Those Pesky Speech Tags

If you use the search box above to find references on this blog to "speech tags" you will find at least one other post on the subject.   I have been thinking about this topic as I finish the first draft of my Crusades novel where I have had had numerous occasions to choose words other than say or ask.  I am glad to have the place to reiterate my point of view.

I don't understand the proscription for words other than "say" and "ask" that one finds in pronouncements meant for writers all over the Internet and beyond.  I have not yet been given a good reason why speech tags should be any less descriptive and suggestive than other parts of speech.  All anyone can tell me is that "editors don't like them."  One author friend says they stop her dead in her tracks as she is reading.  I don't know why.  It's just her druthers, I suppose.

The one that griped me the most when I was criticised for using it was "breathed", as I explain in my earlier post.  I was told by more than one person that there is either no verb "breathe", patently absurd, and that a person cannot breathe words.  That is also ridiculous.  One of the definitions of breathe is to utter.  Is one allowed to utter words?  I am not even sure one can utter anything else.

Correct me if I am wrong, but fiction is supposed to be expressive, supposed to give the reader a full sense of the setting, situation, personalities and emotions in a given scene.  We do this through narrative, but there is also an artistry to fiction writing.  We don't just tell, and in fact we are enjoined to show, not tell, from Balzac to the present.  You show through expressing attributes for different people, places, events, and so forth.  Nouns have attributes, but they can be expressed through an adjective or through a noun that includes the attribute.  So a man can be a blond man, a man with blond hair but he can also be a blond.

I don't see why an action cannot be the same.  I can say someone said something in such a way as to reveal relief, or I can say it with the choice of verb.  When I write that someone breathed what he said, I intend to convey a manner in which he said something, and imply that relief is the reason.

"Thank God that's over," he breathed.

Why is this less effective than, say,

"Thank God that's over," he said with relief.

My choice is as expressive, if not more so, it shows, not tells, and it's more succinct.  So why is it not a better choice?

I have not heard what sounds like a valid answer yet.  Could it be that the rule is simply someone's whim that has been accepted as gospel truth?   It wouldn't be the first time that "experts" claimed both knowledge and the right to limit something others do based on that specious knowledge.  Aristotle himself claimed that women had fewer teeth than men, and that this proved we are inferior.  Well, then, 'nuff said... huh?  Looked in a woman's mouth lately?  We also have fewer testicles.  What does that tell you?

Another point I would make is that we are also advised not to over-use adverbs.  The reason seems to be that the writing gets murky with too many of them. OK, I will buy that.  And I assert that using more descriptive speech tags is a great way to reduce the use of adverbs and adverbial phrases.  See my example above.

Perhaps your own motivation is to get editors to accept your writing.  If in fact editors are so married to "say" and "ask" then I suppose the proscription is good advice.  At the risk of sounding pompous, I have to ask, who's the writer here?  The artist?  The world I draw in my novels is my own creation.  I know how my characters express themselves.  I expect to be the arbiter of how I compose the narrative.  If that means no one will ever publish my books, well then, there are other resources.

In sum, I believe the rule about speech tags is arbitrary and probably exists for inexpressible reasons.  Of course, one can get carried away, but that is bad writing and nothing more.  It does not rely on a list of do's and don'ts put forth by some, um, expert.
I want to thank Blogger, by the way, for re-enabling spellcheck on the composition screen.  Lord knows I needed it.

Readers Seek New Sources When Publishers Cut Back

... and thanks to indie publishing and authors, there is more than enough to choose from.

From the current issue of Publishers Weekly:

Self-Published Titles Topped 764,000 in 2009 as Traditional Output Dipped

Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 4/14/2010 9:22:53 AM

A staggering 764,448 titles were produced in 2009 by self-publishers and micro-niche publishers, according to statistics released this morning by R.R. Bowker. The number of "nontraditional" titles dwarfed that of traditional books whose output slipped to 288,355 last year from 289,729 in 2008. Taken together, total book output rose 87% last year, to over 1 million books.

