#can you tell i overuse dialogue tags

[ryderwritings]

Six Sentences Tag!!

Thank you to @fractured-shield for tagging me!! I’m still working up my courage to post more of my WIP but here are six lines/bits of dialogue I thought were a fun introduction to my characters/dynamics!

“The troupe is performing Adrastos of Myrne right now,” Maven said, twisting a piece of hair around her finger.

Cori snickered. “That explains why you’ve gone three times in the past fortnight.”

Elis furrowed her brow, trying to remember. “Is that the one with the unnecessarily shirtless costumes?”

“It’s very necessary!” Cori cried in false offense. “It serves the plot!”

“Right, the plot. What is the plot, exactly?”

Maven looked at her sisters, barely containing their laughter. “Leave me alone.”

I’m tagging anyone who’s looking for an excuse to do a fun tag game!! Consider this your tag :)

[fairyhaos]

How To Fucking Write: a guide by fairyhaos

[masterlist]

this post details:

DIALOGUING INTERESTINGLY

hi gays and gals! the first post on starting and pacing a story did really well, so "how to fucking write" is back, with yet more advice and tips for everyone ^^ please feel free to let me know if there's something you want me talk about, because i'll be more than willing to see if i can help. also a reminder that i have a taglist for this series as well, and please reblog if you find this helpful :)

# - HOW TO DIALOGUE.

.. bullet point one : grammar

okay guys, as a native english speaker, i'll be the first to tell you that this language fucking sucks in terms of its grammar, but when it comes to dialogue, understanding how it works even to some extent will help you branch out and vary the way you write dialogue, which makes it so much more interesting.

with dialogue tags (said, asked, etc) if the punctuation mark in the dialogue is not a ! or ? then it should be a comma.

example : [junhui + castle]

as you can see in the first line, a comma is used rather than a full stop, because the sentence hasn't been finished yet. there's a dialogue tag, ('you correct'), that comes after it. and since the pronoun 'you' isn't a proper noun (i.e. a name) then it shouldn't be capitalised, because, again, the sentence hasn't been finished.

with action tags however, (he smiled, he stood up, etc) then it should be a full stop.

example : [i just made one up bc i don't use this a lot lmao]

"I disagree." He stood up, and walked over to close the door. "This isn't safe. You shouldn't go alone."

and now, since there is a full stop, it indicates that the speech is a sentence all by itself. that means the next word ('He') ought to be capitalised.

but the key part when grammar-ing dialogue in order to make it interesting depends on where you put the action and grammar tags.

if you constantly have lines that are just:

"dialogue," he said.

"dialogue," she said.

"dialogue but a bit longer," he said.

... then it can get repetitive, and annoying. by varying your dialogue structure, it can create more interesting dialogue.

example : [minghao + password]

there's a variety of dialogue and action tags being used with each line of dialogue, preventing everything from sounding too repetitive.

the first line starts with a normal sentence, and an action tag. the second is a standalone line of dialogue with no tags. the second has the action tag in the middle of the dialogue. and the last has a dialogue tag in the middle of the dialogue.

by varying the ways in which you write your dialogue, it makes everything a lot more interesting.

.. bullet point two : verbs and adverbs

the easiest way to make dialogue interesting, though, is to use fancy words.

this can be by replacing 'said' with a range of other dialogue tags (see this really comprehensive list for a whole variety of different words), but i'd advise against overusing these. 'said' is your friend! it's the invisible dialogue tag, helps your reader read through your dialogue in comfort, but of course, if you wanna add a nuanced way of describing the dialogue, then replacing 'said' is the easiest way to make your dialogue interesting.

but don't overuse these. for me, i'd focus on action tags and adverbs.

use interesting adverbs that add description to how a character is saying something can go miles. and using action tags that break through what could have been a long section of characters just talking? it helps so much.

i'd recommend having onelook thesaurus open as you write. you don't have to type in just words: phrases, the overall vibes of the word you're thinking of, all of that can be typed into the thesaurus and they'll provide you with pretty good results each time.

it also really helps when you've forgotten a word and can only remember vague bits of what the word should feel like.

.. bullet point three : voices

the best way, however, is ultimately to create a character. write a personality for them, bring them to life, think about the way in which they would talk and then put that down onto paper.

it's difficult, perhaps the most difficult to do, because it's also so tricky to advise someone on how to do this. it's all about the character you want to create, the personality you envision for them, and the only person who can fully write that is you.

however, i would find a few 'ticks' of theirs and use them as indicators in your writing.

for example, in my seoksoo long fic, seokmin's tick is that he always "chirps" what he's saying. and beams. a lot. this identifies his character, makes him unique(ish), and establishes his personality and differs him to the other characters.

but ultimately, it comes down to word choices, when you're writing a character voice.

like, your character describing something with elegant, floral language vs them going "this is so pretty". or perhaps making them stumble over their words when they're panicked vs them simply just going silent when they're flustered.

it's about being specific. about making choices with your words that would have english teachers analyse and unpick your writing, hundreds of years later.

(even if it's fanfic. especially if it's fanfic: because who knows how many fans may join your fandom in the next few years?)

... and that's it ! if anyone has anything else they want advice on (how to structure, how to write dialogue, how to plan etc) then just shoot me an ask, because i'd love to help however i can :)

tagging (comment/send ask to be added!): @selenicives @stqrrgirle @weird-bookworm @eternalgyu @blue-jisungs (tough luck guys btw but youre gonna be tagged in this entire series ehehehe)

[supersoakerfullofblood]

Dialogue Tags and Action Beats, Pacing and Scene Development; a Brief Overview

I've seen a few "dialogue tags to use instead of 'said'" posts now, but most of the tags provided by these posts are trying too hard and are much more distracting than "said" would be. "I'll kill you," he declared; "It's okay," she exonerated; He remarked, "He shouldn't have done that." These are clunky to varying degrees, and if you don't recognize that now, you will with practice.

The truth of the matter is that "said" is pretty much always blank space that the reader will skim over without a second thought. It's maybe the only word we have with this function, and it should be treated as such! So why don't we use dialogue tags that add meaning to the dialogue? Something like "argued," "rejoiced," "remarked"? You can, and these should be used now and then (maybe not "rejoiced"), but overusing them weights down the prose, and in general, they should be replaced by action beats or description.

In much the same way adverbs and adjectives should be avoided if the noun they modify already has the qualities of its modifier, wordy dialogue tags should be avoided if you can show the character's emotions through other means. Dialogue tags are telling; action beats and description are showing. Look at these examples:

He remarked, "I can't believe it's not butter."

His eyebrows rose. "I can't believe it's not butter."

"I told you not to do it," she cried.

Her body shook; words rasped her throat. "I told you not to do it."

"Cried" and "remarked" here aren't bad, but they are weaker than they could be. In the first example, "remarked" indicates tone, but it doesn't do anything else. "His eyebrows rose" indicates tone and also develops the scene. It places the character in the reader's mind's eye, and we understand how that specific character reacts to margarine. How would a different character react differently? This dialogue feels embodied; it belongs to a specific body, a specific host. The second example is embodied too, and a little flowery, though not excessively so. We see how a character reacts to whatever "it" is, and we aren't told how they react. How does she cry in the first sentence?

The debate about dialogue tags, however, misunderstands what tags are actually for. Probably 10% of it is imbuing meaning where there is none (a simple word like "whisper" is a great replacement for "said" when used with restraint), but 90% of it is about tempo/flow/beat/pacing/whatever you want to call it. Read these sentences:

She said, "This is none of your business, and you aren't telling anyone about it."

"This is none of your business," she said, "and you aren't telling anyone about it."

"This is none of your business, and you aren't telling anyone about it," she said.

These sentences convey the same information, but to the careful ear, they carry a world of difference. The first reads snippy, like a terse command; the second gives some added gravity to the second half of the quote, landing hard on the last clause; the third one may be effective if the character is responding immediately to something another character said, since there isn't anything to preface the dialogue, and there's nothing halting it in the middle. All this happens in the two syllables of "she said." Use this word to affect the flow of your writing; use this word to affect how people read your writing. Another sin of other dialogue tags is that they may have too high of a syllable count to warrant use. "He expostulated" is a wild distraction from otherwise smooth prose. "She interrupted" is also clunkier than just having the character interrupt with your choice of dialogue tag/action beat placement or omission. In general, I'd be wary of any dialogue tag longer than two syllables.

