What do you find hardest?

[AnyaKimlin]

My dialogue has always received positive comments. To be honest I don't think about it much - I pay more attention to what they are doing than what they are saying. I try to fit it in with the setting and interaction.

The only thing that is important for me is to delete the name usage whenever possible.

I do think my dialogue approach is part of why I am struggling with third omniscient - because I normally write constantly thinking about what the character is doing whereas I am now watching the characters.

 

[Tecdavid]

Thinking about it less might actually be some good advice, Anya. Maybe it comes easier if it's simply left to flow?

 

[AnyaKimlin]

I think so - you don't want it to be realistic because realistic speech doesn't work in a book but at the same time we tend not to think that much before we speak. The only time I change that approach is when the character is actually considering their speech.

As I go back over it I find speech and inner thoughts don't often need editing or reworking. (Naturally I have bad days and find words missing or the wrong word in place but then sometimes I leave that in as well).

I don't consider my dialogue that wonderful but right from when I started putting it up on forums it is the one aspect most critiquers have liked.

This is very rough and not sure such a dull scene will make the final cut but this is what I have just written. (Tim is a gay police officer and Emma is an ex glamour model that is now married to the local Earl).

He placed the bag and bottle on the steps and helped her remove the faux fur coat, revealing a wool dress that skimmed over her surgically enhanced breasts. They had been friends since they were six and he had never got used to her knockers. Even before the implants it was like they had magically appeared during their teen years. “It's really good to see you, Em."

Her face clouded. “Is Bent home?”

His eyes rolled. “His name’s Ben. He’s staying with friends in Allerswick. I have the place to myself.”

“Where are my slippers?” Em bent down and fished them out from under the seat. She kicked off her Ugg boots and eased her feet into the bright pink fluffy arrangement that Tim had bought for her.

Tim picked up the takeaway and the whisky off the stairs. “Ow what was that for?” He rubbed his rear.

“I’m cold and hungry. Get a move on.”

 

[AnyaKimlin]

I would probably change two lines of dialogue looking at that.

'Bent home?"

"Ben's staying with friends in Allerswick."

Shorten it and take the rubbish out.

 

[Toby Frost]

Plotting. Making everything slot together is extremely difficult. I think it's easy to have an idea in your own head that it all makes sense, without actually letting the reader know what's going on. Crime writers must have a very difficult time.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

OK Toby has just added one to my list lol

Plotting and with me writing a cosy mystery that has been a trial all on its own. It isn't so bad with the high-fantasy but the urban fantasy has a mystery in it as well. If I could plot it would reduce the amount of words I write.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Tightening, so that the writing is focused and engaging. I find that incredibly difficult.

Plotting, character, and dialogue, I feel I can do until the cows come home, but that's the detail of the story - how you put it together is what will actually engage the reader and that's so hard.

That's the actual writing bit.

 

[Tecdavid]

Not only is tightening tough, but... well, it just doesn't feel fun, does it?

 

[Mouse]

Description all the way. I don't do it enough, but when I do focus on it (usually either on draft four, or when a beta points it out to me) I can do it. I just hate it.

I like editing and I'm lucky that dialogue comes easy to me (since my books mostly consist of people talking to each other).

All this exactly.

Sorry, but can't understand people who say they struggle with dialogue. You talk, right? Just write it as you'd say it.

Description though... It's a field. It's a bloody field. It's green.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Description though... It's a field. It's a bloody field. It's green.

See I agree with you - modern readers know more than the readers of the past and you don't need as much description.

Anyone that doesn't know what the Blackpool Tower looks like can Google it. I don't need to know wheels are round and the fields are green (maybe if they are green and yellow patchwork or something).

Now if you are in an alternate universe and the Blackpool Tower is a large fish-shape, in a purple field with cars with hexagonal wheels running round it, then that is the detail I need.

 

[Tecdavid]

All this exactly.

Sorry, but can't understand people who say they struggle with dialogue. You talk, right? Just write it as you'd say it.

Description though... It's a field. It's a bloody field. It's green.

