Baron of Terribad (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 08/08/08 | Reply
Dialogue is fun. I love having people talk, though I probably have my characters do WAY too much of it in my stories, haha. I can't help it.
Major agreement with the adverb dealie. Action after dialogue allows you far more options and allows for more imagination in how single lines of dialogue and whole conversations are constructed. Also, it's just more fun for the reader if he or she is able to discern the mood without hand-holding from the author. You shouldn't need a marker to tell when a character is being sarcastic, for instance lol.
I only just started rpging this year so I'm learning how to write conversations in the first place. o_O It's a lot harder than I thought it would be. So... thanks for the tips. ^_^
I would use "these" to surround your dialogue, though it's pretty subjective. You can use 'these,' or even -these- if you want to be really avant garde. But if you're going to be standard, use "these," and only use 'these' if you're doing a quote within a quote. (e.g "And then she said, 'Your hair is so last season,' the dirty skank.")
As for the actions rather than adverbs deal: compare these two sentences:
"Did I get the job?" Harry said nervously.
"Did I get the job?" Harry said, shifting his weight from foot to foot.
So instead of just saying outright that Harry's nervous, you both gave him something to do, and illustrated his mood. Basically, it's part of that "show, don't tell" business that writing teachers love to attack us with!
Haha. It's true, as much as I love semicolons, they just feel wrong to put them in dialogue. I totally agree with everything you've mentioned here.
So that said, Miss Becky . . .
. . . I've seen some people use 'these' to surround their dialogue and I've seen other use "these" to surround their dialogue. Which one should we use for our own fiction, and is there actually a difference?
Also, you mentioned adding descriptions of what the character is doing as he or she is speaking instead of using the patented Rowlings "-ly adverbs". What would be a good example of how that would look?
Shinmaru
Baron of Terribad (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 08/08/08 | Reply
Dialogue is fun. I love having people talk, though I probably have my characters do WAY too much of it in my stories, haha. I can't help it.
Major agreement with the adverb dealie. Action after dialogue allows you far more options and allows for more imagination in how single lines of dialogue and whole conversations are constructed. Also, it's just more fun for the reader if he or she is able to discern the mood without hand-holding from the author. You shouldn't need a marker to tell when a character is being sarcastic, for instance lol.
Love thy Evangelion.
Sabrina
Otaku Archangel | Posted 08/07/08 | Reply
I only just started rpging this year so I'm learning how to write conversations in the first place. o_O It's a lot harder than I thought it would be. So... thanks for the tips. ^_^
-Sabrina
NightBeck
Otaku Eternal | Posted 08/07/08 | Reply
@SomeGuy:
I would use "these" to surround your dialogue, though it's pretty subjective. You can use 'these,' or even -these- if you want to be really avant garde. But if you're going to be standard, use "these," and only use 'these' if you're doing a quote within a quote. (e.g "And then she said, 'Your hair is so last season,' the dirty skank.")
As for the actions rather than adverbs deal: compare these two sentences:
"Did I get the job?" Harry said nervously.
"Did I get the job?" Harry said, shifting his weight from foot to foot.
So instead of just saying outright that Harry's nervous, you both gave him something to do, and illustrated his mood. Basically, it's part of that "show, don't tell" business that writing teachers love to attack us with!
Good questions, good sir.
SomeGuy
Canadian Liaison (Team) | Posted 08/07/08 | Reply
Haha. It's true, as much as I love semicolons, they just feel wrong to put them in dialogue. I totally agree with everything you've mentioned here.
So that said, Miss Becky . . .
. . . I've seen some people use 'these' to surround their dialogue and I've seen other use "these" to surround their dialogue. Which one should we use for our own fiction, and is there actually a difference?
Also, you mentioned adding descriptions of what the character is doing as he or she is speaking instead of using the patented Rowlings "-ly adverbs". What would be a good example of how that would look?
Shi Bum Bumm
Otaku Eternal | Posted 08/07/08 | Reply
No questions ^^ This really helped though, it had a lot of good points.