Wordy dialogue tags can also be avoided by seeding description in your conversation scenes! Just as the world still operates when we have conversations, so too should it for your characters. Here's an exchange from a story I wrote:

He smiled. “Sleep well?” “Girls were up late.” “Is that a yes—” “No. I didn’t sleep.” She squeezed her eyes closed. “They were screeching.” The crowd caught up with them, swallowed them, and they were carried along the cement. “Oh.” Carmen paused. “Sorry.” “It’s okay.” “Is it all bad?” Bodies shifted in the crowd, and Piper glimpsed Beatrice again. Familiarity warmed her chest. Here was the world outside the camp; here was everything Piper knew. She stood between Beatrice and Carmen and lived again in band class, lived again on the bus home, let public streams flood her roots and grow her as a social monolith, an independent and undisputed landmark in her social circles. But at camp, she was little more than Beatrice’s friend, than Carmen’s apocryphal lover. “It’s not all bad,” she said. “Bea is here. And you.”

Description can easily mold into a character's internal monologue, as it does here. You can also go straight to the monologue if you'd like:

Was she sad, Piper thought, or coy? No, it was the start of a joke. “You didn’t think you were a big deal?” But Beatrice didn’t smile. “I didn’t think people cared that much.” She drew her hands close on the table, covered right with left, and looked into her knuckles. This was defeat, Piper recognized. Beatrice conceded, but of her own will. Piper won, but her score was sour, and Beatrice seemed to crumple her arms into the abject statue of her body. And Piper felt as she never had before, as if a storm of locusts ate at the border of her stomach, as if her skin turned to deep and polluted waters, as if moving one hand or twitching one muscle would irrevocably alter the course of life; the drumming of a finger would set off some idle paranoia in Beatrice, or a sniff of the nose would throw her from the wide window, drop her thirty feet down the wooded hill, and crack herself in two on the base of an implacable oak. This was grief, Piper felt, or something approximating it, something resembling internally a dark and blank horizon, something feeling as a stone feels in a pond whose size may only house that stone, something taking shape in the woman before Piper, shrinking now to a girl, now to someone uninspiring in a world of couplets. Piper sat still, because she did not know how to affect the world without ending it. “I’m sorry,” she said.

Imagine if the second example read:

"You didn't think you were a big deal?" Piper said.

Beatrice frowned. "I didn't think people cared that much."

Piper frowned because Beatrice was sad. "I'm sorry."

Much weaker! Why is the description so long in the second example? Because it's a big emotion! In the world of pacing, big things get big descriptions. In both examples, you feel exactly what the characters are feeling, even though I never used a dialogue tag besides "said." And I used "said" a few times to affect the pacing, which adds to how you perceived the characters. You understood the characters because stronger, more descriptive, more pacing-aware things replaced what could've been clunky tags.

Still, you can do whatever you want with tags, beats, and description. I've read incredible prose with zero tags and sparse beats, prose with paragraphs of beats and plenty of tags, and anything in between. It's all a matter of style, which is to say, experiment! Writers will be stubborn and say things like, "I don't use anything besides 'said' in my prose" or "I'll never use 'said' in my prose again," but neither of those are your personal style. They're declarations that you'll die on this hill you don't fully comprehend, to take a stand on an idea you've never genuinely played with. Go full maximalist; go full minimalist; find what feels right for the pacing you want to incorporate into your style, and recognize how pacing changes depending on the context and content of a scene. Nearly every word is permissible somewhere, it's just a matter of finding the right scene for it. And "said" is permissible always.

[megamindsecretlair]

Writing Tip #2

This one may seem a little redundant, forgive me, but it's necessary. I mean this with all the love in my heart, please fall in love with the enter bar. Part of writing is understanding structure and it goes for fics too. No one, and I mean no one, wants to read a block of text.

You start a new paragraph whenever you have a new thought, someone new is talking, or there's a change in scene or location. Heavy on the when someone new is talking. At no point should you have two pieces of dialogue in the same paragraph. I'll use my fic "Sunshine" to illustrate my point.

Don't

He tugged on one of your braids. “You too good to be hanging around here,” he said. Oh god, his voice was fine too. No, he was dangerous. But you couldn’t make your legs move away. “What you talkin’ about?” You managed to ask. “You one of them good girls that always got her nose in a book,” he said. He sipped whatever was in his cup. From the faint smell of it, it was probably Henny. It always was. 

Even with dialogue tags (he said, she said), it's clunky and will confuse the reader.

Do

He tugged on one of your braids. “You too good to be hanging around here,” he said. Oh god, his voice was fine too. No, he was dangerous. But you couldn’t make your legs move away. “What you talkin’ about?” You managed to ask. “You one of them good girls that always got her nose in a book,” he said. He sipped whatever was in his cup. From the faint smell of it, it was probably Henny. It always was. 

By using a new paragraph, it's softer on the eyes, visually clues you in that someone else is speaking, and allows you to expand on a character's thoughts before you write the response.

You can have a single word paragraph too. If you want to highlight a particular emotion or echo something you just wrote, that works too.

Speaking of dialogue tags, fall in love with using those as well. It's clear to YOU who's speaking, but for a reader, this is the first time they're reading it.

“Not so good, are you?” “Oh shit.” “You tappin’ out?”

Which one is speaking? Which lines belong to Tyrone and which lines belong to the reader? It's hard to tell which. So consider:

“Not so good, are you?” He asked. He pulled you closer. His warm hands circled your waist and pulled you flush against him, you could feel his thick cock against your thigh. “Oh shit,” you gasped.  He chuckled. “You tappin’ out?” He asked. 

Not only does dialogue tags help orient the reader, using alternatives to "said" help highlight what's going on the characters' minds without needing an extra paragraph. I could have said "said" instead of "gasped" but a stronger verb was needed. "Gasped" gets the point across that Reader is turned on and surprised at finding Tyrone so big and ready.

You don't have to go crazy with dialogue tags. Using "said" is perfectly fine and no, it is not overused. It fades to the background as you're reading. But knowing when to use something different is an important skill you have to develop as a writer. Variety is the spice of life.

Sometimes it's not your writing that needs to improve, it's your structure and formatting. I promise, start breaking up your paragraphs and you'll notice a huge difference in flow.

Idk, I'm not an expert. But try it and see if it works 😗 Find more tips and posts about my process: Behind the Megadome.

[armoricaroyalty]

some dialogue tips

Okay, I expanded a bit on my thoughts from earlier and wrote...like 800 words? Here’s a collection of largely-unrelated thoughts about writing dialogue. I’m not an expert wordsmith by any means, but I’ve been doing simblr stories for about 2.5 years and writing creatively for much longer, so I hope some of this is helpful!

Read your dialogue out loud. In my opinion, the most important quality in dialogue is flow. Does the back-and-forth feel natural? Is the conversation stilted, or does it feel like something people might actually say? When you’re reading words on paper, it can be difficult to identify the rough patches. Your eyes are a different instrument than your ears and your brain processes speech and written text in different ways. If you’re stuck, read your dialogue out loud. The clunky phrases will jump out and be much easier to correct than if you left it on the page.

Different people talk differently. Dialogue is a tremendous vehicle for characterization, and I feel like I don’t see people discuss that point very often! What a character chooses to say and how they say it can tell us a lot about who a character is, where they come from, and what they value. You don’t need to strain yourself to come up with a completely unique voice for every single character, but if you remove dialogue tags and can’t tell whether a given line belongs to the 19-year-old stoner or their 65-year-old grandparent, you’ve missed an opportunity to imbue your characters with a lot of flavor and personality. Consider your characters’ personalities and ask yourself whether they’d use slang and profanity, whether they ramble or get straight to the point, whether they use complicated professional jargon or simpler and more accessible language, whether they hold back in conversation or say everything that pops into their head…

Most utterances are pretty short. In real life, it’s very rude to monologue or dominate a conversation without giving the other person a chance to reply. If one “line” of dialogue is more than one or two sentences long, the character will probably come across as if they’re delivering a monologue, not having a conversation. Break up longer lines of dialogue and include a bit of back-and-forth to keep the conversation flowing.

If a character is talking for a long time, spread the dialogue up across multiple screenshots. This is a personal preference thing, but if I’ve got a character who is talking for an extended period of time, I like to break the dialogue up across multiple screenshots. A screenshot with 4 lines of text is visually cluttered and makes it seem like the character is saying the whole thing in one breath. The same four lines of text distributed across 2-3 screenshots is visually neater and has a greater sense of pacing and rhythm.

