Comments on: Creative writing - dialogue

By: Creative Writing - Characterisation at The Crafty Writer

Creative Writing - Characterisation at The Crafty Writer — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 21:29:44 +0000

[...] week we will look at voicing, dialogue and dialect. See you [...]

By: Fiona Veitch Smith

Fiona Veitch Smith — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 08:45:29 +0000

YOu do have a difficult job here. But I agree, best to put dialogue in. I still think the best approach is to treat it as if you were writing fiction. In fiction, you get to know your characters then allow them to speak and act in a way true to themselves. It’s no different with your grandma, other than she really existed. Good luck with it.

By: writinggb

writinggb — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 02:09:02 +0000

Dialogue IS so very important. That’s what I find the most challenging part of what I am attempting in revising my grandmother’s memoir. How does one make up dialogue for a non-fiction book? Yikes.

And yet, if there’s no dialogue, I find it all too distant. My solution so far has been to use dialogue more as the spice of a dish and action as the meat. I know what happened (i.e. plot), and I can easily imagine the actions that must have gone with these plot points. Imagining dialogue that will not only sound authentic but also be at least essentially “true” is extrememly difficult, however.

By: Fiona Veitch Smith

Fiona Veitch Smith — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 13:55:11 +0000

Hi Sue. I don’t mind a bit of dialect myself as long as it’s used sparingly. By all means continue to stay away from it if you don’t emjoy reading or writing it.
Fiona

By: Soobdoo

Soobdoo — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 10:31:25 +0000

Thanks Fiona,
As ever a lot to take in here.
I struggled with the exercise using dialect.
Nothing puts me off a book faster than dialect and so I can’t imagine ever using this in my writing.
Sue

By: Fiona Veitch Smith

Fiona Veitch Smith — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:34:44 +0000

Well Morvern Callar has a lot of f-words and no speech marks and it’s hard to effing tell who’s effing speaking at any one effing time because they all effing eff at the same time!

Regarding playwrighting, there are some really good recommendations in my Bookshop. Also, in a few weeks time I’ll be having a guest blog from a well-staged playwright (he also writes film, radio and tv). I’ll let you know when he’s going to be on.

By: Rebecca Zugor

Rebecca Zugor — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:27:10 +0000

No, I haven’t read Morvern Callar, Fiona. I haven’t written any plays yet, but as I enjoy dialogue so much, maybe I should give it a go sometime.

By: Fiona Veitch Smith

Fiona Veitch Smith — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:05:45 +0000

Hi Rebecca. I’m a fan of dialogue myself. This post came mainly from all my experience of students who struggled with something I found came so naturally. Have you tried your hand at playwrighting? You’ll probably be good at that too.

Not a great fan of ditching speech marks myself. Have you read Morvern Callar? I would have quoted from it but I couldn’t find my copy.

By: Rebecca Zugor

Rebecca Zugor — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:01:21 +0000

Hi Fiona,

I love writing dialogue! I tend to find it easier than writing descriptive passages, although there’s still room for improvement in my work. I’m looking forward to trying out the exercises at the weekend.

I always wondered what to do when having mixed actions by more than one character in a paragraph in the middle of someone’s dialogue, so now I know! Thanks.

I hope the ‘postmodern’ idea of using no speech marks does not become commonplace. I read a story recently where there were no quote marks and it was very distracting.

Rebecca