DIALOGUE IS MORE LIKE FLAKY PASTRY

NEATLY ROUNDED DIALOGUE ;)

I spent today writing a conversation between two characters. 

This was an exercise in showing, telling and layering: dialogue is like flaky pastry.

THIS IS A DIET BREAKING DISCOVERY ;)

At some point this afternoon, while baking was happening in the kitchen, it occurred to me that dialogue and conversation are like flaky and puff pastry. 

The difference between flaky and puff pastry is the way it's made and the end result.

To make flaky pastry you spread the fat a little at a time while repeatedly rolling and folding the sheet onto itself; doing this builds up lots of thin layers of pastry. These layers fluff up or flake when baked.

Puff pastry is quicker to make as all the fat is added all at once, in knobs, or little lumps, the pastry is rolled out and the fat is randomly dispersed, when baked the pastry puffs up with lots of random bubbles.

SEE? 

Dialogue, is like flaky pastry, it needs to be crafted with care – adding a little at a time until it is built into organised and deliberate layers.

Conversation is less formal and it doesn’t matter what pops up or where.

The layers in dialogue flaky pastry (and Peder Hill probably didn’t even realise this), can be built by blobbing in the necessary information that will help:

•           Establish the tone or mood

•           Provide exposition or back story

•           Reveal character and motivation

•           Create immediacy and intimacy (build reader empathy)

•           Move the plot forward and/or increase its pace

•           Create or adding to existing conflict

•           Remind the reader of things they may have forgotten

•           Foreshadow

TASTY DIALOGUE ANYONE?