Real speech is unpolished… There’s a joke among journalists that you can make anyone seem stupid by quoting them verbatim. In ordinary conversation, people often pause for thought, use filler words, and talk over one another. In my writing, I make heavy use of ellipses and em-dashes to try to give a sense of how the character is speaking, in addition to what they’re saying (perhaps I overuse them…) If you’re trying to represent ordinary conversations between ordinary people, including those kinds of verbal errors can bring a lot of life to your dialogue.

…but don’t strive for realism (strive for verisimilitude instead). Actual, real-life conversations are almost unlistenable (said the guy currently listening to a podcast). In real life, people often repeat themselves, interrupt one another, say the same things over and over, go on tangents, and say the same things multiple times in a redundant fashion. If you include too many of those kinds of markers in your written dialogue, your story can quickly become unreadable, even if it reflects a “realistic” manner of speech. In general, your dialogue doesn’t need to be realistic, it needs to feel real. (Verisimilitude basically means a sense of truthfulness [as opposed to realism] in fiction.)

People rarely address each other by name... This might be a unique-to-me issue, but when I reread my old writing, something that jumps out to me is how often I have characters use one another’s names in casual conversation. In real life, people very rarely use titles and names except in greetings and introductions. In general, if you have characters heavily using names mid-conversation, you should go back and eliminate a few.

...with some exceptions! In formal and workplace settings, using someone’s name or title is a verbal marker of respect. Characters in settings with formal hierarchies (militarizes, royal families) will be likelier to use titles and honorifics. Using a person’s name can also be a way to emphasize your point or express sincerity. You might also need to incorporate an occasional name or title in a heavy-handed way in order to deliver exposition or remind readers of the relationship between two characters. For example, I’ve got an upcoming scene where I have a character address their cousin as ‘Cousin’ in a very stilted way. I hate that it’s clunky, but I decided it was necessary because I thought readers would need the reminder that those two characters are related.

Conversations should build to something. In a back-and-forth, each new line of dialogue should move the conversation forward. Imagine this back-and-forth:    A: How are you doing?    B: Terrible! my car broke down.    A: It broke down? But you just took it to the shop!    B: I know, the mechanic lied to me about the repairs! The last line in that conversation has nothing to do with the first line in that conversation. If B had responded to A’s greeting by saying “the mechanic lied to me!” they’d seem slightly unhinged -- it’s an abrupt change of topic, but just two additional lines give it context and make it flow. When you’re writing these kinds of exchanges, you want to make sure that one character’s line makes sense as a response. If A had said “It’s good to see you!” instead of “How are you doing?” B’s reply would feel jarring, and you’d need to find a different way for them to introduce the subject of the broken-down car into the conversation.

I love to write guides. I should do that more, lmao.

[zombee]

writing advice

what are my qualifications, you ask? i'm a mildly popular writer in the our flag means death fandom (ao3: CartoonMayor), went to writing camps from 12-18, have a creative writing minor, and the unearned confidence of a white person.

DIALOGUE -

"said/says" works 90% of the time. its function is to be invisible. more often than not your dialogue should tell us how something is being said without you have to explain it additionally through extra tags. "Oh no!" he exclaimed. - don't need it. "exclaimed" is implied.

there are other neutral dialogue tags like "asks," "replies," "continues" that work almost as well as said. i still personally recommend using them sparingly, because most of the time they're implied.

if you ARE going to use a non-said/says tag, earn it. it should tell us how someone is saying something that we can't glean from just the dialogue. trust your writing and your readers - show don't tell!

please, please, please mix non-said dialogue tags and adverbs SPARINGLY.

if it's clear who's speaking, you don't need a tag at all

an action can take a tag's place. Ed blinked at him. "What did you say?" vs. "What did you say?" Ed said, blinking at him.

SHOW DON'T TELL -

[overusing] non-said dialogue tags, italics, and adverbs are all because we as writers are desperate to communicate to our readers exactly what we're picturing. but we need to trust them (or edit) and show not tell.

verbs before adjectives before adverbs. which is better: "yells loudly" or "bellows" ? "walks wetly" or "squelches" ?

sometimes telling is good actually!!! don't be spooked if it works in context

OTHER -

epithets are a function of pov. make sure they make sense in that framework. if it's third person omniscient, go nuts. if it's first person or third person limited, ask yourself: in what context do you think of someone as "the other man" or "the blonde" ? one of my tricks if someone doesn't know another character's name is to give them a nickname. "Sparkly Shirt" "Blondie" "Handsome" etc.

don't be scared of names and pronouns. like "said," if you do it right, they'll be invisible that means you can even get away with an occasional "he said to him" if it's still clear who's who!

"then" "suddenly" "finally" "just" "still" - these are all crutch words. there are more i can't think of right now, but trust that if your action is moving forward in a sensical way your readers will keep up without all that padding. if you're going to use them, have a reason to.

description is good (@ myself) but if you can capture how your pov character feels about something that's more valuable than getting every little detail on the page

watch out for repeating words too close together. obviously not the basic ones, but let's say you're writing smut, and you use "moan" three times in two paragraphs. vary it up. (i often cheat and add an "again" to repeated verbs to make them intentional)

and most important of all... all writing advice is subjective and can be thrown in the trash if you don't like it and find something else works for you. ESPECIALLY in fanfic!!!

[summer-gh0st]

I'm writing a story with some interactions where a nonbinary character is meeting people they couldn't tell the gender of and I end up with a lot of confusing "theys" even when I use proper nouns for the character in question. any ideas of how to not just toss around a bunch of "they said"s and such without saying the same descriptors over and over like "the one on the right" ?

Ah, what I live for!! You market yourself as an lgbt+ editor and then all you get is straight romance or fantasy with straight romance. Bleh

Moving on! This is really interesting, because it’s probably really context dependent and I’m not sure I can give the best answer without grappling with the lines themselves. I would possibly point to my previous post with character/setting/action, to try to avoid dialogue tags by describing the character who’s speaking, the setting, or the action they’re doing. This is a good way to avoid getting confused in any situation where two characters use the same pronoun (ie, when two he/him characters are the only ones on the page). Especially character can be helpful — if the reader knows that the main character has blue hair, let’s say, and the new character has brown, then a dialogue line ending with “…they ran their fingers through their brown hair” or something like that will help differentiate who’s speaking.

Also, using names is never a bad thing, and while it can get overused, tolerance for that is usually much higher when we have a same-pronoun situation.

Another method of differentiation is different speech patterns. If we know our main character with blue hair (let’s call them Blue) has a particular way of speaking, then making the new character have a different way of speaking will set them apart in a very easy to read but hard to notice sort of way. It’s meta, and really engrained in the style, but can be awfully effective. Let’s say Blue has a somewhat posh tone — they use fancy words because they read too much and have a very refined sense of style from studying philosophy at university. The new character could then have a southern accent, and speak very slowly with lots of y’alls, and ums, because they literally grew up in a barn with their beloved horse companion and don’t know how to talk to people. An extreme example, but it showcases my point: could you ever imagine these two people having the same tone of voice, and getting their dialogue lines mixed up with each other? Usually, no. And that’s one of the great, wonderful, and magical things about dialogue. :)

To sum up, I think that would be my general advice: character/setting/action; names are okay, and overusing them is harder in a same-pronoun situation; different tones of voice (this one is my favorite because it forces a lot of characterization!).

I hope this helps + wasnt too long, and let me know if you have any further questions. :)

[sarcasticsciencefictionwriter]

🍍🍏🥝 for the fruity ask:))

Thank you!!! 🥰

🍍 What kind of AUs do you like? Are there any AUs you hate or just generally have beef with?

I'm not really picky with my AUs, to be honest. I like 'modern' AUs, though. @tinknevertalks's 'In the Nice Part of Town' and 'Of Sequin and Scalpels' are two of my favorite stories. I can say that I like soulmate AUs solely because of @galactic-pirates's 'Time Will Tell', which is so beautiful.

Apocalypse is also one I love, because 'Pavor Nocturnus' is one of my favorite episodes. (Though I have an irrational fear of zombies, so go figure)

I kind of have a beef with high school AUs, because I find them boring and the characters are usually reduced to stereotypical teenagers and not teenage version of themselves.

