Wednesday, April 4, 2012

D is for . . .


Dialogue—or should I say dragon?

When I first set myself the goal of learning to write, I avoided dialogue as if it were a fire-breathing dragon. Gabriel Garcia Marquez managed to write Love in the Time of Cholera without a single word of dialogue, his narrative voice ancient-sounding and epic. 

But yours truly? Not quite there yet. My prose without dialogue was just an abandoned stage set.

 “Whatd you do?” you ask.

“I faced my fear. I listened  to people talk and wrote lots and lots of dialogue.

“Did it work?”

“Sure did. In a formal critique an editor complimented my dialogue.” (It was the only thing she complimented.)

I know there are other dragons out there waiting to blast me into dust and ashes, but as long as I can face them one at a time?

“Bring ’em on!” I say.

14 comments:

  1. I love to write dialogue. It's often times the only compliments I get in critiques too. =)

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  2. It's the thing that scares me most about writing on my blog, I doubt i ever do it right! Dialog not very good at it!

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    1. I hope you keep at it until you find that dialogue's not a dragon, but a pussycat!

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  3. "Muse, I love your blog," said Big Chief as he sat typing before his computer screen . . .

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  4. Dragon - unpredictable fire-breathing creature. Danger! Danger! Danger!

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  5. Dialoging dragons are delicious. I came from the world of playwriting, so if anything I overdo the dialogue.

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    1. Are you saying you're a drama queen then, Leslie? :)

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  6. My stuff tends to be dialogue heavy. It took time to get away from floating heads.

    Jen from http://falling4fiction.blogspot.com/

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  7. I love to write dialogue. I tend to read out loud to make sure it sounds natural and have even gotten family members to read out scenes between characters so I can see how the dialogue works and where it needs to be improved. They don't stand for that often :)

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    1. Yes, reading out loud helps me too, although it makes my family think I'm crazy. Great idea to have your family members read your dialogue. I'll try that. Thanks for visiting and commenting!

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