Thursday 4 April 2013

DIALOGUE - A to Z CHALLENGED

D is for DIALOGUE

Each post for the A to Z Challenge is the challenge I set for myself.


Dialogue: because what people say,
 and how they say it, is revealing.















D is for Dialogue because it reveals everything about your character as long as it is realistic, and not loaded down with plot information.

HAL LONGLEAT AND THE TROUBLE WITH TRUTH
“I see you’re keeping out of the way.”
“Edith!” he said, quickly. He darted a look around. He hadn’t heard her arriving over the noise in the courtyard. “I don’t want to watch.”
She smiled. “Delicious food and a warm bed instead of leftovers and straw in the stable - give me worries like that.”
“All I know is how to work with horses.”
“Sure. And, that will come in handy.”
“Maybe.” Hal gripped his sore thumb inside his fist. 


Could YOU have been gifted with the ability to identify and eliminate weak and brittle phrases from your work? To the uninitiated, these interlopers look like quality imagery.

CLICHÉ RAIDERS: REWRITE!

•           deadly accurate
•           dead of night, in the
•           dead to the world
•           deafening silence
•           deaf to entreaties
•           death’s door, at
•           death warmed up, like
•           dicing with death
•           drop of a hat, at the
•           dry as a bone

FOR D, I CHOSE DIALOGUE. WHAT IS THE SUBJECT OF YOUR D POST?

16 comments:

  1. I like the idea of rewriting those cliches.

    Dialogue is super important. I'm often revising my word choices inside the dialogue to make each character stand out on their own.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Summer
      Revising dialogue one character at a time was the best tip I learned.

      Delete
  2. In the beginning dialogue was hard for me, but now it's my favorite part.

    My D post is the start of an art contest to create my Dragumon for a chance to win a signed copy of my book. :) Do you have any artist friends? Send them my way! D is for Dragumon

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    Replies
    1. Hi Charity
      I saw you post for the Dragumon. Putting an image like that together will take some extreme-artistic talent. I hope you find someone who can put all those features together.

      Delete
  3. I actually enjoy some infodumps or speculation-dumps in dialogue, because conversation is one of the most common ways we humans learn things and/or figure things out. One that comes to mind is in Stephen King's Cell, after so much inexplicable violence has broken out, our few protagonist-survivors sit around for several pages speculating on what caused this zombie-like outbreak. It felt cathartic and natural, but that was in part because we'd had so few answers and slow moments before.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi John
      If my friends and I had lived through mayhem and a zombie outbreak I'd definitely want to see it we could put our heads together and work out what was going on.

      Delete
  4. I was once told that dialogue was my biggest weakness as a writer. ;) Margie Lawson's idea of highlighting all dialogue and then reading it out helped me tremendously!!
    My D word is Dyslexia because we just found out my son has it. He's in 8th grade (face palm)
    Nice post...I'm enjoying yours...they're fun! :)
    Kristi

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Kristi
      I'm glad you got a diagnosis for your son - it takes the pressure off and offers some insights about how he could be helped to make good progress with his reading and writing skills. I'm dyslexic - it was so frustrating not being able to shape the words I could read into the same shapes on the paper.

      Delete
    2. Thanks Elaine,
      He's already so excited about the resources they're offering him at school. I can see the frustration just melting away for him. I still can't believe that I knew so little about dyslexia before this...

      Delete
  5. I like your cliche raider....good thing to keep in mind.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Julia
      I really enjoyed narrowing down the list of clichés to the ten that could have cropped up in this wip.

      Delete
  6. D is for Dragons of the steampunk variety. I'm loving your Cliche Raiders. It's challenging finding new ways to express old and overused sentiments. Challenging but fun!

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  7. LoL I'm really enjoying your alphabetized lists of cliches :)

    ~ Rhonda Parrish

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  8. Well done for thinking of this! Those clichés are real traps. I have 3 things for each day. Drop in and say hi : http://www.madelineannstringer.blogspot.com

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  9. Yay for the cliche raiders. Dialogue is a great choice for D in the A to Z.

    Dropping by from the A to Z: http://elizabethwatgibson.wordpress.com

    ReplyDelete