Lester Dents Wave Those Tags, Part 2 Find An External Tag

LESTER DENT’S WAVE THOSE TAGS, PART 2: FIND AN EXTERNAL TAG If you haven’t read final week’s submit, Lester Dent’s Wave Those Tags, Part 1: Find a Name, return there now to get caught up. Otherwise, we’ll press on without additional preamble… This is probably crucial step. Tag appears to be the time period usually used. It signifies that the character is subsequent geared up with one thing that the reader can readily acknowledge each time the actor seems on the scene. A easy instance of an external tag for purposes of illustration might be the one-legged old rascal in Treasure Island. The wood leg is the thing that's remembered, hence it can be thought of the tag. External tags are peculiarities of look, manner, voice, clothing, pastime, etc. Incidentally, it could be wise to neglect wood legs, because editors have a horror of cripples in yarns. This taboo towards cripples is worth remembering, as a result of it seems to be ironclad.* Tagging is dependable stuff, apparently, judging by how much it is utilized in fiction, plays, radi o, motion pictures, books. The movement photos usually apply a very obnoxious form of external tag to a number of minor characters. A supporting participant in a film who goes around attempting to do somethingâ€"work a magic trick, for instanceâ€"all through the image is an instance of such a tag. If the character is a minor one in the story, it appears possible to hang on a very obvious, even humorous, tag. If the character is the leadâ€"watch out. Be wary inside limits, that's… Don’t make the tag too goofy, although the way of dealing with might have a fantastic deal to do with whether the tag makes the character seem foolish or not. But make it attention-grabbing and intriguing enough to be what it's supposed to beâ€"a label. As an extra example of varyingly bizarre tags which are made credible, it could be handy to return to Rex Stout and his Nero Wolfe character. The character is a tremendously fats manâ€"which is a not-so-zany tag. But Wolfe also raises orchids, and won't be disturbed by absolutely anything when tending them. He drinks prodigious amounts of beer, which must be exactly proper as to temperature. He has a ridiculous horror of any moving car. He is a nut on food… which, by the way, is not the complete record of tags on this character, but the job is finished fairly entertainingly. The moment Wolfe comes onto a scene, one of the tags is waved like a flag, in order that there isn't any doubt about who has appeared. That final statement is the concept. Wave the tag. It is supposed to be an unmistakable label by which the reader can recognize the character instantly. Frederick Nebel, in a collection of good pulp yarns he as soon as did for Black Mask, used a minor character, a cop, who ambled by way of the yarns devoting his time to snitching things to eat, and it was entertaining. After stepping into the slick magazinesâ€"which he did fairly efficientlyâ€"Nebel refined the tagging device somewhat. As instance, in a recent short, he used a grandmother who devoted herself assiduously to eavesdropping, the eavesdropping being an apparent character tag. If the tag can be used within the plot of the yarn, a lot the higher. The best yarns appear to be those in which there isn't a deadwood, so if the tag pasted on a character should happen to be the fact that he's an amateur camera fan, it'd help a great deal if the fact could be made use of in the yarnâ€"possibly the data of photographic chemistry allows him to acknowledge a toxic chemical which has been used for the homicide method, and thus thwart the villain one way or the other. In Doc Savage Magazine, a pulp, this external tagging has been utilized freely. One of the characters is at all times dressed within the height of sartorial perfection, the flowery clothes being his tag. Another character has one of his tags following around after him; it’s a pet pig. A third uses phrases of the most ungodly size, jawbreakers no one can understand, at the slightest excuse. A nd Doc himself has been labelled freely with typical hero tagsâ€"great measurement, bronzed pores and skin, compelling flake-gold eyes, quiet manner, amazing strength, fabulous knowledge of assorted subjects. The variety of available tags appears to be legion. One of the characters can hate something intensely and spend his spare time grumbling about it. Or he may have a pet peeve on yet another character in the story and begin a squabble at each slight opportunity. Now… How to dig up these external tags?… This is somewhat harder than discovering a reputation. Unfortunately, there isn't a thesaurus of character tags. Some professional writers, so as to simplify the issue, assemble tags as they arrive across them and file them away on listed playing cards. The biographies of famous individuals are generally used as source material for character tags. Perhaps there isn't a method of solving the problem besides to take a seat in entrance of a typewriter and write down different pot entialities until one happens alongside and clicks. It could show clever to give some thought to the character tag earlier than deciding undoubtedly to use it… That is, can it be used conveniently within the story? It’s embarrassing to suppose up a swell, intriguing tag, then find out that the factor is not going to fit in in any respect with the plot or the motion of the story. Acquiring the behavior of in search of character labels when studying printed yarns may be a assist. The name writers, those who appear issue after concern in the pulps and the slicks, look like the ones who use the most character tags. Often more than one tag is held on a character. There appears to be no rule in opposition to it. But for simplicity of handling, it'd prove extra possible to devise one major tag, and wave that one like a flag whenever the character moves on the scene. Then the other tags may be subordinated and used each time convenient. In abstract: The tag is simply something that iden tifies the character throughout the story. If, for example, it ought to be determined to provide Clancy, the cop, some foot-bother for his tag, it'd begin out by having him getting a new pair of shoes near the opening of the yarn, a particular pair of footwear which he knows will relieve his feet. On Clancy’s next look, he has the sneakers on, they usually’re fantastic. Next appearance, the sneakers aren’t great, and so they damage like hell. Then he takes them off. Finally he winds up carrying them. and probably within the climax he makes use of one of them to bean the villain. God knows how many occasions that one has been used, with slight variation. Now, the subsequent step in making a character: Next week… THIRDâ€"FIND SOMETHING TO GO INSIDE â€"Lester Dent * Trust me, I’ll be circling back to this bit of flagrant insensitivity in the weeks ahead, however, yeah… you stay elegant 1940. About Philip Athans