Tana French captured my attention when her 2007 debut mystery, IN THE WOODS, won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel and boosted her onto the New York Times Bestseller list. Her second book, THE LIKENESS, is a staggering read. For me, it’s even stronger.
Trained as an actress in Dublin, Tana French has years of stage experience. Her ability to portray emotion on stage carries over to conveying emotion on the page. French’s writing is fresh and strong and deep and emotion-driven. Her writing has been described as ‘lyrical’ and ‘wonderfully evocative, painterly prose.’ Read her books, and you will be transfixed.
Publisher’s Weekly gave THE LIKENESS a starred review: 'Stunning...French cleverly subverts the conventions of the locked room mystery, ratcheting up the tension at every turn with her multidimensional characters. Readers looking for a new name in psychological suspense need look no further than this powerful new Irish voice.'
My big challenge was selecting only a few examples from THE LIKENESS to share here out of the hundreds I analyzed. If you take my Empowering Characters’ Emotions course on-line in March, you’ll find more examples from Tana French, dissected, detailed, easy-to-discern and digest.
EXAMPLE: P. 4 – Character Description:
I’d been expecting someone so nondescript he was practically invisible, maybe the Cancer Man from The X Files, but this guy had rough, blunt features and wide blue eyes, and the kind of presence that leaves heat streaks on the air where he’s been.
ANALYSIS: Tana French provided a contrast between what she expected and how he appeared. That is one of my SHOW WHAT’S NOT HAPPENING techniques. She used ALLUSION (one of the 25 rhetorical devices covered in my DEEP EDITING course) – comparing what she expected to see, the Cancer Man from The X Files, to the person she did see. She gave the reader two descriptions, one vague, one specific, and added a double-punch at the end with FRESH WRITING in a POWER INTERNALIZATION.
Is that a BASIC description? No. It’s EMPOWERED. She offers more than hair/eye colors, height, and build. Following Stephen King’s style, she shared a few physical traits, and let the reader fill in the rest. It’s FRESH. She used fresh writing to add intrigue to this character and give the reader an uplift.
EXAMPLE: P.105 – Visceral Response, two paragraphs:
My hand was on the door handle when for a split second out of nowhere I was terrified, blue-blazing terrified, fear dropping straight through me like a jagged black stone falling fast. I’d felt this before, in the limbo instants before I moved out of my aunt’s house, lost my virginity, took my oath as a police officer: those instants when the irrevocable thing you wanted so much suddenly turns real and solid, inches away and speeding at you, a bottomless river rising and no way back once it’s crossed. I had to catch myself back from crying out like a little kid drowning in terror, I don’t want to do this any more.
All you can do with that moment is bite down and wait for it to be over.
ANALYSIS: Tana French wrote a panic attack in a FRESH way. She created a new hyphenated pairing to emphasize terror: BLUE-BLAZING TERRIFIED. Well done!
She used the power of CADENCE to power the reader through the first sentence. Read it out loud. No conjunctions – picks up pace.
Her second sentence is long and powerful. Tana French likes long sentences, likes long paragraphs, likes long books. Her writing is fresh, evocative, compelling. The reader feels the push to power through to read the gems in the next line, to get the reward.
Her last sentence speaks to THE RECOVERY. She tells the reader how she gets through the panic attack: bite down and wait for it to be over.
Note the POWER WORDS and phrases in that passage: terrified, blue-blazing terrified, fear dropping, jagged black stone falling fast, virginity, oath, police officer, speeding, bottomless river rising, no way back, crying, drowning, terror.
POWER WORDS add power. :-)) She also gets bonus points for ‘limbo instants.’
Here are a few more short examples of BODY LANGUAGE and DIALOGUE CUES:
EXAMPLE: P. 262 DIALOGUE CUE
Out in the kitchen, Doherty said something shaped like a punchline and everyone laughed; the laughter was perfect, unforced and friendly, and it made me edgy as hell.
ANALYSIS: Tana French didn’t write something about the character unable to hear the words, but they could hear the sounds. Instead, she wrote it fresh (something shaped like a punchline). She also made the laughter serve as a stimulus and included the POV character’s response (edgy as hell). Excellent technique.
EXAMPLE: BASIC BODY LANGUAGE CUE, GLANCE
P 424 His eyes went to me, one small expressionless flick, and then away again.
ANALYSIS: One glance, one Emotional Hit. Compare the line above to:
He glanced at me, then looked away.
French’s line is more eloquent and carries more power.
EXAMPLE: P 427 DIALOGUE CUE and FACIAL EXPRESSION
Why not?” Daniel inquired. He had his voice back under control; that perfect, immovable calm had slammed down across his face the instant I opened my mouth.
Tana French, actor-turned-writer, is a master of writing body language. Nonverbals comprise 93% of every communication. All writers need to learn to write the FULL RANGE OF BODY LANGUAGE and DIALOGUE CUES. I cover a variety of styles and techniques of writing body language and dialogue cues in my EMPOWERING CHARACTERS’ EMOTIONS on-line course and Lecture Packet.
Tana French is a fresh voice. A fresh talent. She’s now at the top of my list for writing psychological suspense. Check her out. You may decide to put her at the top of your list too.
