This week: Stress Edited by: Legerdemain  
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Stress
Those of you attempting the NaNoWriMo challenge might be experiencing some stress in the upcoming weeks.
So can your characters. How does stress affect them? Obviously, giving them human characteristics and emotions including stress can make your character more relatable. How does that manifest in the body? Stress becomes distress. A body might respond by developing heart problems, asthma, arthritis, skin conditions and acne.
Most common are headaches, high blood pressure, and stomach problems. Continued problems can be anxiety, panic attacks, worries, sleep and sexual function issues. Your character might respond to pressure by eating too much, doing drugs, smoking or maybe going on a gambling spree. Long term effects might include diabetes, anxiety and depression, loss of sexual function, shaking, ringing in the ears, dry mouth and difficulty swallowing and sore jaw or grinding teeth.
On top of this, the constant worries can effect their cognitive skills. This negative focus can diminish other functions like memory, judgement and organization. What a mess! So next time a character bites their nails, fidgets or has a tic, recognize they are stressed.
Relax and Write On!
This month's question: How do you deal with stress? How do you show your character's stress?
Answer below  Editors love feedback! 
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Excerpt: The terror had started around the time Ben Painter disappeared.
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Excerpt: Arn’Kohr’s regarded a crowned man in jewels, slumped on a throne, looking down on them from the bluff. “Master watch always.”
Excerpt: Maureen glanced again at the clock on the stove. Just how long has Jenny been gone? She paced to the window to check the driveway. With a sigh, she returned to her kitchen tasks.
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Excerpt: Edward kept rocking, signing "no shower" over and over. Ever since joining us at the Girard Family Home, Edward had a fear of water
Excerpt: The river is like a big dose of liquid muscle relaxer. The big drug companies produce their high-priced versions. Mother Nature does it much better.
Excerpt: Order is Beauty, Beauty is Peace, Peace is Order.
This is the mantra of a working member of the insectoid Androne, so for Drone Thirty-Seven to be anxious something would have to be very wrong. It was very wrong, and he was anxious.
Excerpt: Kyle still seemed preoccupied, but I couldn't find it in myself to be mad at him. I know he's not doing it on purpose, to hurt me. It was his idea that we both take a trip to the beach, to be alone together. It was his idea that we meet here, tonight, to talk.
Excerpt: Alicia, his administrative assistant, knocked on the door. She barged in before he could respond. He stood up as a reflex.
“Oh Jesus,” she cried out, while taking a quick glance down. She turned and slammed the door behind her. Wally watched her walk halfway through the office, which took up an entire floor, before she slowed down.
Excerpt: I don't like oranges. I told them that. I told them. It's not my fault; I told them I don't like oranges. I've never liked oranges.
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This month's question: How do you deal with stress? How do you show your character's stress?
Answer below Editors love feedback!
Last month's "Action/Adventure Newsletter (September 29, 2021)" question: Do you write dialog with intent or to convey conversation? What method do you use to edit?
Bilal Latif  : Honestly, I write every word with intent, dialogue included.
wdwilcox: "Wha...What?"
THANKFUL SONALI 17 WDC YEARS!  :
My characters are rather like me. They talk a lot, and I have to write it down.
Edit it?  They'd throw a fit.
Seriously, though. I use dialogue to show the nature of the person.
elephantsealer : Dialog is supposed to be written with intent; otherwise it serves no purpose at all. To edit dialog, one must know and understand that it is written with intent...
Zen  : Dialogue, as I see it, has two purposes. It can be either or both, but should never be neither.
1) It should convey information important to the story the author wishes to convey to the reader as well as the characters.
2) It aids in character development such that it is either a shortcut to this development or it conveys information about the character that is difficult to, or cannot be, imparted in any other way.
sammy461: Of course I write dialog with intent. My stories tend to hinge on the characters themselves, so I use dialog to help the reader know what their thinking. My editing method is the same as how edit the rest of my writing. Look for mistakes, make sentences clearer.
SKA  : I don’t think the dialogue can be simply said intentional or unintentional, first of all, we should ensure that the communication between people and another person is vivid and natural enough, flowing freely like water, the next step is to consciously and purposefully correct any mistakes that may occur, making the overall effect more reasonable and highlighting the theme and message.
DevilsBargin : Dialog is a window into a characters state of mind. It allows the character to either humanize or dehumanize depending on what's being said and how that character reacts to what has been said. I feel that a lot of good writers will tell you Dialog is a tool in a writers tool box. And to those writers I salute you. You are craftsman. Yet to me dialog is more than a tool. It is a weapon. For one sentence of dialog can change an entire story. Shift alliances and alter the fabric of a characters belief.
Bob : My formative years were spent in southern California, teen age years in southern Missouri Ozarks, The rest deep east Texas. Everywhere I was the people had their own speech inflexion. I used east texas drawl and speech habits in a western I wrote on wdc many years ago. Got an in house email from a writer from west texas and he said he'd never heard anyone sounds like that in texas talk. This evening was and is pronounced eenin'. Plays havoc with spelling but that's the way I wrote it.
keyisfake : Naturally, I feel in the key or it becomes boring like exposition and I want to skip ahead. I have to listen to the conversation a few times to be sure it flows and entertains. I hate long drawn out busy talk when it has no purpose. And when I edit I like to listen to the conversations on three separate occasions maybe a few days apart to make sure I didn't miss anything and usually I do. Then off to my editor.
Elfin Dragon-finally published : I think dialog should always be used with intent. It should reveal more about characters, the scene, or even the time period. As readers, we always want to know more. But I don't think dialog should be used as "fluff" fillers.
Spring in my Sox  : I work my dialog out in the shower, talking it through aloud.
Quick-Quill  : I write the way I talk. Then I edit. I have learned to add important info into the dialogue to move the story. The dialogue needs to show the reader something about the character's intent and personality.
QueenNormaJeanGreeneggs&vegham  : I read aloud as I write. I love to write dialogue. It has to sound believable, it has to give information, yet not overtake the story. But I have written dialogue only tales that work. It is fun to experiment with different ideas when writing each story.
I think "To the Moon and Back" has some good dialogue.
Milhaud - Long Tail : Nice job as usual when speaking about writing techniques. Reminder: Dialogue can be used not only to develop character and guide plot direction, but also to provide a back story. Some critics are much too liberal in crying "information dump". Thanks again for sharing your knowledge and time to make this site better. Cheers, Milhaud
Graywriter :
From a writing course I took way back when:
How and what you make your characters say must, in itself, say something about the speakers. Your readers must quickly develop a keen sense of the characters by the words, phrases, and intonations you assign them. Your dialogue should do more than just put words in your characters’ mouths. Dialogue should reveal something about the characters, the setting, a conflict, or the overall plot development. There is no room for idle chit chat in the story.
Above all, every word of dialogue must come across to the reader as natural sounding and essential. It should enhance the flow of the story, not hamper it.
One way I test my dialogue’s naturalness is by reading it aloud, using different voices to differentiate the speakers. This is a fun way to see how it reads.
Thank you for all your responses! Leger~
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Action/Adventure: October 27, 2021 Issue [#11052]
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