Writing advice #?: Have your characters wash the dishes while they talk.
This is one of my favorite tricks, picked up from E.M. Forester and filtered through my own domestic-homebody lens. Β Forester says that you should never ever tell us how a character feels; instead, show us what those emotions are doing to a characterβs posture and tone and expression.Β This makesΒ βI felt sadnessβ intoΒ βmy shoulders hunched and I sighed heavily, staring at the ground as my eyes filled with tears.βΒ Those emotions-as-motions are called objective correlatives.Β Honestly, fic writers have gotten the memo on objective correlatives, but sometimes struggle with how to use them.
Objective correlatives can quickly become a) repetitive or b) melodramatic.Β On the repetitive end, long scenes of dialogue can quickly turn intoΒ βhe sighedβ and βshe noddedβ so many times that he starts to feel like a window fan and she like a bobblehead.Β On the melodramatic end, a debate about where to eat dinner can start to feel like an episode of Jerry Springer becauseΒ βhe shriekedβ whileΒ βshe clenched her fistsβ and they bothΒ βground their teeth.βΒ If you leave the objective correlatives out entirely, then you have whatβs known asΒ βfloatingβ dialogue β we get the words themselves but no idea how theyβre being said, and feel completely disconnected from the scene.Β If you try to get meaning across by telling us the charactersβ thoughts instead, this quickly drifts into purple prose.
Instead, have them wash the dishes while they talk.
To be clear: it doesnβt have to be dishes.Β They could be folding laundry or sweeping the floor or cooking a meal or making a bed or changing a lightbulb.Β The point is to engage your characters in some meaningless, everyday household task that does not directly relate to the subject of the conversation.
This trick gives you a whole wealth of objective correlatives.Β If your character is angry, then the way they scrub a bowl will be very different from how theyβll be scrubbing while happy.Β If your character is taking a moment to think, then they might splash suds around for a few seconds.Β A character who is not that invested in the conversation will be looking at the sink not paying much attention.Β A character moderately invested will be looking at the speaker while continuing to scrub a pot.Β If the character is suddenly very invested in the conversation, you can convey this by having them set the pot down entirely and give their full attention to the speaker.
βIβm leaving,β Anastasia said.
βWhat?βΒ Drizella continued dropping forks into the dishwasher.
βIβm leaving,β Anastasia said.
Drizella paused midway through slotting a fork into the dishwasher.Β Β βWhat?β
βIβm leaving,β Anastasia said.
Drizella laughed, not looking up from where she was arranging forks in the dishwasher.Β Β βWhat?β
βIβm leaving,β Anastasia said.
The forks slipped out of Drizellaβs hand and clattered onto the floor of the dishwasher.Β Β βWhat?β
βIβm leaving,β Anastasia said.
βWhat?βΒ Drizella shoved several forks into the dishwasher with unnecessary force, not seeming to notice when several bounced back out of the silverware rack.
See how cheaply and easily we can get across Drizellaβs five different emotions about Anastasia leaving, all by telling the reader how sheβs doing the dishes?Β And all the while no heads were nodded, no teeth were clenched.
The reason I recommend having it be one of these boring domestic chores instead of, say, scaling a building or picking a lock, is that chores add a sense of realism and are low-stakes enough not to be distracting.Β If you add a concurrent task thatβs high-stakes, then potentially your readers are going to be so focused on the question of whether your characters will pick the lock in time that they donβt catch the dialogue.Β But no oneβs going to be on the edge of their seat wondering whether Drizellaβs going to have enough clean forks for tomorrow.
And chores are a cheap-n-easy way to add a lot of realism to your story.Β So much of the appeal of contemporary superhero stories comes from Spider-Man having to wash his costume in a Queens laundromat or Green Arrow cheating at darts, because those details are fun and interesting and make a story feelΒ βreal.β Β Actually ask the question of what dishes or clothing or furniture your character owns and how often that stuff gets washed.Β Thatβs how you avoid reality-breaking continuity errors like stating in Chapter 3 that all of your characterβs worldly possessions fit in a single backpack and in Chapter 7 having your character find a pair of pants he forgot he owns.Β You donβt have to tell the reader what dishes your character owns (please donβt; itβs already bad enough when Tolkien does it) but you should ideally know for yourself.
Anyway: objective correlatives are your friends.Β They get emotion across, but for low-energy scenes can become repetitive and for high-energy scenes can become melodramatic.Β The solution is to give your characters something relatively mundane to do while the conversation is going on, and domestic chores are not a bad starting place.
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