Tell me your name – ‘Romaine’ update

April 9, 2014 by Jennifer L. Post 2 Comments

When I was working on “Take On Me” earlier this year, I found that writing everything out by hand first and then typing it up on the computer worked really well for me. I have a pretty strong inner editor, and it’s much easier to quell it when I write this way. For some reason, typed words just feel so much more permanent. Perhaps the ink just lends itself to letting a story flow out. In any case, when I started working on “Romaine” again I thought it would probably be a good idea to use the same method that worked so well for me in January. And then, I hit a snag.

A dialogue snag.

Dialogue is the plague of many a writer. I find that usually when I have a problem with dialogue it’s because I’m not actually sure of what I am trying to convey in the scene, or how to do it best, or because I’m getting distracted by whatever action or description is going on. In the case of the latter, I script it out. When I am unsure of how or what I’m conveying however, the only thing that really works is to write it out, again and again, until I get it right. I’m now remembering what a huge pain in the butt that is to do with hand-writing! XD

So, I ‘cheated’ a little bit and got my computer out. Adapting a trick that I learned from Ginny DiGiuseppi over at  Ginny Writes, I skipped past actually typing up everything I currently have, and went right to work on the dialogue problem. That’s actually a big first for me, I’m a bit proud of it. Even better, it worked! I was able to resolve the problem pretty quickly, and then went right back to writing in my notebook at work that same day. I going to file process this under ‘useful tools’ in the writing section of my brain.

In other news, my female main character now has a name! ^-^Or, if you rather, I finally found out what her name is.

Here is a bit of the dialogue I was working on:

“I’m sorry, he said, breaking the silence that had settled between them. “I’ve frightened you, and that was not my intention in the least. I’ve never had to deal with a situation like this before. Honestly, I’m not sure how to proceed.” He looked rather awkward.

“Tell me your name,” said Elena, looking down at her hands. She didn’t want to embarrass him further by staring.

“What?”

“Tell me your name,” she said again, slower. “And then ask me for mine.”

She looked back up, half through her lashes. Flustered, unsure, she saw the emotions on his face. She waited while he composed himself.

“My name is Romaine,” he said at last. No bow, no elegant flourishes. “And, uh, you?”

She lifted her face, hiding the wariness she still felt behind a frail little friendly smile. “I’m Elena.”