Continuing on through Jeff Carvers course today after a Sunday off for bad behaviour, I came across a subsection of the above mentioned chapter so important I'll put the web address here:
http://www.writesf.com/08_Lesson_05_Perils.html
"Here's another mistake to watch out for: not, as you might think, too many instances of he said and she said, but rather the temptation to use substitute phrases... The mistake is so common that there's a name for it: said-bookisms... The substitute phrases... generally only call attention to themselves while adding little power to the dialogue"
It makes such good sense. I know I've felt inclined to use some of these silly “said-bookisms” myself from time to time. Luckily, or perhaps through cowardice, to date none of my work that's seen the light of day (been shown to anyone other than myself) has had more than a smattering of dialogue, so it's not been something I've fallen victim to as yet.
It's a public holiday here in Tassie today... apparently. The Hobart Cup. I have to say I've never heard of it before, but it's obviously Tasmania's answer to the Melbourne Cup. According to the news last night, the Tasmanian horses aren't greatly favoured to win as there's a very strong field from out of state. Odd thing is, they only mentioned the names of the Tasmanian horses in the report. You've got to love regional news broadcasts. I remember we used to thoroughly enjoy the Illawarra news when we lived in Kiama. While the national news was reporting on trade negotiations with China and bushfires in Victoria destroying whole towns, the Illawarra news would focus on “a dastardly attack on a helpless old lady on the harbour front in Wollongong” when a purse snatcher had apparently thrown an eighty year old to the ground, or “a reckless teenager was caught doing 46Kms per hour over the speed limit on King Street”. The news here is not quite as parochial, though very nearly. Not too surprising given that Tasmania has a population roughly equal to that of the Illawarra area.
While reading through a section of the writers course on the importance of research, I had a bolt of lightning, well, inspiration. JC (Jeff Carver) mentioned, in passing, “Need to know about police procedure? Ask one of your local police officers.” As I thought to myself “never mind the plural there” as our town has only one, it occurred to me. What if in the vast reaches of post FTL space, there was such a sparsely populated region that there was only one policeman posted there. Being in space, it's unlikely he'd be as concerned with speeding as a terrestrial counterpart. What would his duties entail? What if he suddenly had to deal with something radically different. Something that would challenge even a well manned and better equipped space patrol “station”. Maybe I should go have a chat with Sam, our policeman. Paula and I just watched a double episode of Castle, a TV show about a writer who goes and hangs around a police officer for inspiration. Funny coincidence, but I rather suspect not only would Sam refuse such a request, it'd be pointless anyway. I mean, what kind of inspiration would I be likely to derive, especially for a Space Patrolman, from watching a country cop give a few interstate drivers speeding fines? Still, I may just ask him if he ever did have an interesting event he had to deal with... nah, he would have just called in the detectives from Launceston surely.
Tomorrow it'll have been a week since I submitted Dream Stealers. I know I shouldn't expect to hear back so soon, but I can't help but feel a nervous sort of excitement. I haven't felt this way since I competed in the state athletics championships back in the eighties.
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