Honestly, my beefs with certain AUs is more of how the writer portrays it and the characters, not the AU itself. (For example, an AU I might hate in Supernatural, I will absolutely love in Sanctuary and Stargate SG-1).

🍏 Is there something you overuse, whether it’s a certain phrase, trope, or piece of punctuation?

Commas. 😆 Never-ending sentences, my beloved.

I also tend to overuse characters' names in dialogue and have to take them out, because no one uses each other's names that much.

And I seem to be having a love affair with the word 'however'.

I don't know if this has actually crossed over from my original writing into fics yet, but I'm also a huge sucker for brow kisses. It's probably in fics without me realizing.

There's probably more that I'm not aware of.

🥝 What’s your favorite trope/AO3 tag to write?

Favorite? I don't know! That's a cruel question. 😂

My stats on AU claim a fluff, but that's because of Flufftober, so we'll ignore that.

I love AUs and found family/platonic relationships. I just love that and I use the latter in the majority of my stories in some way.

[sorryimananti-romantic]

hi! i just wanted to come on here to firstly ask a question, then praise your work!

first, my question is what’s your writing process? whenever i try to write, i always end up getting distracted because i worry so much about how i start the story. should i begin with a line of dialogue? should i start with a rhetorical question/vague backstory that leads into a character’s current situation? should i just start with action straight off the bat? i literally never know. there are some days where i get the inspiration to write all day, but i never end writing anything because i get stuck on the intro or research.

i even have a document with the first few paragraphs of multiple works that i like just to see how these wonderful pieces start. one document of mine is like one page long and it’s only filled with possible intros. LITERALLY NOTHING ELSE!! and they’re all so different from each other! yours always lead into the story so well and they’re never the same, so i applaud you!

anyways, onto your well deserved praise! you are literally the only writer on this site that i genuinely look forward to. when you released guerilla, i literally squealed and i don’t do that. maybe a giggle here and there, but never a squeal. not only do you write long stories (which i personally prefer. 20k - 50k words? AND it’s good writing?? you deserve a kiss on the head from God himself!), but quality writing, good punctuation, no overused dialogue tags, badass reader characters, and always a happy ending. you’re truly a godsend! especially because of your happy endings (and badass reader character— emphasis on badass). there’s this one seonghwa piece that’s like over 50k words, but it doesn’t have a happy ending so i haven’t read it. for me, fiction should end with the reader being happy so if i won’t be happy at the end, i don’t want to read it. but that never happens with you. i’m sure i’ve read all your pieces at least once and i can positively say that i’m always smiling like an idiot after i finish.

overall, you’re a writer that i learn from and you’re writing is absolutely awesome. keep up the good work and make sure to take care of yourself! i may not know you personally, but that doesn’t mean i can’t think you deserve all the good things in the world for creating a universe that readers can get immersed in and forget about reality for some time. all for free at that too. you deserve the world and more. so does everyone else reading this though! can’t wait for your next release! you’re awesome!!

omygod. this has to be the best message i have ever received and i'm smiling so hard. i read this like three times before i came up with a few words to respond (if you know me, you also know i struggle with this ahaha 😭)

first of all, thank you so much for the praise, i can't tell you how much this means to me and this came at the right time- perhaps, you're godsend for me! (struggling with this one fic and i refuse to write anything else until i finish this one bc it's collected dust for far too long now). you squealed when you saw guerrilla? 😭 you prefer long stories? 😭 and you like happy endings? 😭😭 that's me yes ahaha

thank you so much, glad to have another person here who likes the length of my fics (bc of you all i have been physically unable to keep my oneshots short). i'm glad my writing style appeals to you! i know my english isn't perfect but thank you for appreciating it! one thing i refuse to write is a basic reader character (not that we don't like a basic reader character once in a while-- i just always gotta add a little sth 😭) (might write a basic reader soon tho ahaha) as for the happy endings, i do have a few tragedies planned for the year but you're absolutely right-- we love our happy endings. if i have to make sth tragic, it will be ending on a bittersweet, it-had-to-be-this-way note and i hope i can write it well and i hope you read that whenever i post it too! i'd love to hear what you think of it (it's far in the future but one day i will)

to answer your question, my writing process for a long time was literally just sit and write whatever's coming to me. most of my fics have been spontaneous like that-- sudden impulse, unplanned everything, just a general idea of the roles of the main characters and a basic idea of the plot-- not even the ending. i don't like to plan the ending, actually. i like to simply plan how it begins, what the key points are, and the ending comes naturally from there.

one thing i've started doing recently is just write my thoughts in a paragraph or bulletpoints (bc i have the memory of a goldfish) but it helps if you want to prefer planning and then writing. the most important advice i can give to anyone here is to not be afraid to write. literally write whatever you want, and do not be afraid to edit. or even rewrite. cannot stress this enough. i'll give an example:

with guerrilla, i had the trope: serial killer/doctor/biker yunho and crime fiction writer reader. no background of the characters. no ending in mind. simply that they were housemates, there will be dark humour involved and yunho will gradually warm up to the reader. that was literally all i had! when i opened the doc to write, i thought about how i would want it to start-- i think with intros, you gotta write sth that gives the readers a basic idea of where they are, why they are there, who they are, etc. and then you can continue the story, so you gotta shape the intro to attract their attention with a general idea, right? now i just went with the flow, wrote whatever i wanted to, and whenever i would add some detail, i would go back and edit it in- either in the form of dialogue or some foreshadowing (we love foreshadowing). when i thought of their tragic past? went back again to edit that in. so basically just a series of writing, editing what's written, cutting what looks unnecessary now, and voila.

so how should you start your story? depends on the story. sometimes, it needs to start with action when it's an action heavy plot, right? we would like to find ourselves in a middle of a fight or sth like that to set the tone immediately. so whatever the theme of your story is, you gotta set the tone in the first part! also, don't be afraid to start from wherever you want- you can always add parts later! like my series take me home-- i literally started from the middle and when i came up with a plot twist that supported what i wrote, i went back and wrote the first half LOL and then i planned the ending from there. i think readers also prefer if you don't add unnecessary details/scenes in the beginning, yeah? fillers are for inside the story, not in the beginning or the ending.

also, don't be afraid to experiment! write what you're the most comfortable writing, don't be too hung up on research and facts-- you can literally make anything up because it's fiction. it's your world and your rules. i literally make up whole new universes to save myself from the hassle of real-life technicalities (you may have noticed how i never use real places or setting lmao). if you have an idea that you really want to write, start with there, and simply, write. let the words flow, let it go wherever your mind takes you. you'll find your hands typing by themselves! you can worry about if it's good or not later, just write! (you won't believe me but as i'm finishing writing a fic, i begin to kind of hate it. no amount of reassurances convince me that it's good enough bc i am the writer. i still post and when i receive feedback, that's when i realise it might be good! and when some time has passed and i reread it, i'm sometimes amazed- i wrote that? how will i top that? and the cycle continues 😔✌️)

also, thank you for that sweet little msg at the end 🥹 literally sending my best to you. you deserve all the good things too! i'm glad you're able to get yourself lost in the universe i create for my fics, that means i'm doing a good job 🥹 thank you again! <33 i hope you won't be afraid to write and simply wing it LOL that's how i do it and you know what?

the most unplanned and spontaneous fics have been the most loved here.

[olderthannetfic]

Been thinking about daring to try to get into vidding (but I have zero knowledge about video editing lol) and wondered if there are ship manifestos that are in fanvid-form, so to say. Am shocked that there are only six on AO3. Though I guess it may have to do with videos being taken down because of copyright stuff?

(One of them was by you by the way if I'm not mistaken, ha! And now I want to watch Veritas: The Quest. Your video got me interested.^^)

--

Haha. I was going to say!

Veritas is a fun dumb time. It makes me sad that they never released properly. (And yes, my love of baaaaaad "archaeology" canons full of magical woo and tomb raiding goes way back. Also my love of fake death and fake betrayal plots.)

AO3 is only moderately popular for fanvids, and mostly in a very specific community of people who send vids to the small-scale fancons—the sorts of people who founded OTW and who were vidding on Livejournal. (It won't be because of takedowns. The AO3 work would still be there, just with a dead embed.) That lack of popularity overall is part of why you don't see so many video manifestos, but I think it's more a terminology thing:

I think it's rare for vidders to call their vids "manifestos". I don't think of that one video as a vid that is a manifesto: I think of it as a vid I made to include in a manifesto. Instead, we tend to call them "pimp vids", but you don't tag with that because it's presumptuous. It's something you say retroactively about other people's vids or that you tell a vid beta you're aiming for. You don't get to decide if your vid successfully pimps people in any more than you get a say in whether you go viral, you know?

