Is there a Formula?
Today my dears, I'm going to lighten the mood. There's a subject that keeps rearing up every month in my writing group. My writing group is made up of five terrific writers and they’ve become great friends. The question is how much description to use and my personal favorite dialog how much is to much on one page.
I think that I'll tackle dialog first, which Writers Digest had a great article on the subject. In my Logan Wolf Chronicles, I use description a little more than dialog and in Heaven and Hell, I use more dialog than description.
My six elements of what I think is good dialog writing.
1. Don't worry about perfection. Your characters have to sound real. We don't always talk in complete sentence. Say the sentence aloud to make sure it sounds right.
2. Don't let your characters get on a soapbox and preach.
3. Don't try to be a comedian or a smartass all the time, it gets old.
4. Know your character. Let them do the talking.
5. Write from your gut. Let the dialog flow don't make it come.
6. Don't cram a lot of dialog together, it gets boring.
Description has to do many things so please don't omit it. I want to know what the writer sees in their head. I do have to admit that there's a fine line to just enough to over the top. I don't think you need five paragraphs to tell me what a shirt looks like. I have started using three sentences to describe a person and what they're wearing. This is my personal formula and my writing group seems to like it because I can get over the top at my descriptions. So do what's best for you my dears.
posted by LA Burton @ 11:55 AM
5 Comments
5 Comments:
I've always had issues with dialogue. My tutors at university praised me for mine, but they were always quick to point out the difference between realistic and naturalistic. By naturalistic they meant dialogue that's heavy on accent and dialect, which can often be hard to follow. By realistic, I suppose they usually meant readable.
For example, a member of my writers' group has a French character in her novel, and at first she attempted to write her dialogue in a French accent. This made it next to impossible to follow at times and we all agreed there were better ways to get across her Frenchness; sentence structure being a big one.
I think you're right about saying the sentence aloud - I guess if it sounds odd in speech it will sound even odder on the page!
I agree that it's hard to read. I've read a couple of writers who wrote the dialog like one would say it. Best example I can think of is 'Gone with the Wind' when the slaves were talking.
So if I'm writing say for Raiden's character, I will say that he had an Irish accent.
Thanks Jamie stop in again soon.
Although I loved "Gone With the Wind," I agree the slaves' dialogue often had me reading and re-reading long passages. I think if, like you say, you just slip in where the character is from, people will usually supply the accent themselves as they read. I know I do.
Dialogue has always come much eaier for me than description. I guess this varies from writer to writer.
btw- I stopped in by way of Joe Konrath's blog. You have a nice site. :)
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