Etiqueta: how to use dialogue in fiction

  • About dialogue: She said, he said. p3

    a young couple talking in the balcony
    Photo by S Rawos on Pexels.com

    Here we are again trying to discover the “secrets” of dialogue in writing.

    MIX DIALOGUE, EXPOSITION PARAGRAPHS AND AMBIENT

    Don’t ask. I still have no idea what exposition paragraphs are. Just add some interest by describing. Tell us the colour of the curtains or the burnt on the carpet. Too much dialogue and Domet says it gets boring. I find dialogue pretty much likeable. Again, I haven’t been published and can discreetly utter nonsense.

    USE SHORT PARAGRAPHS OF DIALOGUE

    Do you like speeches? I certainly remember school ‘civic’ ceremonies at 7 morning in winter (freaking cold)  and 9 morning in summer (already hot enough to have one or two faints). All of them a bother. Dialogues are there to have flow not to Clonazepam people.

    IT IS A FIGHT! NOT A SCREAMING CONTEST!

    In fights people do yell at each other. But they will use short phrases and not black Friday lines followed by exclamation marks. Or exclamation marks in a train of sentences…


    I don’t know but in A family’s tale by Christine Nöstlinger, there are parts in which I’ve found three sentences in exclamation marks all packed together in the same paragraph. Although, those weren’t dialogue.


    READ ALOUD ONCE YOU’RE OVER

    The audiobook is for sure to be done and pretty phrases can end up being impossible to be said breathless. Mind it. Domet says it will have you noticing if it is natural or not. I say one needs the experience of talking to other people or listening to others in the bus (when you’re shy).

    EVERY CHARACTER SPEAKS DIFFERENTLY

    This is quite visible (for those who can read Japanese) in manga. Some characters are country bumpkins and speak kanzaiben and others are authentic Tokyoites. Yet… What is one to do when the difference is only in pronunciation? You need to listen to people. Go out and listen! Use spelling mistakes if needed. Ifigenia de la Parra (White mama’s memories), mentioned the possibility of using music paper; given the fact written words are deaf to tune. And they are. You can’t reproduce cadence or pronunciation just by writing it. Even the addition of particular words do nothing unless the reader is aware.


    That’s it. May I get some dialogue through a comment? Pasto kalo.

  • About dialogue: She said, he said. p2

    a young couple talking in the balcony
    Photo by S Rawos on Pexels.com

    Let’s continue babbling about how to use dialogue and the things I don’t understand.


    DESCRIBE WHAT THE CHARACTERS DO AS THEY TALK


    This technique is used to keep interest and to add subtext and tone.

    It isn’t the same to say:
    Mariana, very angry, said he was an @__35-;!

    To to say:
    Mariana said he was an #44_67 whilst trying to scratch his face.

    Mostly, bad words are enough to show how much of a bother the guy is. Unless we use this:
    Mariana said he was an #4#4, holding the front flaps of his jacket and licking his lips.

    That turns everything into an erotic game. It all belongs to the rule: show, don’t tell in the technical side of things; plus, avoiding the adverbs.


    USE TAGS


    A common place in manga and webtoon are ‘lost’ dialogue balloons associated to no one. They’re upsetting and make reading difficult. So, to avoid your reader getting lost, make dialogue as clean as possible. Andrea Camilleri won’t as much as use identification tags to name the person speaking but, in exchange, he would write dialogues of only two speakers alternatively speaking.

    Unlike what happens in a meeting room filled with people. Here, we need the tags and those have to be as invisible as spider cobs are to flies. Reason why not to say: ‘her voice fell like a leaf on the woods’ and that’s the second convention I’ve broken. And I remind you, I never been published and I just write nonsense.

    TO BE CONTINUED

  • About dialogue: She said, he said. p1

    SHORT STORY

    — We’re stuck here— he said, turning off the car.
    — Without signal to call a toll, to top — she said, popping the pink gum bubble. A far thunder pointed out the rain would go on.

    UNIMPORTANT INTRODUCTION

    In English it isn’t as important to mark the she said, he said; though I wonder how sometimes people can’t get lost in dialogues the way I do.
    Were this Spanish I would be making the conjugation joke before telling you this is an entry about dialogue from the 90 days on how to write your novel by Sarah Domet. Peppered with digestive enzymes and in the order I deemed important.

    START WITH A DESCRIPTION OF PEOPLE TALKING instead of starting with a dialogue.

    Auch. I’ve done exactly so. Sometimes, we visual people, and by visual I mean those who can or have the ability to use the eyes to perceive; we forget about the rest of the senses. We want everything there’s to be seen and we want it now. In spite of the advice for using phrase as: «she could lift the suitcase without a care it was heavy» to mark someone as strong or sturdy; most writers simply go for the description. Particularly those whose audiences depend heavily on covers and TV live adaptations.

    Anyways, Sarah Domet says ‘avoid’, which means it is a general advice, not a strong rule. And rules are to be broken… Once you know how things work. Nonetheless, I think we can make use of our other senses as well to feel the jagged and irregular metal of a statue welded all over and exposed to the rain. It is possible to write audio books targeted to blind people. Books that might end being listened to by me too since I like listening to stories while I sew.

    TO BE CONTINUED