Among the traditional titles, fiction remained the largest segment, although output fell 15%, to 45,181 titles, marking the second consecutive year that fiction production declined. The nonfiction segments were mixed with growth coming in educational and practical areas such as technology (up 11%), science, and personal finance (both up 9%). Categories that depend more on discretional spending fell with the production of cookery and language titles falling the most at 16% each. The travel and sports and recreation segments had declines of 5% and 4%, respectively. Other major categories where output rose included children's, up 6%, to 32,348, biography, up 8% to 12,313, and religion, up 6% to 19,310.

Changes in growth rates in the traditional book segments, however, were overshadowed by the explosive gains posted by what Bowker calls the unclassified titles. The category consists largely of reprints, including those of public domain titles, plus other titles that are produced using print-on-demand production. According to Bowker, the largest producer of nontraditional books last year was BiblioBazaar which produced 272,930 titles, followed by Books LLC and Kessinger Publishing LLC which produced 224,460 and 190,175 titles, respectively. The Amazon subsidiary CreateSpace produced 21,819 books in 2009, while Lulu.com released 10,386. Xlibris and AuthorHouse, two imprints of AuthorSolutions, produced 10,161 and 9,445, title respectively. In something of an understatement, Kelly Gallagher, v-p of publishing services for Bowker, said that given the exceptional gains in the nontraditional segment the last three years, growth in that area "show[s] no signs
of abating."

---

Aside from Nan: I am thinking that at some point libraries will find their traditional sources of books drying up and will have to start treating indie books with more individual scrutiny and no longer dismiss them out of hand..

Nan Hawthorne is a member of the founding board of Independent Authors Guild http://www.independentauthorsguild.org/  .

How Libraries Choose Books

The following is a document distributed to the media and authors by Washington State's King County Library System, said to be the second most used in the United States. I had contacted their collections development department intending to learn more about their overall acquisitions provess and plan, but Bruce Adams, to whom I had been referred, declined an interview and sent me this. I wrote to him again clarifying my interest in collections developpment in general, but he has not not replied.

Although this document is specific to KCLS it may offer you insights into how to best position your books, whether commercially or independently published. If you have had luck placing your book with a library, please leave a comment below.

Marketing Your Book to the King County Library System

For Small Presses and Local Authors
Revised 11/20/06

King County Library System actively seeks books that are written and/or published locally. We are especially interested in those about the Pacific Northwest. As a public library we select books whose content is written for the general reader rather than for the specialist or practitioner. We do not collect textbooks.

We accept primarily books that have been commercially published. Some indications of commercial publication are a sturdy binding, preferably with the title on the spine; a title page clearly stating (on either the front or the back) the author, title, publisher and date of publication; an International Standard Business Number (ISBN) listed somewhere on the book or the jacket; and a price listed on either the book or the jacket.

Because books in a public library get heavy and sometimes careless use from the public, we look for ones which are sturdily bound, preferably sewn or glued. Spiral and comb bindings do not stand up well in our setting. We cannot use books with pages designed to be filled in by the reader, or torn out. Books that include objects such as toys, or crafts kits are also not appropriate.

The best way to bring your book to our attention is through reviews. A positive review in one or more of the library review journals, such as Library Journal, School Library Journal (for children's books,) Kirkus, Booklist or Publisher’s Weekly or in The Seattle Times Sunday Northwest books review section will give your book an excellent chance of being bought by KCLS (and other public libraries as well.) See below for more information on the publications.

The next best ways to contact us are either a flyer mailed to the KCLS Service Center, or an e-mail which either describes the book or gives us the URL to your web site. Librarians generally have only a short amount of time to look at the information, so your best bet is to emphasize the essentials. We look for:

• WHAT the book is about. This should be brief and pithy.
• WHY the book is needed at KCLS. Here you should include quotations from reviews, or reader testimonials if you have them. If the book has been reviewed you could also attach a copy of the review or citation to it.
• WHO the intended audience is for this book. Is it intended for adults, young adults or children? Parents, business persons, hobbyists, etc.?
• WHO the author is. This should include qualifications, such as education, experience in the field, and experience as a writer. Be sure to mention that you are a local author or publisher, since this is a factor in our decision whether to buy.
• WHEN, WHERE, etc. the book was published. We need all the bibliographic data, including date of publication, price, ISBN (very important), edition statement, type of binding. If the book is self published, please give some indication of its physical appearance, including how it is bound.
• HOW we can get it. Libraries prefer to buy from wholesale vendors, such as Ingram, Brodart, Baker and Taylor, or, locally, Partners West. There are also national vendors that specialize in small press books, including Quality Books and Unique Books. We do buy new books from Amazon when the book is not available through other commercial vendors. If the book is only available directly from you, be sure to provide a phone number, address, and e-mail address if you have one. Be prepared to accept purchase orders, and to wait several weeks for payment. Also, you will need to supply a signed W-9 form for our Business Office.

