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Dialogue; Can you have too much of it?
Topic Started: May 8 2009, 09:11 AM (1,325 Views)
bionic4ever
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I am able to gauge how much dialogue I have in each chapter because (for some odd reason) with the word processing program I use, quotation marks appear as odd symbols on the page here...so I use 'Ctrl + F' to find them all on the page and then 'Replace All' to change them to double apostrophes, which transfer here as quotes. (Yes, strange...I know.) This gives me a count of how many were replaced in that particular chapter...and chapter 4 of 'Cobra' had 56...the highest total (I think) for any chapter in any of my stories.
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Bionika
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Dialogue-heavy chapters give you less words than descriptions for NaNoWriMo.

Regarding NaNoWriMo 10% covered . yide

Bionika
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bionic4ever
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And then there are those chapters that are almost exclusively dialogue...
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bionic4ever
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Just wrote a Chapter 8 that was almost all dialogue - straight from beginning to end! Ugh! It looked more like a script than a chapter. So I scrapped it and am challenging myself to come up with at least a mix of the two.
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Bionika
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When I write dialogues, I never know if I should add"Steve said..Jaime told...Oscar replied...Rudy add..." especially when I don't need to describe the tone used. I think that it make the text coarser but I'm also afraid of misunderstanding if I don't do it.

What is readers' feeling about that?

Bionika
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bionic4ever
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Bionika
Nov 21 2012, 12:12 AM
When I write dialogues, I never know if I should add"Steve said..Jaime told...Oscar replied...Rudy add..." especially when I don't need to describe the tone used. I think that it make the text coarser but I'm also afraid of misunderstanding if I don't do it.

What is readers' feeling about that?

Bionika
If there are only two people in the room, especially if they have different speech patterns (if one uses slang or contractions and the other doesn't), you can get away with just an occasional 'Jaime said' or 'Oscar replied'. (Unless, like you've stated, you want to convey a certain feeling: 'Jaime said stubbornly'. Then, as often as you need to do that.)

If there are more than two people in the room (or in the conversation), it gets harder to tell who is talking. Unless they all have different ways of speaking, you almost have to write 'Oscar said,' 'Jaime insisted,' and 'Russ replied.' It's good to mix them up (like you did in your example) and not use 'said' every time, but to alternate between said, replied, answered, shouted, whispered (or however your characters are speaking). But yes, with 3 or more people speaking, you almost have to identify the one talking.
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Bionika
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Thank Beth. I'll read again the story I'm translating now under your comment's light.

As I'm using dictionnary for translating, I think that all my characters have the same speech pattern : the dictionnary one even if they shoud not (my terrorists in "For peace" are perhaps a little bit too polites and in the story I'm translating I made the remark to myself too because I've got some rebels who speack like Oscar, Jaime or Steve. Well even if they are too polite, their acts aren't and match with what they are. )

Yes, tne other difficulty is to not use always "say". I try to do it but it's not easy. Thank for your samples of other words. Chapter 9 of "Healing "is a good example too: "admitted, asked, requested,...). I'll try to remember them. I'm always impressed by the amount of vocabulary you have and I always learn at least one (and often many) word(s) while reading your stories.

Bionika
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bionic4ever
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Is it harder to follow (for the reader) when a chapter is virtually all dialogue? Or is it just different? I'm trying for a good mix. Funny thing is, I used to be crummy with dialogue and now it seems all the characters ever want to do is talk to each other!
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Bionika
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My opinion is that it's different but not harder and I would say perhaps easier.

I remember to have beginning my reading of fan fictions on fanfictions.net and have sometimes difficulties with heavy texts and sometimes I gave up, reading one chapter out of
two only.
On the opposite, when I first came on this site, I began my reading by the olders stories and found very pleasant the reading of Rudywells1274 "Instant family and sequels" stories in which there are lot's of dialogues.

Bionika
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Bionika
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How do you deal with dialogues on phone.

I've got one in process and I'm a little bit @#$ @#$ @#$
It's Oscar with The Secretary. First I wrote it only with Oscar relaying Secretaries informations : "Yes I understand...I had this information...Be sure that I share the President concern about....etc...And then, suddenly, I began to wrote directly what the Secretary was saying (may be his character has taken the lead ;) :D ) and what Oscar is replying.

In your opinion what is the best way to write phone dialogues?

Bionika
Edited by Bionika, Nov 27 2012, 05:06 PM.
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bionic4ever
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Sometimes (especially if it's a phone call Oscar's making), I have him put it on Speakerphone. Then the whole room can hear the other side of the conversation and it's easier for you (as the writer) to convey it. Or if Jaime's in the room, she can always be casually listening in...
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Bionika
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Yes , in the story I already had a phone call from the Secretary but I hadn't had this problem because Jaime was listening.

Now Oscar is alone in his office , The secretary is probably shouting so loudspeacker is useless. Moreover Oscar won't use it : this dialogue should have never existed! (If somebody ask The Secretary if he knew what was happening, The Secretary will deny it and Oscar will deny to have informed the Secretary).

Anyway, thank for giving your opinion

Bionika
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bionic4ever
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If it's a two-way conversation like that (with no one else in the room), you can write it like a regular conversation. Not a problem. :)
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Bionika
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As in the show, we never hear The Secretary but only Oscar's answers, how do you think he is calling Oscar : "Oscar" or "Goldman" (especially if he is annoyed by what is happening)?

Bionika
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bionic4ever
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Probably, as you've suggested, a mixture of both. 'Oscar' when he's feeling jovial...and 'Goldman' when he's anywhere from annoyed to outright angry.
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