{"id":162,"date":"2013-10-15T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-15T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/blog\/2013\/10\/15\/tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing_15-2\/"},"modified":"2015-11-25T12:22:17","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T19:22:17","slug":"tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing_15-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing_15-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Tactical Tuesday: Advice for Self-Editing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nDialogue
\ncomes naturally to some authors, but others struggle with trying to share
\nrealistic, pertinent, and dynamic conversations in their fiction. Today, let\u2019s
\ntake a look at some practices to avoid and some that will assist in providing
\nvibrant dialogue.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nIf the conversation doesn\u2019t add to the
\nstory, nix it. <\/b>You\u2019ve no doubt heard it before. In fiction, the weather is
\nonly important in fiction if a tornado or other natural catastrophe is pending.
\nLikewise, the niceties each of us endure when we come upon a friend or acquaintance
\nare not interesting in real life. If the conversation between your characters
\ndoesn\u2019t move the plot forward, if it isn\u2019t instilled with conflict, delete it.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nDon\u2019t let your characters discuss things
\nthey know about each other. <\/b>If Mary and Sue have been friends since grade
\nschool, don\u2019t have them sitting down to tea to discuss the things they know
\nabout each other, especially if this conversation is utilized in order to bring
\nin back story or information that is best received another way. Don\u2019t do it, especially
\nif the back story or information isn\u2019t pertinent. If it is pertinent, bring it
\nin via conflict.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n\u201cMary,
\nI told you I didn\u2019t want to see George again. Cancel his invitation to the
\nparty.\u201d<\/div>\n
\n\u201cI don\u2019t
\nunderstand your fixation with this. He\u2019s just an old friend from school. Get
\nover it.\u201d<\/div>\n
\n\u201cGet
\nover what? The fact that he never was a friend or that he attacked me after the
\nHomecoming Dance our senior year?\u201d<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nMatch the character\u2019s speech with his\/her
\nbackground and education. <\/b>Quite simply, a doctor isn\u2019t going to talk like a
\nmob boss, and a mob boss isn\u2019t going to converse like a mother of three
\nchildren. Well, of course, you could have some very interesting characters if
\nthere was a reason for them to do so, but generally, ah, no.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nAccents are a great way to define a
\ncharacter\u2019s speech, but don\u2019t overdo it.<\/b> Joel Chandler Harris got away with
\nwriting heavy dialogue in his Uncle Remus stories, but those stories are very
\ndifficult to read. It is best to stick with a handful of words that will define
\nthe accent being conveyed. An easy example is our American Southern accent.
\nEveryone knows we don\u2019t say our \u201cr\u2019s\u201d and \u201cg\u2019s.\u201d There\u2019s also that ever-ready y\u2019all
\n(but make sure you use this correctly. This is an abbreviation for \u201cyou all,\u201d
\nand \u201cy\u2019all\u201d is plural. Never have your Southern Belle talking to a lone
\nindividual when she invites, \u201cY\u2019all come and sit here a spell.\u201d)<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nEveryone uses contractions. Your characters
\nshould use them, too. <\/b>The greatest tell an author has with regard to
\nwhether he or she takes seriously the writing of dialogue, is in the writing of
\nconversations in which contractions are never used, such as: \u201cI will be there
\ntomorrow. Do not forget. You will have to pick me up at the airport.\u201d<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nAnd
\nthat leads to the last note regarding dialogue:<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nIf you really want to know how your
\ndialogue flows, read it aloud.<\/b> Reading aloud will help you to hear the
\nnuance, or lack thereof, you are trying to develop. For example, if you read
\nthe above example aloud, you would most likely realize that it would sound
\nbetter like this: \u201cI\u2019ll be there tomorrow. Don\u2019t forget. You\u2019ll need to pick me
\nup at the airport.\u201d<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nIf,
\nafter reading the line aloud, the author decided emphasis was needed, he might write:
\n\u201cI\u2019ll be there tomorrow. Do not forget. You\u2019ll need to pick me up at the
\nairport.\u201d<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nHappy
\nediting.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dialogue comes naturally to some authors, but others struggle with trying to share realistic, pertinent, and dynamic conversations in their fiction. Today, let\u2019s take a look at some practices to avoid and some that will assist in providing vibrant dialogue. If the conversation doesn\u2019t add to the story, nix it. You\u2019ve no doubt heard it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[504],"tags":[112,67,21,92,18],"class_list":["post-162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editing-writing-advice","tag-dialogue","tag-editing","tag-editing-advice","tag-editing-helps","tag-editing-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}