We look at catalogs from local publishers as we have time. We really appreciate all of the bibliographic information listed above for each title, as well as indications of which titles are new.

Drop in visits are not encouraged. Our schedules are crowded, and you may end up wasting your time if no selection librarian is available when you arrive.

You many also want to consider being an exhibitor at library conferences. This is one way to reach many librarians in a short space of time. National conference such as the American Library Association can be overwhelming, but smaller ones such as Pacific Northwest Library Association and Washington Library Association attract many librarians from this area. See additional information below.

CONTACTS
Send flyers to:
Selection Department
King County Library System
960 Newport Way NW
Issaquah, WA 98027

Send e-mail to: nmcgill@kcls.org

For Information on how to submit a book for a review:

Booklist
50 East Huron St.
Chicago, IL 60611
http://www.booklistonline.com/

Kirkus
770 Broadway
New York, NY 10003
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/

Library Journal

360 Park Ave. S.
New York, NY 10010
http://libraryjournal.reviewsnews.com/

Publisher's Weekly
360 Park Ave. S.
New York, NY 10010
http://publishersweekly.reviewsnews.com/

Seattle Times
Mary Ann Gwinn, Book Review Editor
206-464-2357
mgwinn@seattletimes.com

LIBRARY ORGANIZATIONS
The American Library Association conference planning calendar (http://www.ala.org/ala/confservices/upcoming/upcomingconferences.htm ) lists upcoming conferences. Information on exhibiting at each conference is available through the links for the individual events.

Pacific Northwest Library Association (PNLA) has a web page (http://www.pnla.org/) which lists links to all of its member associations, and lists upcoming conferences.

For the Washington Library Association see: http://www.wla.org/conferences/

SMALL PRESS VENDORS
Quality Books
1003 W. Pines Road
Oregon, IL 61061-9680
800-323-4241
http://www.quality-books.com/

Unique Books
5010 Kemper Ave.
St. Louis, MO 63139
800-533-5446
http://www.uniquebooksinc.com/

LOCAL VENDORS
Partners West
1901 Raymond Ave. SW, Suite C
Renton, WA 98055
425-227-8486

Guest Post by Author Roger Hudson: Stories Behind the Stautes

Stories Behind the Stautes – In search of Ancient Greek fashions

By Roger Hudson, author, Death Comes by Amphora

My thanks to Nan for inviting me to feature on Booking History. With so little known about my period, I find myself having to do my own detective work just to uncover how that world may have worked and to find storylines and settings.

We’re all familiar with Ancient Greek statues and carvings from the Venus de Milo and the Discuss-thrower to caryatids holding up temples and the variety of Athenians in the Parthenon frieze. Many of the figures are naked but loads of them are elaborately clothed with elegantly draped gowns and a variety of hairdos, which one can guess reflect those of the real world of the time.

So what’s there that could aid a writer? Well, look at those hairstyles for a start. The men first. There were obviously a range of styles or – isn’t it more likely? – changing styles. We have fashions. Why shouldn’t they? Not easy to date statues accurately but it looks as though there was a change about mid-5th century BC, the period I’m writing in, in the way barbers dressed men’s hair and beards, the wealthier men anyway. From fairly long slightly wavy hair and full beards they go to much shorter hair and beards with tight curls in both. There’s even a pudding basin style for younger men with a row of tight curls forming a fringe across the forehead if not all round.

Now, the writer in me asks questions. Who invented these styles? Was there maybe one very innovative barber that the others copied. Or a few competing for the wealthier (and vainer) customers? No record has come down to us but there was no shortage of innovation in other fields. What tools would have been used to create those tight curls? They did have hair curlers but it could have taken ages if each of those curls was created individually. Clearly it meant longer in the barber’s chair for each customer, so the barber could charge more and the shops became social centres perhaps with ancillary purchases of lotions and suchlike to compensate for the free wine, social centres charged with political, sporting and personal gossip. There were other variations too – young men clean-shaven, old men longer pointy beards, philosophers seem to have thought that full, elegantly coiffed beards and hair gave them more dignity.

