Being a Better Writer: Dialects · 10:59pm Nov 20th, 2017
When you go to the grocery store, what do you call the wheeled apparatus that you collect your groceries in? Is it a shopping cart? Or is it a carriage? Or a trolley?
When you go to the grocery store, what do you call the wheeled apparatus that you collect your groceries in? Is it a shopping cart? Or is it a carriage? Or a trolley?
Today we’re going to discuss a writing topic that some might call overly specialized: writing dialogue for a very specific age group. A good story, however, should strive to make all its components as accurate and tonally appropriate as possible. Even if a character has only a few lines of dialogue, even if a skill or item only appears in one scene, its presence still has an impact on the reader’s willing suspension and mood.
Welcome back to another Classic Being a Better Writer post! Really quickly, a quick update for Patreon Supporters: Still playing catch up for last month, but look for something (hopefully) this weekend. That's all.
Welcome, readers, to the year 2020, and a new series of Being a Better Writer! We’re back at last, ready to tackle all new topics of writing every Monday. So kick back and get ready to talk writing!
Due to various circumstances beyond my control, such as a local power failure, working two hours late today, packing for EFNW, and general procrastination (okay, that one’s on me), this blog post is gonna be a bit rough. In fact, it’s
(TLDR: There is a concise list of tools and points at the end of this post. However I encourage people to read the entire thing so they have a better understanding of the content and purpose of these tools. Still, if this is too long for you you can skip to the list of 12 things at the end.)
Happy New Year! It's been a while since I posted anything here. I just wanted to say that I am not dead, and that I am still chugging away at writing things. I have 20k words of chapter 3 left to drop, sorry I've been lazy on editing. I've been working on chapter 4, which has been full of all sorts of interesting developments. Hopefully the stars can align and I can take one day to write a large chunk of the chapter to get things flowing again. Anyway, I wanted to have a present for all of you
"So, uh... Princess Celestia?"
"Just Celestia."
"Right. Uh... Celestia?"
"Yes, Twilight?"
"Um, if I'm an alicorn and a princess now, does that mean I'm also immortal?"
"Hoo boy, I knew this was coming..."
"What?"
"Nothing, nothing. Anyway, to answer your question... probably. It's hard to say at this stage."
"Erm... okay. Well, if I do end up immortal, what about my friends?"
"What about them?"
So a friend of mine looked at the story and, you're not going to believe it, there is still some work to be done. The key item he noticed, at its something that flew way over my head, was dialogue variation. So far (according to my friend), its: "...." x person noted, "....", y person said <- where's the variation? It doesn't feel like full, fleshed out story now that I think about it. So here's what's going to happen: I am going to finish my current editing process with the plan of attack I
Welcome back writers to another Monday installment of Being a Better Writer, your source for writing advice, guides, and tips.
It is going to be posted sometime in the next two weeks.
Some things are going to be shunted around, in comparison to the 'original' version that was lost due to my computer going apeshit back in December.
Basically, it'll be separated into five Acts, and the five acts will be eight Parts long. Four Intermissions between the five Acts.
Sorry this is short, but the next chapter of Project X Zone is coming.
LeoneHaxor
How many words of dialogue do you think are in all of the episodes of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic? How does the answer change if you include the movie, the holiday special, the various shorts, and the Rainbow Roadtrip special? How does the answer change if you include all canon Equestria Girls material? Bonus Round: How does the answer change if you include all lines of dialogue in the official comics and official books?
Have fun! I don't know the answer!
Overpriced Writing Advice
Where you can learn the stuff I paid thousands of dollars to have taught to me, for free.
Dialogue
Do you like Karaoke? Do you like Dodge Ball?
Have you ever wondered what would happen if you combined the two?
Once again, hey to anyone reading this. "A Guide to Herd Dynamics" is still being worked on, so don't worry. This time, the game Nier: Automata consumed my soul, but I finally finished it so now other things can slip between the cracks. Also, two main characters of next chapter are a bit hard (no set canon personalities for them, and fanon is ALL over the place). Also, dialogue will be... interesting. In all the good and bad ways.
In the past, I’ve advocated learning from cinema, trying to use and translate the same techniques into prose. I use terms like “blocking” and “off-screen” to refer to things in prose.
Today, however, I’d like to discuss one of the major differences between visual media and prose. It also happens to be one of prose fiction's greatest weaknesses: scenes and stories with a large number of characters.
First lesson (on good dialogue). Ask away.