I started out as a discovery writer, so I just started writing and had no idea what would come out.
This was a real treat. I’ve always loved action and romantic tension, but I realized I have a real talent for snappy, funny dialogue and banter.
I’m lucky to have such wonderful beta readers and friends, Catherine and Leslie, and they were quick to point this out, that my dialogue is really good, I clearly enjoy writing it, and they enjoyed reading it. Not to mention a lot of funny asides. In what’s otherwise a very dark novel, the unexpected humor and banter ends up creating a lovely balance.
I haven’t shared a lot of examples of my writing, because it’s very nerve-wracking as a writer. Isn’t it weird that I want to have my book in thousands of hands, but it’s hard to share it with people? I’m working to share it more, so I wanted to leave you with a few excerpts I enjoyed writing.
Right in the beginning, Natalie, my main character, is impatiently waiting for her friend Laura to pick where they’re getting takeout dinner.
Would she soon have a buttery stack of garlic naan in front of her? Or general tso chicken and a pile of that perfect sticky rice she could never replicate?
Natalie’s rice always came out al dente, which was not a term meant for rice.
One of my favorite character introductions is Adam. I love Adam as a character. Natalie, my main character, is complicated in a very tragic and MC-like way, while Adam is complicated in a more normal and down to earth way. While Natalie is driven by big ideological ways and has a lot of complexes she deals with because of past experiences, Adam lives more in the day to day, and the things that bother him reflect this.
Natalie lifted an elbow over the bench to turn, and there behind them, Adam leaned against his dingy black car, sheltering behind the open driver’s door.
Adam never smoked, but he looked like he desperately needed a cigarette. She was glad to see he didn’t wear his grey shirt, the one that soaked through at the armpits when the two of them were scouting and found Cody.
Natalie threw two fingers up into a peace sign to reassure Adam, but it didn’t seem to work.
She did everything she could to project the image that she was a thrill junkie, eager to risk her life at the hands of someone still in the throes of their untamed abilities.
Both because Adam’s reaction was hilarious, and because it was true.
Here’s another exchange between Natalie and Laura, who’s unnervingly direct and gets easily annoyed with everybody, although she has a big heart.
“You know how someone in declining health eats salads for breakfast to lower their, I don’t know, cholesterol?”
“Nobody does that,” Laura said, taking a sip of her soda and spilling some on her shirt without noticing.