--

There's a weekly vidders' zoom run by DC Slash (one of the tiny slash cons), and we just had a week where we brought in vids that got us into fandoms. A lot of other people's were ancient, blurry VCR transfers because they've been at this a lot longer than I have, but I can show you some of the vids that have gotten me into fandoms:

Killa's Haven vid Soldier annoyed me so much. What is that one brief flash of a scene? Did that dude die? It's not that sad a vid though? What the hell? So I had to watch just to find out. (Yes, he died. But he got better. Because Haven.)

The fact that I know and like Killa didn't hurt, but it's not like I loved the vid itself: a lot of it was my sheer annoyance at that one shot.

Of course, then, I made my own Haven vid, Captain Kidd, that was supposed to be an angry deep dive into show lore and how the other sanctimonious, fake-moral but actually pretty useless characters were treating my blorbo. (This is a theme with me, it appears.) It was not even 1% supposed to be a pimp vid...

To date, this is by far my most successful pimp vid, luring a whole bunch of people into the show just in time for it to massively jump the shark. (Damn it.) I've never even seen the ending.

More recently, akiv's Beyond Evil vid I'm a Ruler made me fall hard for Beyond Evil. Imagine my shock when what looked like a relatively normal buddy cop series starts with one of them secretly investigating the other as a serial killer. It was so much more intense and fucked up than I realized! Yessss.

After bouncing hard off of DMBJ, it was this Youtube vid Hei Ye falling for the Thorny Flower that got me intrigued again. The tone is so obvious and the dynamic is so clear, which really helped me get interested in a franchise that's often pretty hard to follow plot-wise.

I admit I never actually watched canon, but this Mr. Queen vid by Mozzaphne made me go look up a plot summary so I could read all of the fic. Lots of youtube vidders overuse show dialogue and mix it horribly over songs, but this one was really well done and adds a lot to your understanding of the character dynamics.

I don't think my foray into Detroit: Become Human was entirely because of a single vid, but Figure 8 by Dirty Mind Gene definitely helped. I knew it was a video game with robots. Nobody fucking told me it was a Caves of Steel ripoff with a jaded cop getting his mojo back via getting to know his robot partner.

I of course then went and made one with all of the zillions of deaths in the game because I love that shit. This apparently also got at least one person into the fandom.

Another vid a different person mentioned pimping them into a fandom was Lola's Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty vid ME!

It's a fabulous vid, and it's a fantastic illustration of how the central (canon) ship is supposed to read. Sadly, my personal opinion of the show is that Tang Fan is a perpetual victim and piece of shit who puts his own shallow grasp of morality and his personal feelings over the greater good, often getting characters killed unnecessarily. (I hear this is largely due to some questionable adaptation choices where they swapped who's the hothead and who's the one cleaning up messes.)

I've noticed that fluffy bunnies who watch the show tend to think Tang Fan is ~nice~ because he spouts modern morality instead of a selfish little bitch because he refuses to face the reality of the setting he's in and find the best real world solution instead of holding out for an ideal he'll never attain and thus making everything ten times worse. It reminds me forcibly of tumblr wank where people see themselves as these great moral leaders but lack all grasp of nuance. Their sensitivity extends only to their own feelings.

Yes, Sleuth left me with a lot of rage...

How dare the writing pretend like Tang Fan is the moral arbiter of anything, when my own personal fave, whom half the cast thinks is a villain, is constantly cleaning up after him, trying to keep the body count low, trying to maintain order as everybody else flies out of control...

And then the show made it all better by tormenting Tang Fan in the iddiest way possible. Ohohoho. It's not just that he gets his face rubbed in his own inadequacy and inability to save people. It's the ridiculously over-the-top flashback to "You're my only friend" right in the middle of the death scene. Way to twist the knife!

I, of course, have made my own vid for this fandom, Tiny, Pretty & Angry, and it is absolutely a manifesto, just not a ship one. It's a manifesto about how Wang Zhi is not only the most competent, but also the actual moral center of everything and fuck all of y'all if you don't agree.

In fact, there's probably another reason we don't call them manifestos:

In the oldschool Media Fandom vidding traditions, most vids are video essays and manifestos, really. That's a lot of the point of the aesthetic: making an argument. Partly due to technological limitations and partly due to vidding being innovated by slashers who were constantly challenged about their ships, the pretty visual spectacle styles so common in AMVs and currently on Youtube were largely absent. Meta argument was everything. That's the default.

Here's another one of mine that's pretty explicitly a fuck you to how most people in Untamed fandom see Wen Ning.

[angelasscribbles]

Dialogue Discussion Summary

Thanks once again to everyone who showed up. It was another great discussion! Sorry the notes took a minute this time. Life side tracked me.

Dialogue tag: Dialogue tags are phrases that are used to break up, precede or follow written dialogue to convey which character is speaking, making it easier for the reader to follow the conversation. The most common dialogue tag is the word 'said.

Action beat: Action beats show what a character is doing before, during, or after their dialogue. These can be gestures, movements, or facial expressions. 

The “Said” controversy: Always/only use said. Never use said. Use a variety of descriptors instead of said: exclaimed, confirmed, agreed, pronounced, announced, commented, explained, replied, stated, whispered, rambled, chimed, bemoaned, scolded, etc.

Notes:

Don’t overuse adverbs when a verb would be better, let your dialogue tags or action beats speak for you.

Okay: “Fuck this,” he said irritably. Better: “Fuck this,” he grumbled/snapped/growled. Action Beat: “Fuck this,” he slammed the book down onto the table.

Any of those convey that he is irritable. Personally, I prefer action beats whenever possible.

From The Write Life:

Dialogue tags are handy and quick, but action beats can add much more detail and meaning to a conversation. When you’re using them, keep in mind:

They don’t necessarily have to involve actions! An “action beat” might be a thought or description instead.

An action beat can often convey the way in which a line of dialogue is spoken: For instance, if a character slams his fists on a desk before saying, “Get out of my office,” you won’t need to tell the reader he’s angry!

Even if the action beat doesn’t add a great deal of meaning, it may be a useful way to create a pause in dialogue — changing the rhythm of it subtly. It can also “ground” the reader in the scene (without any action beats at all, the characters can feel like disembodied talking heads).

Dialogue Tag vs. Action Beat

Action beats let you SHOW INSTEAD OF TELL!!!

Surprise:

Dialogue tag: “What? Why didn’t you tell me?” she yelped in surprise. Action beat: Her fork clattered onto her plate as she dropped it, “What? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Thinking:

Dialogue Tag: “Hm,” he said thoughtfully, “I’m not sure that’s the best course of action.” Action Beat: “Hm,” He peered at me over the rim of his glass for a long moment. “I’m not sure that’s the best course of action.”

Here is an excellent example.

Where do they go? When a character speaks, their dialogue should be on the same line as their dialogue tag or action beat. When a different character speaks, start a new line. (It's also often helpful to start a new line if they act or react — e.g. if they shake their head, even if they don't actually speak.)

Incorrect: “Hey Sarah, catch!” Sarah caught the ball and gave him a smirk, “Wow, great catch!” Correct: “Hey, Sarah, catch!” Bruce sent the football spiraling across the clearing. Sarah caught the ball and gave him a smirk. “Wow, great catch!”

The first instance makes it look like Sarah is the one speaking when it's actually Bruce.

Incorrect: She walked into the room to find him standing there, watching her. “What are you doing?” Correct: She walked into the room to find him standing there, watching her. “What are you doing?” he asked.

See how the first can leave the reader confused about who is speaking?

Incorrect: “I’m happy you made it.” She gave him a smile. “Was it hard to get away?” Correct: “I’m happy you made it.” She gave him a smile. “Was it hard to get away?” Add a dialogue tag or action beat: (so it’s very clear who is speaking) “I’m happy you made it.” She gave him a smile. “Was it hard to get away?” He handed her a drink.