Well, I suppose dialogue becomes troublesome when we're trying to replicate the speech of other times (no one today speaks like the folks in aSoIaF, for example. ), or if we're trying to convey someone's reaction to something we've never experienced. Say, a murder.

What's funny, though, is that I find description to be easy. Mine risks turning purple all the time, the amount of fun I have with it.

 

[Mouse]

... if we're trying to convey someone's reaction to something we've never experienced. Say, a murder.

But that's what characterisation and imagination's for. Once you've got a personality in your head, just imagine that personality's reaction to the murder. Would it be a 'Jesus Christ, he's dead!' or a 'Meh. Whatever, man, I see dead people all the time.'

What's funny, though, is that I find description to be easy. Mine risks turning purple all the time, the amount of fun I have with it.

I think my problem is that it bores me. Like springs, I can do it if I'm forced at gunpoint.

 

[HareBrain]

Tearing myself from the internet/ITV3/bed.

 

[allmywires]

I don't understand how you can be bored of description I want to immerse myself somewhere. I want to elicit those feelings of association you get from words. I don't want to say 'The field's green' when I can say something else that will make you feel the field is green without me telling you.

From something I wrote the other day*:

"The evening was warm, sultry and lively. Alberto and Rafael climbed out of the crowded subway into a fragrant and pleasant evening. The sun had just set, the underbellies of the clouds above braised orange and pink by the sunset. Alberto could smell fried food and hear foreign music from the wide-open windows."

I could have just left it at the first sentence. But then where is the joy in that?!

As my mum has said to me (and I agree with her) if I could write a book with all description and no pesky characters, I'd be on a winner.

*not professing it to be any good, mind

 

[Tecdavid]

But that's what characterisation and imagination's for. Once you've got a personality in your head, just imagine that personality's reaction to the murder. Would it be a 'Jesus Christ, he's dead!' or a 'Meh. Whatever, man, I see dead people all the time.'

Yeah, but that's the thing, see? You can use your imagination and characterisation to decide how a character will react, but some (myself included) will look back at the resulting dialogue and think "...Oh, jeez, is that actually accurate enough? Is that a believable reaction at all?"
'Could be a confidence thing, really.

I think my problem is that it bores me. Like springs, I can do it if I'm forced at gunpoint.

That's when "each to our own" becomes valid.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Yeah, but that's the thing, see? You can use your imagination and characterisation to decide how a character will react, but some (myself included) will look back at the resulting dialogue and think "...Oh, jeez, is that actually accurate enough? Is that a believable reaction at all?"
'Could be a confidence thing, really.

Probably - I mean in real life how often do we actual say something accurately ?

 

[Jake Reynolds]

I find that the simplest way to test dialogue is to read it aloud.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Interesting. My post from earlier has completely vanished.

What I said was, roughly:

Finishing is my biggest problem. My second-biggest problem is description that falls somewhere in between utilitarian and purple. Bare-bones I can manage, purple I can manage, but in the middle ... urgh.

I'm with Mouse on the dialogue thing -- talking is easy. I do it all the time!

 

[steve12553]

Yeah, but that's the thing, see? You can use your imagination and characterisation to decide how a character will react, but some (myself included) will look back at the resulting dialogue and think "...Oh, jeez, is that actually accurate enough? Is that a believable reaction at all?"
'Could be a confidence thing, really.




That's when "each to our own" becomes valid.

One thing to remember is that they are your characters and real people's reactions can be as varied as the day is long. People react at much different baud rates. It also depends on the mood they are in at the time.

Under a horrible circumstance, I reacted calmly and coolly as I received bad news. On other occasions, I've flown off the handle for a much lower priority situation. Your characters can be your characters.

 

[MstrTal]

I know I said dialog earlier and while I meant it I now believe it is secondary. My main problem is getting past my world building and actually working on my projects to get past my cheesy dialog.

Someone said something about "we all talk", well I talk like a sailor. If I wrote like I spoke on a regular basis my character would be arrested, in constant fights and they would all sound the same! Plus the sheer amount of expletives would, while inventive, increase the word count fourfold.