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Vincent Kavaldra

Topic: Dialogue anyone?

For dialogue-driven authors. I myself am 80% dialogue 20% setting. Sadly it doesn't get me much readers, as people who read fantasy want to see the world they're reading about in their mind.

Anywho, the point of this topic. If you have any fantasy you'd like me to read of yours, post it here and I'll give it a gander. In return I'm asking people to read my stories. (There are two of them. I'd post them but I'm still having trouble working that story link doohicky)

Before you ask, yes. This IS a shameless plug, but after a while I'm starting to think that's the only way to get readers.

#1 Feb 23rd 2007, 2:50pm

Van87

I also have dialogue in my story! You're right but for me there's no choice. The story makes cense this way. I am going to read and review your stories hope you could do the same to my story “Spirit”. Thanks and good work!

#2 Mar 09th 2007, 1:48pm

Narc

Dialogue really is the best way to get information out, so long as you don't run into the trap of 'As you know, Bob ...' where two characters are obviously talking about something just so the reader can hear about it too.

Big thing for good dialogue is to make it natural. When people are talking they don't sit and listen patiently, taking turns and always understanding what the other person says. They misinterpret. They interrupt. They don't always want to talk about the same thing.

The biggest turnoff for me is said-bookisms in dialogue. The occasional 'she whispered' and 'he mumbled' is okay. But if it reads like a doggone thesaurus I'm going to run screaming.

#3 Mar 10th 2007, 2:46pm

Vincent Kavaldra

I agree. I've often read books only to end up using it to balance my kitchen table. And mis-use of dialogue is almost always the reason. The "Say said" stuff bothers me too. I try to vary it, by using other words at times, not using any words at all (If only two characters are talking, you don't need to constantly tell the reader who said what, just throw it in every now and they in case they lost track) Another great way is to just tell what the person talking did. "So what brings you here?" Bob poured himself a glass of wine, making sure to keep an eye on his visitor.

As a writer (wannabe anyway) I find it hard to stray from dialogue. Dialogue is both my strong point and my weak point.

#4 Mar 10th 2007, 6:16pm

phantomry

Aye, I've been leaning on a lot of dialogue...

But the way I got my setting description in is, for one, I drew a map of the setting and wrote out a long description of it; then recapped that and used it as most of my prologue, so it was described but didn't interfere too much with the story.

I'd love to read your stories ;D

#5 Apr 17th 2007, 11:29pm

Vincent Kavaldra

One big problem I have with description is that I want to write for Forgotten Realms. And if I do that, I'll be writing in the Faerun setting. But if I go and use it in my setting description then DON'T get published by them, it'll be hell to painstakingly go through every detail and change it.

#6 Apr 18th 2007, 12:23pm

Vincent Kavaldra

P.S. Another chapter of The Skull Staff is up :)

#7 Apr 18th 2007, 12:23pm

phantomry

What's the Forgotten Realms?

Ooh, I read the first chapter of that (all I had time for); it's very good! :D

#8 Apr 18th 2007, 5:58pm

Vincent Kavaldra

Wh...what's forgotten realms? Excuse me for a moment *Walks into the other room and shouts several obscenities* Anyway, FR is a set of books set in the world of Faerun. There are many different series you can choose from. I suggest the Drizzt series, War of the Spider Queen series, and the Elminster series. You can find the books at many bookstores and if you want you can find them on www.isohunt.com (You need a bittorrent client to download.)

Anywho, thanks for reading the first chapter :)

#9 Apr 18th 2007, 7:09pm

phantomry

I'll check them out. :3

#10 Apr 18th 2007, 7:54pm

DudeInHyrule

I just wrote a Baseball Little League fic. It got an A in the school assignment it was handed in for, and it's a 4000 word oneshot.

#11 Apr 21st 2007, 2:52pm

nightfallen

Diolog is awesome! I love dialog! My teacher once told me that 90% of dialog on the page should end with 'said' so that you're not trying to constantly look up synnomnyms (spelling?).

I also really like stories that have plenty of talk, and also a good balance of description. Not too much, not too little. That's how you get to know your charecters. Not only from the way act and dress, but also how they speak.

So yay for dialog!

#12 Apr 23rd 2007, 8:39am

Vincent Kavaldra

Odd, my creative writing teacher told me the EXACT opposite thing. He said that it's not a good idea to keep using say/said over and over. It's also not a good idea to just look up a synonym ever single time. I try to spice it up by telling them what the speaking character did:

Bob poured himself a glass of fine Dwarven wine and glanced over at Sera, "Mind telling me what you disturbed my meditation for?" He paused to take a sip and savor the age on his tongue. 132, a good year.

Or even go as far as to immediately admit what someone is thinking

"I believe he should be back by dawn." Joe lied, he knew that the man wouldn't be back by dawn. He wouldn't be back at all.

(I made those two lines up off the top of my head so sorry if they seem a little cliche)

#13 Apr 23rd 2007, 3:57pm

xbluxmoonx

meh, that was good actually. lol. heh, 132, a good year. ^_^

#14 Apr 26th 2007, 4:12pm

Arkady I

I also use a considerable amount of dialogue in my story "The Children Of Akka." I find it a much easier avenue by which to convey plot-lines and story progressions. That, and I am horrible at descriptive writing.

#15 Mar 25th, 5:11pm

Crazy In 88

Can't blame you for plugging your stuff. We're all guilty of that.

Well, I wouldn't say I'm a great dialogue person, but in my vamp stories, I try to think of how they'd talk in the 17/1800's. I only got a few posted because the first time I posted a vampire story i got flamed so bad... like I was in Hell and satan was telling me how horrible a writer I was. I cried and took all my stories down.

But I've been doing this writing thing for a while now, so I'm a bit more confident. You are free to look at my page and glance over the little I have now. I'll be updating more later. People don't realize how hard it is to write fantasy!

Well, we'll wrap later, till then I guess I'll be lookin' out for your stuff!

#16 May 27th, 11:31pm

Crazy In 88

Can't blame you for plugging your stuff. We're all guilty of that.

Well, we'll wrap later, till then I guess I'll be lookin' out for your stuff!

#17 May 27th, 11:34pm

zalance08

i have a dialogue in my story but haven't posted it yet because i haven't translated it yet to english..

for me, putting a lot of dialogues is not that boring because it's like you're making a play which is really good..because you can visualize how they say it and what's happening to them while they say it..hehe..

#18 Jul 12th, 3:43am

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