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The one problem I've had in my writing is writing good dialogue. I know about reading aloud but what else can I do?
Can anyone recommend any books or resources on this? I don't want to buy any book because I've a few books on writing and some end up not being what I expect
Comments
This seems like a good guide:
http://fictionwriting.about.com/od/crafttechnique/tp/dialogue.htm
You'll soon do this automatically and you should find it will start to help your dialogue writing.
Then you can improve on it in the editing stage.
It is surprising how little dialogue there is. The info you are getting visually is the narrative and when you get to make assumptions about the characters - what their aims are, what they are hiding, etc etc you see that the dialogue only needs to be minimal.
The film you watch could be new, or perhaps one you are familiar with.
The rolling sea is the narrative, the breaking waves the dialogue. [cant remember the writer of that quote - a famous American]
Sometimes when reading I have lowered my book and pondered, feeling that I have been in the room and heard, witnessed, a long, revealing conversation, that I have been part of it. Then, when I look back to see how the writer did this, there is hardly any dialogue at all -at least, not as much as I remember. The answer must be that so much is implied, that I have been skilfully led to infer, so much in the narrative.
Generally, I think dialogue needs to be clean and uncluttered and arranged on the page so that it is clear who is speaking without using names. And no ADVERBS!
I've also recorded myself reading established authors books (or just audiobooks in general) for comparison .... and fun.
Here he is:
'How are you?'
'Do you think I should change my hairstyle?'
That sort of thing.