One more example:

Incorrect: I wasn’t sure if he was going to show up. “There you are!” I looked up at the sound of his voice. Correct: I wasn’t sure if he was going to show up. “There you are!” I looked up at the sound of his voice. With Dialogue tags: I wasn’t sure if he was going to show up. “There you are!” He called out. I looked up at the sound of his voice. With Action beats: I tapped my finger against my lip. Was he even going to show up? “There you are!” A voice called out. I looked up to watch him jog across the room in my direction, my heart dancing in my chest.

When do you need them?

If you have more than two characters in a conversation you must use dialogue or action tags to avoid confusion. If you have only two, you can get away without them, especially if their tone is distinct. Start with one so the reader knows who is talking.

Frank handed her a cookie, “It’s hot, be careful!”

“Oh, thanks!”

“You’re welcome.”

“Do you have any milk?”

“In the fridge, help yourself.”

Change where you put your tags/beats to avoid monotony. (before, in the middle, at the end):

Sara considered his offer for about two seconds. “No, absolutely not!”

“Have you actually thought this through?” Marco shook his head. She was being intransigent.

“Thoroughly,” Sara crossed the room and peered out the window, “Now get ready, they’ll be here any moment!”

Special thanks to @karahalloway who took the time to put the following together for us:

Punctuating Dialogue

DIALOGUE TAGS AND HOW TO USE THEM – dialogue tags are the verbs that you include around your dialogue text to indicate who is speaking and how. There are a few different ways you can achieve this:

Before the dialogue – normally the dialogue tag is enhanced by an action tag because you want to emphasize the character’s mood or reaction:

Her face paled as she whispered, “This cannot be…”

He casually picked up the newspaper as he scoffed, “Don’t kid yourself, Joseph.”

Punctuation rule: Where the dialogue tag immediately precedes the dialogue, separate the tag from the dialogue with a comma.

After the dialogue – can be standalone, or include an action or a reaction:

“You cannot be serious,” she derided, rolling her eyes.

“Freeze!” he yelled.

Punctuation rule: Where the dialogue tag immediately follows the dialogue, separate the tag from the dialogue with a comma, and keep the subject lowercase (unless you are using the person’s name or official title, in which case you would capitalise e.g. Markus, President Carter, King Leopold, Duke Warrington, Lady de Winter, etc.).

In the middle of the dialogue – this is where things get interesting because there are a couple of different ways you can drop dialogue tags into the middle of the dialogue:

Option 1 – Complete sentence

“Ah! I see you have arrived!” he exclaimed, opening the door wider. “Please! Do come in!”

"Let me guess..." I sigh, picking up the tumbler to tip the rest of my drink back. "This was your bright idea?"

Punctuation rule: In the above examples, the dialogue is interspaced by a dialogue tag and some actions on the part of the character. Since the first part of the dialogue is a complete sentence/thought (i.e. it can stand by itself), you indicate this to the reader by putting a full stop at the end of the dialogue tag / action sequence. Then, you pick up the second half of the dialogue as a new sentence.

Option 2 – Interrupted sentence

“First of all,” she interjected, raising a finger in the air, “that is wildly inaccurate. I was nowhere near the building when it blew up!”

“Now,” he declared, opening up the massive tome in front of him, “if I recall correctly, we were just about to start on Chapter 89.”

Punctuation rule: Like in the first set of examples, the dialogue is interspaced by a dialogue tag and some actions on the part of the character. However, the difference here is that the first part of the dialogue is not a complete sentence – it is merely a ‘teaser’ or an ‘intro’ of what is to come, and the ‘meat’ of the dialogue comes after the dialogue/action tag. In this case, to indicate that the first half of the dialogue is only part of the story, you end the dialogue/action tag with a comma, and then pick up the rest of the dialogue in lower case. This is a great tool to use if you want to build suspense for the reader.

ACTION TAGS AND HOW TO USE THEM – action tags are the verbs that you include around your dialogue text to indicate how someone is speaking or reacting. It is possible to use action tags in conjunction with dialogue tags to add depth to the character’s reactions, but you can also achieve a surprising amount with just action tags. Here are a few examples of the latter:

Before the dialogue – especially where someone has an emotionally charged reaction (shock, anger, etc.) you can create suspense for the reader by placing the action tag before the dialogue:

His brows furrowed. “This is doesn’t make any sense…”

She gasped in sudden realisation. “Oh, my God! You are absolutely right!”

Punctuation rule: Where the action tag is not followed by a dialogue tag (s/he said, etc.) you end the action tag with a full stop to indicate that the action took place before the person started speaking.

After the dialogue:

“No.” He crossed his arms, indicating the finality of his decision.

“I give up!” Throwing his hands up in the air, he stomped out of the room in a huff.

Punctuation rule: Where the action tag is not preceded by any dialogue tags, you end the dialogue with a full stop (to indicate the end of the dialogue), and the start the action sequence as a new sentence, also ending in a full stop.

In the middle of the dialogue:

“What?” His mouth dropped open in disbelief. “Where on earth did you get that idea from?”

“Like hell!” Pulling her sword from its scabbard, she spurred her horse forward. “We’ll kill them all, or die trying!”

Punctuation rule: In the above examples, the dialogue is interspaced by a standalone action tag. Since there is no dialogue tag preceding the action sequence, the first half of your dialogue will always end in a full stop (as will your action tag), and you will pick up the rest of the dialogue as a new sentence after the conclusion of the action sequence.

DIALOGUE AND PUNCTUATION FUN

There is a lot of fun you can have with dialogue, and it’s a great way to build suspense if you use punctuation creatively. For instance,

You can use a dash (i.e. —) to indicate an interruption of dialogue (e.g. “Yeah, but I d—"), while you can use ellipses (i.e. …) to indicate trailing off or uncertainty (e.g. “Yeah, but I don’t know for sure…”

You can use italics (i.e. “What!”) to indicate emphasis

You can combine exclamation and questions marks to indicate anger or disbelief (e.g. “Did you hear me?!”)

You can use ALL CAPS to indicate shouting/anger/distress (e.g. “HELP ME!!”)

Or any combination of the above.

Here is an example of how it all fits together:

"No."

I swear I hear the sound of Bertrand bursting a blood vessel. "I beg your pardon?"

I set my jaw determinedly. "First of all, I am not hiding. I switched rooms because someone — whether intentionally, or not — assigned me to the same room as last time, and there was no way in hell that I was going to sleep in the bed that I got attacked in."

I give him a moment to let that sink in.

"Oh. I-I see..." The consternation in his voice is palpable. "Erm... Yes. Of course... How crass of me... I—"

"Second," I continue, leaning into Drake as he bends down to drop a good-bye kiss into my hair, "you better have a damned good reason for waking me up before the crack of dawn—"

"It is hardly—"

"—especially since you told me in the car yesterday that today's event doesn't start until mid-morning, and we'd agreed that the way-too-early-o'clock wake up calls would stop."

A few other punctuation pointers:

There is no hard and fast rule about whether dialogue should be indicated with single quotes (i.e. ‘Hello’) or double quotes (i.e. “Hello”). American authors/publishers tend to prefer single quotes while British/Commonwealth authors/publishers tend to prefer double quotes, but ultimately it’s down to artistic choice

Dialogue punctuation should always be placed inside the quotation marks

Any time a new person speaks or performs an action, you need to start a new paragraph to make it clear to the reader that we’ve changed speaker

DIALOGUE IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES - there may be times in your writing where you decide to incorporate one or multiple foreign languages into your characters’ dialogue. This is usually done to assist with characterisation (some characters may speak a different language from the rest of the characters and you want to emphasise this in the interactions; there may be certain cases where characters use foreign phrases, even if only in passing; or you want to use a foreign phrase as a segway to indicate that some conversation is about to take place in a different language).

There are a multitude of ways in which foreign languages can be conveyed in your write:

All-In - you can go full out and write entire conversations in a foreign language. While this is great for character and world building purposes, it is certainly an undertaking if you are not a native (or at least, a very competent speaker of the foreign language), so be prepared to spend lots of time researching or talking with a beta reader who is a native speaker:

"Vous voyez l'appât?" he demands without preamble.

I steel myself. "Non. Je—"

A low growl of frustration. "Putain de merde..."

"Attendez," I interject, forcing myself to stay calm, even though my gut had already twisted itself tighter than barbed wire. "Que s'est-il passé?"

"Nous ne savons pas," he grits. "Une minute, nous avions une ligne de visée sur lui, mais la suivante, il a plus simplament disparu."

I frown. "Comment ça, 'disparu'?"

