WIP Check-In: November 27th

[sperrywink]

Poll #12174 Check In: November 27th

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 6

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How has today been?

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Awesome!
1 (16.7%)

Pretty good
1 (16.7%)

okay
1 (16.7%)

meh
2 (33.3%)

Why are you taunting me?
1 (16.7%)

Today I have...

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wrote
4 (80.0%)

edited
1 (20.0%)

posted
0 (0.0%)

researched
0 (0.0%)

will explain in comments
1 (20.0%)

Today's discussion topic is:

Dialogue! Does it roll off the tongue or is it like pulling teeth? I love writing dialogue, and sometimes it is easy, other times it comes out banal and flat. But I keep trying. What is your relationship with dialogue?

Comments

[barbayat]

Have not really been working on fanfic today, the only fanstuff I have done so far is make a couple of icons for Sherlock. Unfortunately the picutre quality is kind of crappy but I guess something is better than nothing. (Going to post them later in my journal in case anyone is curious)

Dialogues: If I have the character's voice reasonably well in my head, dialogues come easy (unless it is a situation that is really way out of the usual spectrum for that character). As soon as I feel I am not understanding a character well enough, I get massive doubts. Every line can feel bad and I might take forever to move past some stupid dialogue. At least that used to be it - now I try to figure out what I want the person to say and then mark the part for revisiting it a later time.

[crowdog66]

Yesterday, while digging through some old archives, I came across an almost-finished piece of smut which I wrapped up and posted yesterday: "The Only Cure That Matters" (Professor Hobby/Gigolo Joe, NC-17, ~3100 words, shower!sex).

As for dialogue -- I adore it. I firmly believe that it's the best way to reveal character and (in many cases) to advance to plot... you know, "show rather than tell". :) And once I have a character in my head they auto-generate conversation; many times I've been told that readers can hear the characters speaking perfectly clearly, which is certainly a sign that I'm doing something right.

[sperrywink]

Interesting interplay between dialogue and characterization. I often get stymied if I don't have a grasp of characterization either.

[sperrywink]

That's awesome! And yes, a sure sign of doing something right. *g*