Category: Novel

D … is for dialogue

On By TomIn Achievement, Competitions, General, Insight, Novel, Poetry, Short Stories13 Comments

D[1]

is for dialogue. We’ll take a brief look, at five aspects of today’s topic.

 *

1. Direct speech.

This is the most commonly used means of conveying information, and producing conversation between characters.

“It really depends on house style, and your market place,” Tom said.

“Yes,” Jane agreed. “I suppose you’re right.”

 *

2. Indirect speech.

We use this technique to avoid a long drawn out piece of dialogue.

“It really does depend on house style, and your market place,” Tom said, before going on for five minutes to explain a variety of points on the subject.

Jane listened and nodded, realising just how deep a subject it was.

 *

3. Dialogue tags.

Examples: said, screamed, called, shouted, cried, exclaimed.

We don’t have to use a fancy word, when ‘said’ is the easiest to use, is the least obtrusive, and does the job. Don’t use a big word, because you might send your reader looking for a dictionary. Use something more descriptive if the scene benefits from it.

Keep dialogue short, sharp, and believable. It will keep the story moving forward, and it sounds natural. Try breaking up your dialogue with a tag in mid-sentence; which is something I do often.

“I’ve used it extensively in my novels,” Tom said. “It sounds natural, and allows the reader to take a breath.”

 *

4. Thoughts.

When a character has a thought, it does not have quotation marks. They are thinking about it; not saying it.

 *

5. Dialect.

This is one of my pet hates. I’m a Glaswegian. For anyone not of British descent, it means I’m originally from Glasgow, in Scotland. Allow me to demonstrate typical dialect from my hometown. It’s how I used to speak before I left home.

Billy said: “Ah telt ‘im ee’ wisnae gonnae geh’ ennae. Ee’ telt me tae piss aff ‘n mine ma’ ain bizniz.”

“Yurr takin’ thu pish,” Jimmy replied. “Ah’d a’ smakt ‘um in thu’ mooth.”

What is dialect? It’s not everyday language; it is the broad, colloquial tongue of a region or district. It is tedious to write, and awful to read. Why is it a pet hate of mine? It should only be done if the entire story is done in that style, or, if it’s the way a single character speaks at all times.

I’ve seen it in so many stories where the writer has changed back and forward from regular English language to regional dialect and back again, with one character. The character should speak one way or the other.

Thank you for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow with ‘E’.

***

C … is for Capitals

On By TomIn General, Insight, Novel, Poetry, Review, Short Stories9 Comments

C[1]  is for capitals. At first glance when writing, the use of capital letters seems easy enough, but when you look a little deeper, it has some basic rules which are easy to miss.

If we take the most obvious examples, we’d be looking at things like proper names; John Smith, Janis Joplin, Cary Grant, etc. There is nothing too difficult there, because a person’s name will not alter in any circumstances within writing, apart from different spelling.

 

Countries and cities have something a little trickier to consider. For example, we would write; London, New York, Paris, England, France, and Africa. When we use the nation’s name as an adjective, the capital letter remains constant; English pub, French fashion house, African township and so on.

The exception to this rule, is when the reference is ‘distant’, and is not necessarily ‘connected’ to the place. We have examples like; french windows, brussels sprouts, danish pastry, and yorkshire pudding. Some writing programmes would have you believe otherwise, by highlighting the word as a spelling error – so be wary.

 

Rank and title are a common area for mistakes. I’ll demonstrate examples in dialogue.

“Superintendent Jackson told me that he would investigate the matter,” Peter said.

“I was told by the superintendent that he’d investigate the matter,” Peter said.

 

Relatives can draw you into making errors too. Dad, Mum, Granddad, and so on.

Gordon said: “Mum, are you going to pick up my uniform later?”

Sally said: “I saw your mum down at the bus stop earlier Gordon.”

In summary, I would like to give credit to my bible on this matter: ‘The Writer’s abc Checklist’, by Lorraine Mace and Maureen Vincent-Northam. That book is never further than arm’s length when I’m writing anything serious.

The correct answer to the question at the end of my ‘A’ post was 8. The closest answer was 9, which came from Sarah Neeve, so well done to you Sarah, and thanks for having a go.

Thank you for dropping by. I’ll be back tomorrow with my thoughts on D.

 ***