In a novel, dialogue is two characters talking with a purpose. You use it in your fiction writing because it is efficient. With a few lines of well written dialogue, you could build character, advance the plot, convey information, and create tension lurking beneath the surface of the spoken language, which we call “subtext.” Dialogue is the shortcut to conflict. Conflict makes drama.
Robert J Ray
We have talked a bit about building character, okay, we talk about it often. We have also talked about building scenes. This week we will talk about dialogue.
One of my favorite selections of dialogue comes from William Faulkner’s novel, As I Lay
Dying.
The section is called Cora and it is far too long to include here. I do hope you will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed teaching it during my home-schooling days. My son and I still talk about the cake.
This is a small sampling of the dialogue..
"She ought to taken those cakes anyway," Kate says.
"Well," I say, "I reckon she never had no use for them now."
"She ought to taken them," Kate says. "But those rich town ladies can change their minds. Poor folks cant."
No matter how you choose to write one thing you will want to master is setting the stage.
Stage Setup by Many Other Names
The previous post contained a Story Board and this post is meant to pull the Setup out of the group of things to consider.
You, as a writer, need to know where you are as you set fingers to keyboard, most of the time, your reader wants this information as well.
You can present the setting in many ways, directly or through a character’s observation, or you may just blurt it out, tell. Telling has a place. Telling is especially useful when you are simply making a scene sketch.
Keep in mind, these are just notes, a quick sketch, something to pre-load a writer’s mind before she frets and worries over the opening line.
Next Sunday Marks the Ending of North America’s Daylight Savings Time. On 3 November we will use Eastern Time, ET or EST when times are listed for chats.
What is a Scene?
A scene is a bucket that contains drama. It occupies its own space for a finite amount of time. When time is up, the setup stays while we cut to a new scene. Scenes are great because they talk to you. They'll tell you the highway scene is finished. They'll tell it's time to cut to the empty house.
Robert J Ray
A Scene Sketch May Look Like This...
StoryBoard
Stage Setup:
Temperature/Season:
Time/Place:
Lighting/Sounds/Smells:
Symbols/Images:
Characters/Relationships:
Dialogue
Subjects:
Subtext:
Action
Large:
Supporting:
Point of View:
Climax:
Exit Line:
Join Us for a Wednesday Mini-Topic Chat
8PM EDT
Your Favorite
Character
If we write, we all have a favorite character of all time. Some of us have more than one. You know when you’ve found her.
He will come to you as if in a dream. Or he may arrive fully formed. It will be love at first sight.
How do you go about developing, designing, taming this perfect character? Do you keep notes, physical sketches, does she become a tiny person who sits near your keyboard?
What do you keep in your character notes? Do your characters get their very own files? Do you interview them? How do you keep them alive? How do you come back to your keyboard for the duration of your short story or novel
and keep them fresh and alive and full of surprises?
Wednesday is an open topic night. Bring any writerly questions or ides to the chat room and we will do our best to address them.
I have finally created a new page for the website called A Writer's Bookshelf. I have listed books on writing and linked the items back to Amazon. I am asking for suggestions from all of you. If you have a favorite book on writing or a reference book you return to often, please shoot me an email at Sally@Writerschatroom.com . Include a clear subject line and in the body of the email list the book, author and a link to the book if you have one available. Don't feel limited to a single suggestion, go ahead and send me your list. I will try my best to include them.
We have new visitors at the chat room, they sometimes feel a little lost because of our familiarity, so let's be sure to make them feel at home. Show them to the Potluck Dessert Table at the back of the room.
