Do you prefer writing description or dialogue? What do you have the most difficulty with? Why do you suppose that is? What do you do to strengthen it or do you avoid it at all costs?
This week’s discussion is one of my favorites. I’ve been waiting for this question because I love
to write dialogue. No, seriously, I do
an I have been waiting for this question, or one like it. I know, I’m weird like that. But dialogue is one of my favorite things to
write and I think I’m pretty good at it.
“I thought you were joking about the
bathtub,” Jonas said, frowning as Charlotte slid back into the passenger side, once again shaking her head. This
had been the fifth hotel they had stopped at.
“Why would I joke about a bathtub?”
“I don’t know. What do you have against
them?”
“Do you know there are over eight hundred
thousand accidental drowning deaths in a year caused by slipping in a bathtub?”
“Do you realize there’s more water in a
toilet than in an empty bathtub?”
“Okay, but my body won’t fit in a toilet.”
He stared at her, one eyebrow raised.
“I’m just saying is all,” she replied,
rather defensively.
“You don’t look like the type of person who
has an excess fear of anything.”
“We all fear something, Jonas,” she said
rather practically. “Whether it’s spiders or heights or germs. Mine happens to
be bathtubs, although surprisingly, there isn’t is a technical phobia term for
it.”
“Yeah, go figure,” he
said deadpan.
(From my book, “Otherworldly)
I love getting inside my character’s mind and working
through their words. Most of my plot
twists or plot changes come from whatever pops out of their mouth, stuff I didn’t
see coming until I’m writing and…there it is.
I was at a dinner this past Saturday and when the person I was sitting
next to asked if I had crazy ideas in my head all the time I immediately said,
yes. Characters talk to me all the damn
time. He tried to avoid me the rest of
the night.
For me, dialogue is easy because I guess I live in my
mind. What I mean, is that I’m a badass
when it comes to internal dialogue. But
as soon as I open my mouth I usually fuck everything up. It took me a long time to get over foot in
mouth disease, although I still have lapses from time to time. I suppose that’s given me a flair to writing
character dialogue.
Description, on the other hand, sucks. It’s boring and difficult for me to stretch
out what’s happening through the day.
Some authors write fabulous description.
I don’t think I’m one of them. I
struggle with it and to help I go back repeatedly to edit and add. I have to remind myself constantly to
describe what the house looks like, or what the characters look like or even
what style clothes they have on.
Dialogue is fun and it bridges the gap between thought and
action. Most of the time I wish I had a
ten minute heads up so I could pre-think all of my dialogue for an evening and
write it down so I don’t end up lapsing back into Did I really just say that? mode.
LOL- we are opposites it seems. In description it might come easier to you to only add a few minor details at a time that match a character. Description is similar to dialogue- you still write it in the characters voice as the character would look at it.
ReplyDeleteFor example- A character who is more upity might have this description: They had painted the house pearl white with tiny blue shutters that should have been black.
this reveals a lot about the character...what she's familiar with and what she sort of thinks about it without going into internal dialogue directly.
another character: They painted their house a dull cloudy white with pretty blue shutters.
no matter how simple the character comes out.
I didn't meant o rant- sorry about that. I love description though. I wish I had your passion for dialogue. LOL