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How do you guys do beats?

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Gregg Bell:
If they don't come out organically on the first draft sometimes I have a hard time adding them later. Too many heads shaking and nodding and shrugs.

Cabbages and kings:

Vijaya:
I try to write my scenes with action, so the dialogue is hardly ever just talking heads. Ex. a conversation during a drive or while cooking, etc. I write very domestic stories, so it's not the action of "action movies."

alhawke:

--- Quote from: Gregg Bell on July 13, 2024, 08:17:41 AM ---If they don't come out organically on the first draft sometimes I have a hard time adding them later. Too many heads shaking and nodding and shrugs.

--- End quote ---
My process involves rewrites. I draft a first draft. Then I redraft. Then I redraft (sometimes a hundred times per chapter). I add filler or a pause when the conversation is getting too dialog heavy. I tend to add in scenery and descriptions with further rewrites. My chapters are driven by dialog, by my characters (with the exception of my epic fantasies, which are less dialog heavy). Basically, I write with two hats: writer and editor. The editor side takes care of excessive body language, mood or action problems in revisions. I don't outline. Oh, and if the chapter isn't working, it's thrown away.

Gregg, welcome to Writer Sanctum!  :mhk9U91:

LilyBLily:
Heads nodding happens a lot in real life as we acknowledge what some other person says, but in books, it is a problem. The same with shrugging. I try not to let them do any of these more than once per character per book; it's a struggle, because I am not a literary stylist who can come up with inspired descriptions--and I suspect my readers are not looking for same, either. I like the idea from that video of thinking about what the characters might be doing that is significant during a dialogue.

However, I have been bored and annoyed by too many books in which a visceral sexual reaction to someone is described at great length and stops the action altogether--or worse, forces the female lead to then stammer, stutter, say utterly stupid stuff, drop things, and generally make a fool of herself. Hate that. 

Somewhere in between would be nice, wouldn't it?

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