Tag Archives: dialogue

Writing Preferences

Leave a reply

Today’s post is about writing preferences. I asked my lovely Facebook Friends if they had anything they wanted to know about me, and one did. M. Cedar has provided writing inspiration before, and I am happy to answer any questions.

The question in question (I have to at least once a post), is “What are your favorite things to write and why? Dialogue? Action? Descriptions? & etc.” I will do my best to answer it. I also have to admit, this question gave me a whole bunch of ideas on what I want to write next. I am feeling inspired and ready to work on things!

Idea by Daniele Marlenek, via Flickr

Idea by Daniele Marlenek, via Flickr

Like many things in life, this question is multifaceted. I tend to like all parts of writing, so it is hard for me to have a favorite. In some situations, I love to write descriptions, or backgrounds for my characters. I find writing a background tremendously helpful. I rarely put these backgrounds into the story, they usually don’t fit, but they really help me figure out who the character is and why they are doing what they’re doing.

I also love dialogue. Especially when I don’t quite know what I’m doing, or I want to take up some space on a page. Writers can be lazy. Word count matters, but sometimes you just need five more pages, and dialogue can be a way to get there quick.

Dialogue can also be a great way to show the character’s personality without going into tell mode. Show not tell, right? Here is a bit of dialogue in the current book I’m writing, it makes me laugh:

“You should have what I’m having.” Sabina said. “It’s a Sex Bomb.”

I giggled, and blushed. “Thanks, Sabina. I think I’ll stick to wine. I don’t do so well with hard liquor.”

“More’s the pity. Liquor is quicker you know.” She arched her brow, wrapped her tongue around her straw, and took a sip of her drink. 

“Sabina! Really. Ruby is a guest and you should be nice. Save it for someone who needs charming. We want Ruby on our side, not running away as fast as she can.” Carrie patted my arm.

“Poor little rabbit.” Sabina said. “I’ll give up the chase.” She looked at Carrie. “You better have someone fun for me at the party.” Her lips turned down into a perfect pout and she looked up at the two of us from under her eyelashes. 

I was in trouble. 

I hope that you all can see the range of characters involved. I wanted the scene to be a little silly, flirty, and potentially embarrassing for my protagonist. Let me know if it worked.

So, M. Cedar, I guess I should say dialogue is my favorite to write, with a number of other things coming in a close second, third, and so on.

What is your favorite thing to write? Answer in the comments and let’s discuss.

As always, thanks for reading, please share. 

Dialect, Ya’ll

2 Replies

My family and I made it back to Portland from our extended weekend on Vashon Island. We had a great time with my mom on the Island, and a lovely visit with friends in Seattle. My kid got to ride a horse, play outside, and snuggle with his grandparents. He was very happy. The train rides were mostly wonderful, and our trip back home was quick and easy. All in all, it was a great vacation.

6001112875_4bc5339dc7On our train ride up to Seattle, I found my inspiration for this post. We sat across the asile from a group of four older folks, who were just a little bit country. I found them charming, and fun to listen to. At one point in time, during the card game they were playing, one of the group used the term, “Dag gum!” in a sentence. It was in no way ironic, and I almost died trying not to giggle.

Mind you all, I wasn’t laughing at the speaker, I was laughing at the turn of phrase. Aside from the Cars movies, I had never heard anyone use the term aloud. It made me think of all the other turns of phrase that are a part of our world. America, being the large country it is, has many local dialects. I have been lucky enough to travel to most of the states, and have gotten to hear many different local sayings.

6156757838_3841287917_nWhen I was a teen, I lived on the Big Island of Hawaii. I was a goofy Haole with a sassy mouth and was a little unprepared for my new environment. I managed to get out of a fight one day by playing off a specific phrase. One of the girls I knew came up to me (’cause she was mad about me hanging out with her boys) and asked me, “Eh, you wan’ beef?” Meaning, “You want to fight?” I couldn’t help myself, and responded very literally. I told her, “No thanks. I’m a vegetarian.” Fortunately for me, this made her giggle and we decided we could live with each other.

I still have random bits of Pidgin in my sayings. I also have a bit of the South in my speech patterns. I tend to say “Ya’ll” and get a bit Belle-ish in certain situations. I pick up dialects, and I have stayed in many places around the country, so I have a lot to choose from. Every now and again, I’ll slip into a Boston accent. It tends to make people wonder where I’m from.

What does this have to do with writing? Everything. When you are writing characters, there is a fine line between making a insensitive (and potentially rasist, sexist, other -ist) caricature of a person instead of adding a bit of flavor to your narrative. I love having a feel for where the characters I’m reading grew up, or are at, but it can be done very poorly. It can also be hard to read straight dialect.

6214449310_7c50a4ea25_nHow do we, as writers and audience members, solve this? All I can tell you is what I like, and what I do. Maybe you’ll agree with me, maybe not. I like a few turns of phrase thrown in. When a character I’m reading says something like, “Wicked! Let’s get to the park.” I automatically read the rest of the character’s dialogue in an East Coast, Boston accent. If the whole thing is phonetically spelled out, or all in dialect, it drives me crazy. It actually takes me out of the story.

