Let Your Readers 'See' What Happens

Action

I've been reading a book the past few days that presented a good writing tool, and very clearly. There is a lot of dialogue, but the author did not have stick figures standing like wooden dolls as they spoke to one another. All too often, that is how dialogue is presented. 

Instead, Mariah Stewart, author of the mystery The President's Daughter, used bits and pieces of action which allowed the reader to literally 'see' what was happening along with 'hearing' the dialogue. 

For instance, a mother and daughter were having a discussion in a restaurant at lunchtime. The dialogue flew back and forth, but between their spoken words were things like the daughter, tearing the paper off a straw, then slipping the straw into her iced tea. A few lines later, the daughter moved her glass so the waitress could put the plate with her sandwich in front of her. The mother, between heated comments, snatched a napkin off the table and spread it on her lap smoothing it roughly several times. 

Those small everyday actions brought the reader right into that restaurant to not only hear what was said but to see those little movements that made us feel like we were there viewing the entire conversation. 

In another scene, a writer is interviewing a former First Lady. She offers several refreshments, and he selects tea. When the woman returns with the tray, they are talking as she sets it on a small table between them, then we see her serve the tea to him, and we watch as he tries the cookies she'd offered. All through this, they are talking, so we not only hear what they have to say, but we see the small actions. We see what is happening in that room during the conversation. The two characters are not wooden stick puppets sitting in chairs. 

Showing movements can also give the reader a sense of emotions during the conversation. In the restaurant scene, the mother didn't just pick up the napkin and place it on her lap. She 'snatched' it and then kept smoothing it on her lap. She was distressed, and we learn that through both her words and her actions. 

Another good reason to add actions here and there when a long dialogue section comes up is to break up the dialogue itself. If you turn a page and see an entire page with nothing bu quote marks and 'he said, she said,' it's a bit overwhelming. The small breaks are needed. Not between every change of speaker, but here and there throughout the dialogue section. 

It's the many little things in a story that change it form good to great. Take time to add them when you're writing.