In some ways these neat and quite elaborate hairstyles must have been a political gesture as well, demonstrating to others the Athenians’ view of themselves as more civilised and cultured than other Greeks, especially than the Spartans, who wore their hair long – they spent ages brushing and combing it before battle – so probably both thought the other effeminate. There has to be potential for a writer here.

The women now. We have statues of goddesses and korai (interpreted as ‘maidens’) but purpose of these not entirely clear. In older statues, the hair is very formal with long plaits and ringlets, looped round the head and hanging. Then there’s a style with the hair tied up behind in a loose bun of different sizes with ribbons, a hairnet or a kind of mob cap. Looking at paintings on vases as well as statues, this style seems to have dominated for quite a while but there are variations within this of fringes and ringlets and curls. But there are other styles that look very modern and wavy almost like perms, with swept up and flowing tresses. How did they do that? Mind you, they did have wigs and add-on fringes and hair pieces.

These raise questions too. Apart from the bun style (which saw a revival in the Napoleonic Empire and English Regency period), these would have taken a long time, yet we are told that wealthy wives – the ones who would have gone in for smart hairdos – were confined to the house except for religious festivals and maybe visiting neighbours. So, did they do their hair themselves or rely on their servants or slaves? Would these be skilled enough? For the bun style maybe but, even there, we see variations that look like more than individual idiosyncrasy. So were there hairdressers who came to the house when requested? Were these male or female (there were female traders in other fields, though obviously not from the wealthy classes)? If male, (and we know craftsmen such as carpenters would visit homes to repair or create furniture), what sort of chaperoning was appropriate?

If we look at the cloaks or gowns, these are draped in various ways, with different numbers of layers, close-fitting or loose, which, to me, look more like fashion than individual choice. One of these seems to be with some sort of belt or cord under the breasts, which was echoed in the Empire line of the Regency period. There’s even an off-the-shoulder style. We know from Aristophanes that, at one point, there was a fashion for ‘crocus-coloured’ gowns, presumably yellow or purple – yes, garments, male and female, were dyed and embroidered not plain white. So who started these trends? Were there leaders of fashion? How did the word get around if women only saw one another at religious festivals, which included drama and music contests? If your husband took you to a play, were you on the lookout for what the other wives were wearing? Were there stylists one could call in to help you look different or just your best?

Men seem to have worn lots of drapery or just one loose garment thrown over the shoulder and wrapped round or nothing at all. Perhaps this depended on winter or summer rather than fashion – in winter, woollen garments replaced linen - though older men are depicted wearing more garments than younger ones. Workmen seem to wear a sort of loincloth to leave them free arm movement = their haircuts were pretty basic too. No question of fashion here, though the wealthy men do seem to put on their best for dinner parties and special occasions with coloured borders and patterns. A pity time has removed most of the coloured paint that was normal on the statues – that would tell us a lot more about fashions.

Lots of unknowns and I’m sure we’d need a lot more examples and more accurate dating to put them in sequence to be able to trace fashions accurately but, if you’re a writer, you grab one or more of these possibilities and use it in your tale, something I haven’t fully done yet, I must admit, but I will.

Christmas in April, An Involuntary King Style

My husband Jim said at lunch today, "I often think about what modern conveniences people in the Middle Ages would most appreciate."  We talked about electric lights, hot and cold running water, washing machines, and other things we take for granted. 

Then in a light-hearted manner  he said, "If you could go back and take some modern inventions, what would the characters in your book like to have most?" 

King Lawrence - An Apache helicopter.  With it he could have gone to Ratherwood, taken the stronghold, and been home for dinner.

Shannon O'Neill - A toss up between a Casio keyboard and Irish whiskey.

High Reeve Lorin - No question, a SmartPhone.

Peter, Caithness, Elaine and Tavish - a Wii console and games.

Elerde of Brittany - A Harley Davidson motorcycle.

Rory McGuinness - Facebook, where he would constantly write on Queen Josephine's wall.  Such as, "Queen Josephine is the fairest lady in all the land."
Elerde of Brittany likes this.

