dialog

[HLGStrider]

Do you consider dialog a strength or weakness in your writing? Does it come naturally to you? Do you write in a lot of it? Is it hard for you to maintain different character voices? Avoid modern slang in an inappropriate setting? Etc, etc, etc.

I have always seen dialog as my strength. It is my favorite part to write, however, when I edit it also gets cut a lot because I think it needs to be a lot briefer than I make it.

Any thoughts?

[Zale]

I hate writing dialogue; I seem to have to spend a lot of time trying to make it sound "flowing", and it never seems to look right.

On the plus side, Hammersmith liked it :)

Oh, and just to satisfy my inner pedant, it's "dialogue" :D

[Hammersmith]

ueueueueueueue - remember these two letters, Americans!

Yes, Zale indeed I did. Top hole, seemed natural. Of course reading the finished product you'll never see the blood, sweat and tears that go into it during writing - unless it's badly done!

I personally find dialogue rather tricky, especially transitioning in and out of it - I tend to think that going smoothly from a page of description and suddenly dropping a conversation on the unsuspecting reader can be fairly tricky. But my readers thus far have told me that my dialogue is the strongest part of my writing, so who knows? :D

[Annaheru]

I hate dialogue, of course, in my case that stems from my own rather laconic nature- I don't have much experiance in what is considered 'normal' conversation, so I have trouble writing it. Which is a problem: you can't have every character responding with one word answers!

[e.Blackstar]

Oh, I used to be AWFUL at dialogue. Horrible horrible. But I've gotten better lately. huzzah!

[HLGStrider]

Call me an awful awful American, but I HATE that ue. Ucky ue. . . I can take it in Monologue or when it is refering to a play, but in writing. . .ucky. . .

[Ghorim]

Hmm... well, I for one enjoy dialogue. I'm not saying that my character exchanges are top-notch, but I usually handle the actual writing process pretty well. Really, most of the time I know where I want the conversation to go, and as long as this overarching goal is consistent with the goals and personalities of the characters involved, getting there isn't that difficult at all.

A lot of it is similar to acting... understanding motivations, the stakes, and background for each character. Considering the backstory really helps with the voice, since usually things like education level and profession really play a major role in what words a given character will choose. When you're dealing with a diverse group of characters, keep in mind that each one approaches the same problem or situation from his or her own mindset. Accordingly, they'll devise different solutions to it on their own accord, and perhaps even try to convince the others why their approach makes the most sense.

Anyway... maybe I'm just stating common knowledge here, but I thought I'd contribute something.

[HLGStrider]

What I think is fun is writing the dialog when you are from the limited view point of one character. You can write the words of one and the utter horror, shock, and disbelief of the second at hearing it. Or the cynicism of the one hearing it. You know, the comic exchange where someone is listening to someone saying something and thinking about it. . .that's fun.

[Hammersmith]

I personally love dialogue where the reader knows what neither character knows, and then ensnare the participants in helpless knots of double meaning and innuendo, ending with their total confusion due to one tiny nugget of information that the reader is now screaming at the top of his lungs.



Goodness, I'm cruel. :(

[Hobbit-GalRosie]

I personally love dialogue where the reader knows what neither character knows, and then ensnare the participants in helpless knots of double meaning and innuendo, ending with their total confusion due to one tiny nugget of information that the reader is now screaming at the top of his lungs.



Goodness, I'm cruel. :(

Yeah, but I love that stuff too, though I've never tried writing it...but then it depends on the situation, if it's actually something serious where there might be some kind of disaster occurring or a breech in a friendship of the characters or something like that because of their misunderstanding each other I'm more likely to want to throw the book as far away as it'll go, and only return to it several days later when I've resigned myself to the fact that the story is going to cease being in any sense enjoyable to me in the foreseeablbe future.