Adding a bit of dialect shouldn’t be used as a way to get out of writing good dialogue. Sometimes authors use it as a crutch instead of the burst of personality it should be. Enough about how I feel, what do you all think? Should dialect be used in dialogue? Or should all our dialogue be in Newscaster speak? Where is the line for you?

As always, thanks for reading, please share.

Dialogue Tags

6 Replies

There has been a lot of talk, and online writing, about dialogue in fiction this past week. The issue seemed to be divided between two distinct groups. Group One: these grammarians believe that you should only use the word said after any character statement. Group Two: these grammarians believe that you should use as many dialogue tags as possible.

What is a dialogue tag? You ask. Pretty much any other verb that describes a section of dialogue than said. These verbs are often in the past tense, meaning they end in -ed.

  • She screamed
  • He murmured
  • They trumpeted
  • Ze giggled

And so forth, and so on. People in Group One find this type of usage onerous. And there are clear reasons why they should. Books ala the Twilight Series take dialogue tags to lofty new levels that might crush even the most adventurous dialoguers spirit. If you, my dear reader, would like to take a look at some examples, I recommend the Reasoning with Vampires tumblr. It is hilarious. tumblr_lzv90zN5TS1qd0quuo1_500

Did you like the above sample? There are a lot more examples on the RWV blog. After reading prose with such flowery dialogue tags, part of me agrees with Group One. After all, said blends into the background. It allows the conversation between the characters to flow without being interrupted by the infamous telling, not showing. 

The problem with Group One’s assertion: it gets boring. If people only say things, I feel that the full range of emotions isn’t being expressed. Sure, you can probably tell there’s a fight going on in the scene without people snarling and hissing, at each other, but sometimes it’s nice to have that extra modifier to let you know what’s going on in the character’s head.

What happens if you have a normally monotone character, then suddenly, they burst into song. Something like that would be a shock, so using a good dialogue tag is a great way to show the out of character nature of the situation.

“The hills are alive.” He caterwauled, paints a much brighter picture than, “The hills are alive!” He said. Even with the exclamation point thrown in there, the first example has a stronger meaning. It just sings out. (Sorry, sometimes I can’t help myself.)

I find myself falling in between the two groups. When I write fiction, I use both. For the most part, my dialogue tags are of the plain, ole, boring said variety. There are occasions that I use other verbs, mostly when I want to put emphasis on something, or subtly (at least I hope so) point the reader to an important plot point.

What do you all think? Do you prefer Group One, Group Two, or a mix of both. There is no right or wrong answer. Do you all have a favorite dialogue tag? I happen to love warbled. 

Thanks for reading, please share. 

Writing is Fun; I Like to Write About Science! (a lesson on semicolons)

Leave a reply

tumblr_mb30wmspki1rq0k5so1_500

After my post about em dashes, a friend of mine suggested I write a post about semicolons. Those little buggers can be tricky. Since I didn’t have a clear idea of what I was going to write about this week, I thought I would go with my friend’s idea instead. I must give a tip of the hat to Mrs. Fala.

I happen to love punctuation. The fact that it can be used in so many ways makes me happy. There are some classic conventions, but if you know what you’re doing . . . you can get away with some amazing things. Writing about punctuation makes me smile. Talking about it also makes me grin; I know this makes me a writing geek, and I’m okay with that.

Back to semicolons! At one point in my school career, I took a Critical Theory class. The class was taught by a grad student with grand aspirations. Instead of inspiring us, she came off as a waspy, self-obsessed, pain-in-the-neck. Not only that, but she thought science was icky. Needless to say, she and I didn’t get along. I definitely pushed the envelop with her, and wrote a few really fun essays; including an essay with the thesis statement, Dinosaurs are Rad! I got to write about the velocirapture, so the class wasn’t a total waste.

She often called on her students to give examples of grammar and punctuation. I couldn’t tell if it was because she didn’t know, or because she liked to think we were idiots and we didn’t know. Keep this in mind; it was a three hundred level class, where one would hope that the students had a general grasp of the English language. One day she called on me. The conversation went thusly:

“Dylan, can you give us a sentence using a semicolon?” She asked.

“The house was made of logs; the dog was outside.” (It was the first thing I could think of on short notice.) I answered.

“Those two things don’t have anything to do with each other, so that isn’t a good example.” She responded, trying to negate the validity of my sentence.

“They do if you’re reading Old Yeller.” I shot back.

So, what does this teach us, other than the fact that I can be a bit of a pain-in-the-neck myself? I think, it teaches us that perception is everything. Sometimes sentences that don’t seem to have anything to do with each other should be connected with a semicolon. They want to snuggle. They want to give life to your prose.

Therein lies the crux of the semicolon; the semicolon snuggles up ideas. You use one when you have a complete sentence, but you just aren’t ready for it to end. In even simpler terms, you use a semicolon to connect two complete, compatible sentences to form one longer sentence to get at what you really want to say. When a comma isn’t enough, and a period is too much—go with a semicolon.

Thanks for reading, please share.