However, in this case, you will need to be conscious of the fact that your readers will most likely not be familiar with the foreign language, and will not actually understand what your characters are saying. So, you may need to think about ways to ‘translate’ for your readers:

In-dialogue translation - one character translates for the other character(s) in the context of the interaction what is being said

In-dialogue summary - one character can provide an executive summary of what was said to another character

Footnotes/End-notes - you can provide your readers with a translation in the form of footnotes/end-notes (this is more common in e.g. fanfiction than in published fiction:

"Avete imbarazzo non solo voi stessi, ma ancu e vostre famiglie," I continue with a stern stare. "Ora. Ascoltate attentamente, così non vi far dei coglioni ancora più grandi."

They eye me sheepishly. Even if they understand zilch, they would've picked up on the key words: imbarazzo... famiglie... coglioni. The message is clear.

That said, the lack of reader and character understanding of the foreign language dialogue can actually be a storytelling tool that you consciously use to ‘hide’ information and create dramatic tension (information is being revealed, but your character(s) do not understand it, which gives you the chance to reveal it in a different context later).

Half-in - if you want to tone things down slightly, you can start an interaction with a segway phrase in the foreign language (usually a greeting) to set the scene, and then you continue the rest of the conversation in English. This usually works well if both characters that are part of the interaction are conversant in the language. You can also add a dialogue/action tag to indicate that the conversation is happening in a foreign language:

"Oui?" I ask, switching to French on autopilot as I answer the call.

Alternatively, you can interspace your character’s dialogue with foreign ‘slips of tongue’ where they deliver only certain words or phrases in the foreign language. This is especially useful from a characterisation point of view if you want to indicate that your character’s first language is not the same as the rest of the characters’, or you want to highlight the fact that your character is in a foreign setting:

"Unless you don't know how to count, gul'," sneers the third guy with a gold cross around his neck, "all these beers are ours."

"That they are," I nod. "But how is the waitress supposed to bring me my refill from here?"

"She's not, stronzo," growls the one that had Gail, leaning forward territorially.

Steering clear - however, you may decide that you do not want to get lost in the rabbit warren of a whole different language. In such a case, you can simply indicate with dialogue tags that the conversation is taking place in a different language.

"What do you mean you 'lost his signal'?" I demand in French, so Gale didn't accidentally overhear something that she had no clearance for. "We have a tracker in—"

Foreign phrases should be written in italics to visually indicate to the reader that you are switching languages:

All that said, if you do decide to include foreign languages in your writing, here are some things to keep in mind:

"Come stai?" he asks, grabbing my hand out of his brother’s grasp to drop a loud smooch on it as well.

"Sto bene, grazie," I reply graciously.

Mario and Luca stare at me in bewilderment before simultaneously lighting up in wonder. "Ah! Sorprendente! Parla italiano? Hai un così bell'accento! Tu che sembri—"

"And, this is Drake," I add in English, somewhat apologetically, having exhausted my limited Italian. "My husband."

The brothers' faces fall. "Ah. Piacere."

Make sure to include correct spelling (including accents) if this is a characteristic of the foreign language:

"Était-ce vraiment nécessaire?" demands Kiara huffily, hopping off the tailgate. "I don't know what your issue is with Drake, but you could've at least waited until we'd finished talking, instead of interrupting si grossièrement..."

Google Translate is not super accurate – you can use it to get the initial gist of the translation, but better resources are websites that take real-life bilingual text to give you a more accurate translation, such as:

https://context.reverso.net/translation/ 

https://www.linguee.com/ 

Where possible, ask a native speaker to proofread, as there are a lot of nuances in each language (grammar, turns of phrase, conjugation, etc.) that you will not be aware of if you are just relying on online sources.

Please, if I've missed anything, feel free to mention it in the comments and I'll add it!

Also, check out these articles on Dialogue:

Writing Dialogue

October Event:

Live Discussion on pacing/chapter and story length AND Scene Shifting on Friday, October 27th, 2023 12:00 p.m. CST

Future Events:

Friday, November 17th

Friday, December 15th

Word Warriors:

@karahalloway @aussiegurl1234 @harleybeaumont @alj4890 @peonierose @petiteboheme @twinkleallnight @lizzybeth1986 @noesapphic  @thedistantshoresproject

@ryns-ramblings @tate-lin @nestledonthaveone

@aallotarenunelma @kristinamae093 @coffeeheartaddict2 @memorias-depresivas

@jerzwriter

[trrenchertrash]

Hi, sorry ik this is really random you don’t know me and all. But I have a question, if you don’t mind.

It’s been a really really long time since I’ve consumed media like arcane. Actually, I don’t think I have ever before. Maybe in books, but it’s been a while since I’ve read a proper book due to personal reasons. Naturally my media literacy has dwindled over time. Now, I know that word is overused but I mean it in a literal sense. It’s not gone but like very weak iygwim.

I was wondering if you could recommend media like that that also doesn’t spoon-feed it’s audience like arcane. I love the series and that love will never go away, but there were so many things that crushed me when I watched S2. So many things I didn’t understand and still don’t. And yes, I do believe that it’s important that your audience understands what you’re trying to say as a creator, not too much metaphors and all that. But that just comes from a personal dislike of indirect communication. I want to modify that belief.

It’s not like I see you as some kind of expert, I don’t want to burden you. But yk, just reading through the tags of some posts I saw yours and wandered if you had any recommendations for media that helped you to see and understand the show as what they were trying to show the audience without explaining.

Hi! So first of all I want to say that I honestly don't think I've ever watched anything that's on the level of Arcane either, and that's because there just isn't much that isn't being incredibly oversimplified in order to reach the largest audience possible in a world where media literacy (as overused a word as it might be) is absolutely on the decline. And admittedly I also just don't consume that much media, and a large part of that is due to frustration in having to parse through so much content where the quality just isn't there.

So unfortunately I don't really have any recent recommendations for you, but I can tell you that foundationally, what allows me to engage with media like Arcane the way that I do is simply the literary analysis that I learned in high school, lol. (I do also have a background in narrative art and visual storytelling, but that's not necessary to understand what's going on, even if it does sharpen my eye.) I learned with classic novels, but I know they can be hard for some people to get into so what I think will actually help more is just learning the conventions of story structure and literary elements; familiarizing yourself with concepts like symbolism, theme, and metaphor, because once you can recognize those things and understand how a story comes together, you'll start to notice them while you're watching or reading, and that's what will help you pick up on whatever the narrative is trying to communicate to you. Ultimately media that trusts its audience relies on you being able to read between the lines and understand the implications of what you're being shown or told so that you can make inferences. The more you practice analysis, the more fluent you'll become.

With something like Arcane, so much of the story is communicated through visuals, so you have to really pay attention to what you're being shown. But even beyond that, most of the dialogue in the show is applicable to more than one plot line or character arc, so you have to be able to apply the ideas being presented in more than just the context they're presented in. Nothing in the show is superfluous, so if you blink, you'll miss something important. That's why I always rewatch multiple times as well, and every time I do I notice something that strengthens the storytelling even more. If you want to talk about any of the things you felt like you didn't understand, I'd be happy to talk about them with you!

And, if anyone who sees this has recommendations for quality media that trusts its audience, please let us know!

[welcometololaland]

Monday Mourning

Share your toughest writing challenge - dialogue, plot, overwriting, underwriting, mechanics (grammar / punctuation)

Thank you for the tag @ramonaflow!

I definitely have more than one Struggle, but the main ones are:

Overwriting - I literally always blow out my word counts by at least double, and I think half of that is due to me coming up with new plot points halfway through, but also because I overuse filler words to a ridiculous degree. Would love to make my writing sound a little less...Too Much?

Losing Motivation - Sometimes I get 50% of the way through and just...hate everything I've written. There's usually no particular reason for that, and if I go back later and review it, I realise it's Not That Bad. But I find it so easy to start a hating war against myself and it just ruins the experience (and sometimes the fic). Need a Cooper to tell me to shut down that negative self talk.

Needing Everything to be Different - I find idea generation pretty easy, and one of the things I love the most about writing is coming up with things that haven't been written in the fandom before OR spinning a popular trope, or going in a slightly different direction. But this creates decision paralysis a lot of the time because I'll write myself into a place which I think is TOO SIMILAR to something else and then I'll have a freak out about it not being different enough.

