#1. this is to avoid chars unnaturally monologuing

[nanbookinsp]

[ID: a screenshot of a book page that reads, “DIALOGUE TIPS

Have your characters speak no more than three sentences at a time--unless you have a good reason to do otherwise.

Dialogue is more interesting when characters are saying no to each other.

Keep exposition out of dialogue

Let your characters sometimes conceal or avoid instead of saying exactly what they mean.

Use "said" as a dialogue tag whenever possible.

Use an action rather than a modifier to show how a character is feeling.

Cut to the chase. Don't use dialogue that doesn't move the story forward and reveal character.

Don't let your characters be too articulate. Fragments are fine. Don't force conversations to follow a logical order (question followed by answer). No need to stay on the same subject or include clear transitions from one subject to another.

Vernacular is best conveyed by word choice and syntax as opposed to misspellings.

end ID]

So I just started my short story writing class! These are dialogue tips

[sothischickshe]

1 and 6 and 8??

fanx! <3

1: Is writing cathartic or stressful for you?

yes.

or well, yes and / yes but...?

like, writing can def be cathartic for me (both as a place to purge frustrations say with source material, but also in the feeling of finally offloading a story that's been hanging around in my head!), but i don't think it's ONLY cathartic, like it's also entertaining and enchanting and educational and challenging and frustrating etc etc etc.

i def think there are aspects of writing which are ~stressful to me (although i'd probs term as challenging and/or frustrating rather than stressful per se, but words are v imperfect vehicles so w/e). particularly around: snatching the time to write how i want to write, the struggle to express things with puny lil words ugh, the idea of sending something out into the world... BUT! generally i find that frustration points in the planning/writing/editing/publishing/whatever process are crackable, bc it's a process of working out what exactly the frustration is caused by, & once youve identified a problem, it's a lot easier to solve it!!! (or at least to acknowledge it as something to address better in the future.) so i think while writing CAN be a source of ~stress that's normally not a negative thing in itself bc it's presenting opps to grow n learn n improve n Understand n process-trust too

6: What are some topics you will never write about?

voici une liste, mais mmmmmmmmmm i cant really be trusted tho...............

8: How do you develop your OCs?

i write fanfiction to avoid having to, lol. you get all these characters for free in canon!!!! it's great!!!

well ok, i have written a few OCs i guess - mer in yourself and others and jamie in dirty game spring to mind (and rach in filing?!). i guess the ~development of them as chars was kind of... a trade-off btwn plot purpose & characterisation? like they def have specific plot purposes but i didnt want them to feel wooden, but also they're not pov chars so the info conveyed is going to be necessarily limited and i spose i think abt it similarly to say scene setting -- what info does the audience NEED, what is lost if additional info isnt specified / does it matter if the audience is filling in gaps abt this, how sparse is too sparse, what could the pov char(s) reasonably be expected to know/notice & how would they interpret it, does something seem needlessly cliché & if so how can that be avoided....?

the one(?) time i did deep OC development was for AHWSBNB and that was fairly accidental lol. originally i had C + L explaining like loads abt their life to each other and i kept cutting and cutting and cutting and cutting that out bc i. ppl monologuing details abt their lives feels a bit unnatural anyway to me ii. i was like this feels rather self-indulgent, idk that anyone wants to read abt the backstories of these randos wot iii. it felt kinda like i was explaining this to me? so it didnt really need to be directly on the page, but it could inform what was

i def think that was a useful exercise, but idk if i’d bother doing it for minor OCs? like they were kinda the main characters of that story, so i think that was necessary, but i  reckon it’d be overkill for randos who wander in to serve a drink or take kenny to a sleepover for the duration of the story or w/e.

oh!!!! and!!! doi!!! i think naming characters is an important part of developing them...? although also: hard. 

ff asks