SF Workshops. It's worth checking out the full article because it highlights some of the common clichés and pitfalls that can clog up a story. The article was written with sci-fi in mind, although a lot of their points relate to all fiction genres.

The one I'm focusing on is countersinking. This one makes me grin because I used to do it a lot in my early writing. A few years ago, me and a friend set about workshopping our earliest pieces to see what we could learn, and to track our improvements. The workshops were a riot—seeing ourselves as young, bouncy authors, full of excitement and dreadful clichés, lacking finesse and attention to detail but having so much fun writing and developing our styles. It's a bit like travelling back in time and spending an afternoon with the kid version of yourself, entertaining and not a little eye-opening. I'm way more conscious of countersinking nowadays and rarely find it slipping into my prose, but I do falter occasionally, and often stumble upon it when reading other people's work.

"You have to get out of here," he said, urging her to leave.

And here is what's happening:

A form of expositional redundancy in which the action clearly implied in dialogue is made explicit.

Or as I like to call it, "showing and then telling". It's obvious from the dialogue that somebody is urging someone else to leave, so the explanation urging her to leave is redundant.

Newer authors tend to do this due to a lack of confidence, but even pro authors are prone to do it too. I'm quite sensitive to countersinking; it slows down a story, reads clunky, and makes the writing feel loose and flabby. When doing a round of edits that focus on dialogue, I'm always on the lookout for sneaky countersinks. And if I find any? I kill them.

It's strange how writing peeves can bring up so many nostalgic feelings. :) 

Literature & Lunch at Clayesmore School

Clayesmore School in Iwerne Minster is hosting its annual Literature & Lunch on June 25th 2014. This year's guests include historian David Starkey, children's author Ali Sparkes, poet Tim Liardet, sports writer Brian Scovell, and three Old Clayesmorians - Financial Modelling consultant Jack Avon, PhD student and Shakespeare expert Thomasin Bailey, and curator and cultural historian Dr Augustus Casely-Hayford.

Tickets are priced at £35 per head, and this includes three talks, coffee and pastries on arrival and two course lunch with wine.

Literature & Lunch is always popular, so book soon via the Clayesmore website.

Choosing Character Names: Fun, or a Total Nightmare?

Character names can be tricky fishes. Occasionally you'll think you've got the perfect name for your protagonist, only to get halfway through a story and realise that the name no longer suits them. Names can be used to stunning effect, evoking images, sounds, and even themes. They can hold meaning, both hidden and obvious, or they can be so generic that they don't stand out at all.

But it's a fine line between picking a name you want, picking a name that fits the character, and picking something that's not going to jar or distract readers.

We're often advised to avoid names that are too out there, absurd or overly complex, and just plain impossible to pronounce. But occasionally a story will call for the wacky. A good example of this is Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, where you can find names like Zaphod Beeblebrox and Slartibartfast. And that's OK, because it's a space comedy whose ethos is the pointlessness of trying to make an impact in an unfathomable universe--absurd names are the least of these characters' problems. The thing is, those names probably wouldn't work so well in a contemporary romance or a period drama like Downton Abbey.

And then there are names that try just a little too hard to make the character sound cool or edgy. If you're writing an action thriller, calling your ex-marine protagonist Rock Stoneblast might draw more snickers than anything. Actually, a while back Sky compiled a list of 20 Mental Movie Monikers, worth checking out for the lols.

Sci-fi and fantasy fall victim to impossible character and place names more often than most other genres. This is where you get your L'kazyx'hiqxues from planet Xzerquee'h'ex or somesuch (which is probably in the Pzzy'awxze'a galaxy). These monstrosities can be enough to make a reader quit early on. There's also the issue of people who read out loud to themselves or read stories to other people, and don't forget audiobooks.

When I pick names for my characters, the first thing I do is check their meanings on Behind the Name, just to make sure I'm not making any unintentional faux pas. The nerd in me quite likes it when an author gets clever with name meanings. You never know, there might be a reader who looks it up and is surprised to find the meaning has a connection to the characters' backstory, attitudes, etc.

You also need to be mindful of when your story is set and which names were popular at the time. Putting a Beyoncé in 17th Century rural England probably won't fly with the history buffs. ;)

There are tons of excellent sources for names, if you're really stuck. With a little patience, you can generally find good stuff in the phone book, movie or TV show credits, even graveyards (creepy, I know, but sometimes you have to get creative!). And there are the online venues Baby Names, The Internet Surname Database, Random Name Generator, as well as Behind the Name (linked above). And a silly one, Name Generator Fun.

So how do you go about naming your characters? Do they walk into your head fully formed with a name, or do you begin with a name and build the character around it? Do you struggle to find fitting names for your chars? Have you encountered any memorable names from books/TV/movies that you want to share? I'd love to hear them!

(This entry was originally written for and posted to the Get Your Words Out community on LiveJournal.)