As you can see - many struggles. If anyone else wants to share their struggles, this is an open tag, but I'll also loop in: @celeritas2997 @clottedcreamfudge @rosedavid @iboatedhere @three-drink-amy @goodways @carlos-in-glasses @basilsunrise @strandnreyes @reyesstrand @never-blooms @alrightbuckaroo @heartstringsduet

[onewomancitadel]

I think I might've figured out what my problem is with the present tense in narrative. The usage of present tense in English actually, to me, almost always reflects a conversational tone or is used in conversation, the way I tell you or relate a story; "so I go into this shop, and..." kind of thing. It doesn't have as grounded a history as past tense in the written form (which does have a bit to do with those who are proponents for it and those who are against it; those against it are the stodgy old-guard - those for it are refreshing, rebellious, skirting against the canon).

Where it feels discordant is trying to marry the reflectional tone of past tense to present tense. It's an issue I note especially with dialogue tags because it sounds so fucking weird. I'm sensitive to this in particular, especially the overuse of non-'said' dialogue tags - because the structure of dialogue is like a rhythm, it's got a drumbeat, and you've got to find a way to carry that properly ('said' is critical for this reason).

But it doesn't work with the conversational tone of present tense. 'I state' or 'I hiss' bugs the shit out of me because it's not how I'd tell you a story, if we were talking now. The tonal rules of past tense don't apply to present tense, but most traditional rules of the way storytelling should work in English are grounded in past tense.

So I think this might finally locate problem that the usage of the present tense faces. It probably doesn't help that the present tense is also used in genres which are interested in the literary value or the legibility of its work insofar as it is actually something you can sit down to consume - what gets the job done - and then it tends to incur a fairly defensive reaction because you have a boatload of people like me going 'hurr durr present tense sounds bad!'

I used dialogue tags as an example here but I think this applies to most of the tools you use to construct prose e.g. description of one's surroundings, one's emotional or physical reactions etc. If present tense works best conversationally - and in this case you often see present tense paired with first person - how would you tell me your story, if you were telling me directly?

[marypsue]

20 questions for fic writers

Thank you @rocketnebulas for tagging me!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

That would be 158!

2. What’s your total word count?

Uhhhhh 1,905,572. Ahah.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Recently and actively, Stranger Things and The Lost Boys. I've also been reasonably prolific for Gravity Falls and Rise of the Guardians.

4. Top 5 fics by kudos

This actually surprised me! Duskfall (a Bella/Tanya Twilight AU) is top of this list. And then the rest are more in line with what I expected: Raising Stakes (Gravity Falls vampire!Stan AU), Return, Rewind, Rewrite (Gravity Falls Transcendence AU), Reincarnation Blues (also Gravity Falls Transcendence AU), and A Semi-Normal Life (ditto).

5. Do you respond to comments?

Most of 'em, eventually.

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I think that's gotta go to this one, where everybody's dead but the main character, who thinks it's his fault. I don't write a lot of angsty non-ambiguous endings, but this one's pretty explicit that things Do Not Improve from here.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Uhhhhhhh. Hm.

Actually, it might be Hive! Which is a weird thing to say about a horror story, and yet.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Thankfully I haven't! Although I did once get a tumblr ask trying to gotcha me for writing Jack Frost/Pitch Black, which was extremely funny, because 1) that ship is between two several-hundred-year-old immortals who tried very hard to kill each other for the entire movie and this person was concerned because they thought there might be an age gap between them, and 2) I had written that ship exactly once, at least five years prior to receiving the ask, as a favour for a friend.

9. Do you write smut?

Verrrrrrry occasionally.

10. Do you write crossovers?

There's a reason my profile on AO3 includes the line "I was born with the gift of crossover femslash and I intend to make it everyone's problem."

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Only, as far as I know, by the usual AO3-scraping suspects. Although someone did once rewrite a fairly unique AU of mine from a different character's perspective, using almost all the same plot points, and didn't breathe a word that it had been inspired by my fic or that my fic even existed, which, like. Man, I'm glad you wrote that thing and felt good enough about it to share it, but also a little bit what the fuck.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

A few times! It's always an honour.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Exactly once. Wouldn't do it again unless the stars aligned absolutely perfectly.

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

That's a trick question and one that I will not be answering at this time.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you will?

I am going to finish Something Borrowed, Something Blues, so I guess that doesn't count. Uhhhh it would have been nice to finish Imbalance, but I just didn't have as much of a plan for it as I thought I had, and the more time passes the poorer taste the plan I did have seems to be in.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Personally, I think that characterisation is the big one. I can pull together a plot that makes sense and has an emotionally satisfying conclusion. I'm very happy with the way I write suspense/tension. And I've had a couple people now tell me that I do a good job of being descriptive without the description getting in the way, which I'm very proud about.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Pacing! Action scenes! The Dreaded Middle! Not overusing italics!

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language?

I've done it, like, twice and I had to use Google Translate because I didn't speak the language and I felt so dirty. For anything more than a word or two, I'd personally either describe the character talking without actually writing out what they're saying (if the POV character doesn't understand what they're saying) or write out/paraphrase the dialogue in English (if the POV character is the speaker/if the POV character does understand what the speaking character is saying).

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Wrote for was probably Pokemon, wayyyyyyyyy back in elementary school. Posted was the Hugh Jackman-Kate Beckinsale fever dream Van Helsing. Thankfully I think that one is lost amongst the ruins of ff.net.

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

It's still the road goes ever on. It's gonna be the road goes ever on for, like, a while.

I'm going to tag @gretchensinister, @tejoxys, @amethystunarmed, @seiya234, @marzipanandminutiae, @bixxelated, @daddygrandpaandthebeaver, @enquiringangel, @astriiformes, @scribefindegil, @mickeymagpie, and anybody else who'd like to give this a shot!

[runninriot]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

I was tagged by the wonderful @wormdebut to do this, so let's go

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

29 (when exactly did that happen?!)

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

303.103

3. What fandoms do you write for?

only Stranger Things atm

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. Cravin'

2. Ain't No Sin To Be Glad You're Alive

3. Ain't It Good To Know (That You've Got A Friend)

4. You Make Me Feel Like I’m High And Driving

5.��You & I (And My Dirty Mind)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Oh God, yes! comments always make me lose my mind. Like, someone actually taking the time to tell me what they liked about my writing?? holy shit, that's something i can't get over

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

i don't think there is one with an angsty ending tbh

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

i've never not ended on a happy note but probably my personal favourite is the ending of Where The Sun Still Shines

8. Do you get hate on fics?

haven't so far. all my experiences have been nothing but lovely and i'm so very grateful for that

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

do i? yeah, i do. i never thought i'd be comfortable or even enjoying writing smut until it just happened. Eddie and Steve are my dirty little playthings and i love them being nasty 😏

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

actually, my very first steddie fic Real Love Is Forever is a Stanger Things x The Crow crossover that started as a prompt on tt by the wonderful Jessi Lee - but other than that, no

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that i'm aware of

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No but i thought about maybe doing a German translation myself, just for fun.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I haven't but i find it fascinating how two people can create beautiful art together (Brooke and Az, i'm looking at you with heart eyes)

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Steddie always and forever

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Weight Of The World is still missing its third and final chapter and not having finished that one drives me nuts but i just can't seem to be able to pick up on it

16. What are your writing strengths?

I am the most chaotic writer. i jump back and forth between scenes like a maniac. when inspiration hits, i'll just dive right in without ever thinking about plot lines or mapping out the 'greater picture' beforehand and yet, i always manage to bring it all together in the end (at least i hope so).

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

repetitions and the overuse of certain expressions. english isn't my first language and sometimes the lack of vocabulary for things i want to describe and write about is just frustrating. (thank fuck for OneLook Thesaurus but still)

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

as a reader, I love it. Especially if it's little things in a language i understand. Maybe I'll let Eddie be fluent in German or have Steve whip out some very limited French or Portuguese in the future 😆

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Stranger Things/Steddie (anything that might've existed before Feb23 is between me and the moon)

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

I love them all, they're my perfectly imperfect little brain babies. i guess if i had to choose, it would be We Are The Lifeless Stars

ooooh, i enjoyed that very much! Thank You Wormy 🖤🖤🖤

i never know who to tag but i'll give it a go

@novemberthorne @thorniest-rose @morningberriesao3 @steddiecameraroll @aringofsalt @museumgiftshoperaser

if you've already been tagged or just don't want to do it - feel free to ignore 😇