dialogue

Creative Vocabulary

December 21, 2011

One of the things we (as writers) hear time and again, is “be accurate”.  We are told to watch our spelling, our formatting, our grammar, and at some point, the logic of our stories.
One of the points our “teachers” often miss is the nature of our work.
We are writing fiction.  We are writing about things [...]

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Effective Dialogue Without Attribution

December 3, 2011

In my opinion, one of the best exercises you can do to sharpen your ability at writing dialogue is to try writing a short story that is 100% dialogue.
What?  Really?
Yep.  A story that is only dialogue, a story that has zero description, a story that doesn’t even use the tag (or attribute) “said”.
To do this, [...]

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Baby Talk, Slang, and Regional Speech

December 2, 2011

Learning how to mimic the localized speech from a geographic setting in dialogue is very tricky.  Employing dialect, slang, and specific speech patterns can be daunting, but it is not impossible.

The trick, I think, isn’t in copying word for word what someone says—keep in mind that slang in German is just as elastic, and changing, [...]

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The Author’s OTHER Voice

November 18, 2011

We often hear about the importance of an author developing a “voice”, and we get, from time to time, suggestions on ways to develop that voice.  Personally, I don’t think that voice is teachable.  I think it is something that eventually forms on its own, something that comes with exhaustive practice  More importantly, today, it [...]

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Perspective and The Evil Chair of Death

September 28, 2011

I have this chair.  I’ve had it forever, it seems sometimes, but I seldom sit in it.
Why?  Two reasons.  I’m usually too busy to relax that much, and it is damn hard to get out of.
It’s too bad, really, because, I invariably have insights, ideas or just general inspiration when sitting there.
This morning, my schedule [...]

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Faulty Colloquialisms: Writing Without Thinking

September 20, 2011

 
 
 
One of the gifts, or perhaps curses, of being a writer is that we become hyper-observant, and perhaps hyper-critical of weak craft.
My guess is that since you became a writer you’ve started to notice the very many typos and errors in the books you read.  You may have even gotten the idea that editing has [...]

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I Can’t Help Being A Jerk…

September 17, 2011

…but hopefully, my characters can.
I admit it, I’m a smart-mouthed guy.  You say something, no matter how serious, and I’ve got a snappy comeback loaded and ready to fire.  Sometimes I can hold back.  Often I can’t.
When I write dialogue it is just natural for me to be snippy, snide, and well, unkind.  I didn’t [...]

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Duel – Dennis Weaver – Story Sans Dialogue

September 3, 2011

Readers of Uphill Writing will recall that I’m a big fan of realistic dialogue used to carry the pace of a story.
Sometimes only vision is needed to carry a story, though, and one powerful example of this is the film, “Duel”.  It is the story of a salesman driving home to California across the desert, [...]

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Writing Dialogue with an Invisible Word

July 29, 2011

Does the idea of using tricks in your writing appeal to you?  Are you fond of clever ways to get your ideas across?  These are two questions I’d really like to ask each of you… in private, and with the promise of complete anonymity.  As a brief aside, I believe we all have (at least) [...]

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What Percentage of Literate People Speak in Complete Sentences?

June 25, 2011

 
What Percentage of Literate People Speak in Complete Sentences?  Or, to ask it another way, “Are you up for the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?”
If the double title is a bit confusing, let me set it straight.  This is a post about writing dialogue.
One of the hardest things about creating believable [...]

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