Week 40 - A Question of Ring Roads

This morning, stuck on Sheffield’s new Inner Ring Road, my passenger asked me what I was doing this weekend. It was the kind of question that is asked without any real desire to elicit information. It’s what linguistic professors call phatic conversation.

“How are you?” is a classic example. No one who asks really wants to know that your knees crack with a sound reminiscent of a starter’s pistol; that the egg sandwich you had for lunch is repeating more often than Dad’s Army on UK Gold; or for that matter that you’ve been feeling a little down of late and could do with a hug.

Thus it was this morning when I responded to the enquiry about the impending weekend by saying: “Well actually, I’m going to see a tree.”

The rest of journey passed in silence.

To be fair, it was probably not the answer they expected – “oh, nothing much…” would have been nearer the mark – but then they did ask…

As it happens, that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Last Christmas my mother was gifted a tree to be planted in her name by the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust. This weekend, I am taking her to see it on an open day.

All well and good, I hear you say, but what’s that got to do with writing a crime novel?

Admittedly, I have taken a rather tortuously convoluted route to my point (although it has nothing on Sheffield’s new Inner Ring Road), but at least I have arrived where I want to be (unlike Sheffield new Inner Ring Road…)

As I head towards the end of my second draft (and the denouement of my plot), the descriptive passages recede to be replaced my more and more dialogue. It’s a natural evolution of the writing process and helps increase the sense of immediacy, but is does bring the quality of your characters’ dialogue into sharp focus.

More so that anywhere else, it is vital that the dialogue is realistic. Any false notes would bring the reader up short and instantly diffuse the tension. So how do you make sure your dialogue is as realistic as possible?

Simple – listen to people speak. There’s no substitute for it…but remember, you can be too realistic. If you wrote exactly how people speak there would be dozens of “errs and umms…” as well as countless contradictions.

Selective realism is what we’re after as writers; so in the case of dialogue, you will also need to take on the role of editor.

After all, when someone asks you what you’re doing at the weekend, there’s no need to tell them you’re going to see a tree.

Especially if you’re stuck on Sheffield’s new Inner Ring Road…