The Queen herself is harder to pin down. Jim said "One of those lighted make-up mirrors."  I said no way.  But I couldn't come up with anything either.  So I am throwing this out to you.

• What modern item would Josephine, Queen of Críslicland, like to have?

For those who are reading the scandalous outtakes on the An Involuntary King blog, how about:

Erik the Dane - A container ship.

The courtesan, Juliana - Now she might like that mirror.  Jim said "birth control" but since she says she's barren, she wouldn't need that.  So I'll day... a curling iron.

Of course, to get these jokes, you will have had to read my novel, which I hope you will do anyway, but perhaps until you have had that chance you can transfer the identities to other characters from historical novels that take place at the same time. (The ebook, by the way, is only $6.95 on Smashwords, and if you are really, really sweet to me, I would clagly give you a tidy little coupon for half off.  And.. I sell the hpaperback for $15.95 autographed on Amazon.com.)

Have some fun with favorite characters of your own.

Thoughts on First Person Narrative

About a year or so ago I heard from several different sources that publishers of historical fiction want first person female, preferably royal, novels. If they can be Tudors, so much the better. I also heard that first-person female is all the rage with historical romance. I did some unscientific surveying to find out if, as I had been told, women don't like to read first person male, the results basically being that no one really gives a damn one way or the other.

I spent some time agonizing over whether the novel I am writing now needed to be turned into first person. It certainly offered an intimacy and a look into the main character, a woman who goes to crusade disguised as a man. I quickly discovered that first person has its own limitations. Primarily, it requires that the narrator either be present for all events described or be told about them. Frankly, this gets tiresome. In one novel I read recently the fact that the two narrators were isolated from most of the action meant that dozens of messengers had to run back and forth to court or visitors needed to be up on the latest doings. It gets awkward. It turned into a textbook case of telling, not showing, quite literally.

I have read many first person novels over the years. I have come to some conclusions about using the technique that authors, agents, editors and readers all might want to consider, especially editors at publishing houses. To pull off first person narrative, these elements must be in place:

The use of first person must offer more than just storytelling. One novel I read used this style skillfully to reveal the character's unreliability as a reporter not only about his surroundings but also his own motivation. This lent a level of interest and insight into the novel.
The author must be fully acquainted with his/her narrating character and be able to speak in his/her voice consistently. The novel I read with two narrators failed to reveal that much about either character, nor to make their voices distinct from each other.
The narrating character must have a good reason to know everything going on. One novel I read required that narrator was an obsessive eavesdropper, a fact that actually resulted in comments from readers about her busybody activities. So much sneaking around, listening at keyholes, hiding in the shrubbery, and so forth, made the character less believable.
I have read two first person narrative novels where I came to the conclusion that the authors themselves had limited depth of experience and understanding. I suppose the authors could have intended to portray the characters this way, but I don't think so in these cases. The result was shallowness not only of plot but of character. In one case I drew the conclusion that the author had been popular in high school and saw the world in that light, though her character should have had quite different experiences.
A mystery can be quite suitable for first person, as one steps into the detective's persona and therefore has exactly the same clues. One Elizabethan era sleuth series has a female narrator who is consistent in voice, totally convincing, and fun to read. Through her one has the opportunity to try to solve the crime, having no more or less to go on than the sleuth.

In general I prefer third person and its capacity for dramatizing the actions of more than one person and event. I decided to stick with third person in my work in progress primarily because of scenes, like one where Raymond of Toulouse is icily treated by the Emperor sometime before my protagonist has even returned to Constantinople, which cannot have been experienced by a single narrator.

Think about novels you have read that would have been ruined if written in first person. I immediately thought of Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles. It is absolutely vital that Lymond himself be all but unfathomable. You need to watch him and draw your own conclusions. Your confusion and impatience are part of the magic of the reading. First person would simply either give too much away or make for a lousy uninteresting novel.

First person when it is done well and for good reason can be excellent. A good reason may be insight into the narrator, portraying a unique personality, or, like a mystery, a way to control access of information to the reader. Unless you have that good reason, first person is in danger of producing a shallow novel, little more than gossipy discourse in costume.

Perhaps publishers married to this cant about first person female, if they exist, should consider whether any given novel, author or character really is better served by the first person narrative approach.