http://www.democraticunderground.com/12021176Oh my.
clarice (932 posts) Tue Feb 4, 2014, 02:58 PM
Advice please..
As a budding short story writer, I have noticed that my "dialogue" sucks.
Can anyone rec. a book or website on writing effective dialogue?
Anyone else have this problem?
The literary primitives offer a lot of advice, but only one offers good advice.
Savannahmann (2,285 posts) Wed Feb 5, 2014, 01:14 PM
12. You have conversations
You've talked to people your entire life. Sometimes you've explained to them, and vice versa. Pattern your dialog around the conversations you've had. But here is the kicker.
You have to keep the dialog consistent with the character you've created. You can't create a macho soldier who is a walking machine of destruction and have him discussing the contrasting colors that bring a room to life. It doesn't work.
Figure out what the goal of the story is, and if the dialog is intended to move the story forward, or is background to give a better feel of the characters involved.
You've made facial expressions, and seen them all your life. So when a regular woman hears something she doesn't believe, roll her eyes as she responds, include the expression.
I create the scene in my head. I play it backwards and forwards. I see if the dialog fits the people. I see if the expressions feel normal, believable, and accurate to the situation. People in the middle of a shootout aren't going to be discussing the upcoming birthday party for a friend. They may argue, they may exchange information based upon points of view, they may make a joke (graveyard humor) but they won't be swapping Honey Mustard recipes.
You've had a million conversations, from hello and how are you doing to serious conversations with points to be made. Have them in your head, both sides, three sides, how ever many there are. Create your characters first, and imagine how they would speak. Love your characters, because then you can do them the most justice in your writing.
Now ostensibly the primitives are gib-gabbing about fiction here.
franksolich lacks the imagination to write fiction, and so writes only non-fiction, or at worst, superficial fiction based upon non-fictitious people, events, and conversations.
franksolich is deaf, and so his account of a conversation is what he
imagines has been said by the other party, not necessarily what the other party
really said.
The following is a classic conversation from years and years ago, when I was in college, and my best friend and I were on an elevator, going down. This actually really happened, because others overheard us, and remembered it for a very long time.
me: Well, where should we go tonight?
he: How about that place we went that one time?
me: You mean that place, or the other place?
he: That place where we saw those people.
me: Those people, or those other people?
he: Those people we met that one time.
me: No, I'd just as soon we went to where we met some other people.
he: How about if we went to another place, like that place over there?
me: That place over there where we went that one time?
he: No, that place over there where we went the other time.
me: Where we went the time before we went that one time?
he: No, where we went the time before we went the other time.
me: But those people were there.
he: No, you're thinking of those people, not these other people.
me: Okay then; let's go to that place we went to that one time.
Believe it or not, we understood each other perfectly.
