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Friday, May 4, 2012

Red Writing Hood -- Saying without Saying

This week, focus on dialogue and body language to set a scene or move a story forward, limiting your use of narration. You have 450 words, beginning with the line: His crossed arms answered her question before he spoke.



(warning: adult content)
His crossed arms answered her question before he spoke.

“Of course, I believe you. I have to. You’re my daughter.” Not exactly the answer she’d been looking for. Was it better than having him say, “No. Absolutely not”?

She hadn’t expected denial, but she had hoped for compassion. It didn’t occur to her that she would get obligation.

Watching him sit with his arms covering himself, she said, “So you believe me when I say he raped me?”

“I believe you believe that’s what happened.”

A knife twisted in her heart and she began to shake.

“Oh, you’re so cold! Here’s a blanket,” her mother said, pulling a blanket from the back of the sofa and wrapping it around Mel, as if a blanket could soothe the gashes in her soul.

She hated that these conversations always left her speechless, but it was as if the connectors between her brain and mouth had been severed. She couldn’t utter any words.

Her husband jumped in with suggestions. “We are going to have to do something about this, because it changes everything.”

Her father continued to purse his lips, as he removed his glasses – a sign that he was annoyed. Removing his glasses was his “tell”. He did it when lecturing if something was distracting him from the moment. He did it when he needed to buy time. Her mother sat across the room wringing her hands in her lap, glancing frantically from Mel to her father. Like a spectator at a tennis match.

“Oh, are you sure, Mel?” she said.

“Yes,” she responded, although in reality she wasn’t sure of anything right now.

This is not the way a script would play out on a tv show.

A daughter would tell her parents that she had been raped by her sister’s husband, and they would be horrified – jump to her defense. It would fall to her to calm them down. Keep them from doing anything they might regret. There would be shock, anger, grief, panic for what this would mean. The rapist would be verbally assaulted. Lambasted. His character denigrated.

But no, not in this house. In this house her father just kept sitting there waiting for her to tell him what to do. Saying without saying, he didn’t believe her at all, but rather felt obligated to placate her.

“I felt that I should tell you. I don’t know what the answer is.” What she didn’t say is how she was counting on him to have an answer. That she thought it was his job to address this horror.

But his crossed arms said everything.


link up at Red Writing Hood

12 comments:

  1. interesting. why does the father feel he has to placate her? Would be great if you could expand on why the husband says "...because it changes everything.”

    Erica (www.writereadrepeat.com)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'll never forget, on college break, New Year's Eve, I went out in a short, slinky, sequined black dress.

    As I was leaving, my father looked me up and down and said, "Don't come crying to me if you get raped."

    It was just...

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    Replies
    1. Unnconscionable? Mind boggling? This piece is memoir and yes my father said those things to me.

      Delete
  3. Rape answered with...nothing. Not one soul supported her. That's cold on so many levels and leaves me angry.

    Which means, you did your job, and did it well.

    I like wrapping it up with the crossed arms again. Perfect touch!

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  4. This is very powerful. I know the reader feels the pain of the victim. “I believe you believe that’s what happened.” There is so much devastation that comes from this line.

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  5. Wow. So horrible and sad, yet kind of like the train wreck you can't turn away from. Great job creating a heartwrenching scene. I also love how you brought everything back to the crossed arms.

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  6. This just tugged at my heart. I want to wrap Mel in my arms and give her every ounce of support she didn't feel in that moment. So moving.

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  7. Wow I did not realize this was memoir. :(
    That's horrible.

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  8. First of all, I'm so sorry.

    Secondly, the body language here works to help the reader respond emotionally. The father and his glasses tell, and the shaking. It says a lot without having to tell us anything. You're showing it to us, and we feel the horror and the silent terror.

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  9. I am so sorry that this is memoir. It is a very chilling glimpse at a relationship.

    Tiny word choice thing...it caught my eye that both times Mom speaks, she starts with the word "Oh" -- maybe that's deliberate, but I know that my first pass of dialogue writing usually ends up with the characters all started with the words "well" "oh" "so" or some other variation...

    I think the Oh sounds right with her first statement, but the second one might be stronger if you just drop it: "Are you sure, Mel?"

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    Replies
    1. I know what you're saying, but yes that's how my mother starts every difficult sentence. It always begins with "oh" followed by a pause.

      Delete
    2. After I published my comment, I wondered if it was a specific way that she spoke, so...yeah, never mind...

      Delete

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