What Makes a Book Sparkle?

I'm pretty tired tonight. But I haven't blogged in five days and the guilt is beginning to pile up! So, I hope this makes sense. I'm sure I'll take another look in the morning an decide this is drek and delete it. But until the sun comes up, on with the blog.

I've been "blog moonlighting" on Wednesdays at the community blog Sparkle This on the subject of finding an agent. Which is completely relevant since I'm in the midst of finding my very own. And I realized, I've never blogged here about why we felt the need to come together as a group in order to "Find the Sparkle."

You know when you're carelessly ambling around the bookstore in your favorite section, sifting through the books on the shelf? You skim the first paragraphs in quick succession until something jumps out and grabs your attention? Well, the invisible tentacles wrapped around your throat can now be defined as "The Sparkle", the intangible quality a writer embues into their work that gives the story a life of its own.

There are elements we could name like tone, voice, setting, etc., that might effectively convey the generality of "sparkledom". But, quite frankly, if you knew nothing about writing and possessed only a modicum of education, you'd be capable of discerning the indefinable pull of sparkle.

I actually think this is what some Editorial Interns or Editorial Assistants do. They don't know why the submission is good or bad, but they know what they like.

Okay, so now that you know what Sparkle is, how do we find/develop it in our own writing? Where do we begin?

Within the long list of the elements we're required to master in crafting a saleable novel, each of us seem to have been given or developed a writing muscle stronger in one area than another. You grasp onto it and use it to pull yourself along while you muck through the crap-phase--the years of learning all the other elements of story. It's so important during this time to know you're doing something right. You may even leave this initial element behind as you gain other tools of writing or match it with another element or two that develops into a trifecta of sparkling writing. Congratulations. Please don't berate the rest of us who are still working at it. :)

So, whether you have one or three elements (or more), you still have to polish the prose to make it shiny. Here's where the search for the sparkle begins.

Let's start with Dialogue.

I truly respect a literary tone or beautiful prose or emotion which effortlessly sinks inside my soul. I have to work hard for those elements. They require pass after pass of revisions before I feel satisfied I've done my best.

The stories that really "get me" are those with dialogue so razor sharp to the gut it forces me to keep turning the page. Dialogue is where I try to make my work sparkle the brightest. Dialogue in and of itself can encompass every other facet. Dialogue. Emotion. Plot. There's my own trifecta, if you're interested.

Dust off some books from your keeper shelf and turn to a dialogue run.

Is it realistic? Poignant? Relevant? Subtextual? Sometimes the most important dialogue on the page is what the characters DON'T say to each other. A look. A touch. Even an involuntary action can act as dialogue. Especially an involuntary action.

Now, turn to a dialogue run from your wip. Ask yourself the same questions about the dialogue you've written on the page. Now, put yourself inside the scene by drawing emotions from your own experience.

Have you ever said the opposite of what you meant? What emotion motivated the fib? Was it a little one or a big one? Who was protected by it? What was revealed? (I love the contrast in hiding to reveal.) Who was hurt because you didn't trust someone with the truth? Close your eyes and relive this scene. Pay special attention to your body language, heart rate, hand motions, facial expressions. Use all your five senses.

Now go back and rewrite the dialogue/scene from your wip using your new tricks. This time, add the beats of pause and action/reaction your characters experienced. (If you don't know about these, check out Story by Robert McKee.)

Was it better? Did you feel as if you were reliving the scene with the characters? Did it sparkle?

I bet it did. Now, go back through the entire book and revise the places where you missed an opportunity to make it sparkle.

And I would love to see some revised samples!

Until then,
Happy Writing