It’s All Fun And Games, Until Someone Has To Say Something

Summary

An author struggles with writing effective dialogue, particularly when characters must speak, revealing challenges in capturing the character's voice and sustaining the narrative's momentum.

Abstract

The text delves into the writer's personal struggle with crafting dialogue in his fiction writing. Despite an initial ease with narration, the author hits a roadblock when his main character must speak, a task that proves surprisingly difficult. He grapples with the character's unidentified voice and lack of emotional cues, such as anger or fear, which are essential in conveying the character's personality and situation. The author acknowledges his inexperience and the daunting task of creating authentic and engaging dialogue. He reflects on his critical nature when evaluating dialogue in others' works, recognizing the need for self-improvement and education in the art of dialogue writing. The piece concludes with the author's resolve to overcome these challenges and enhance his writing skills.

Opinions

The author admits to being overly critical of others' dialogue writing while acknowledging his own shortcomings in this area.
He views effective dialogue as a crucial component of fiction writing that can make or break a reader's engagement with the story.
The author expresses self-doubt about his ability to write dialogue, labeling himself a "n00b" or novice, indicating a lack of confidence in his craft.
He recognizes the importance of understanding a character's voice and emotional state to write convincing dialogue.
The author shows a willingness to learn and improve, understanding that writing effective dialogue is a skill that requires practice and study.
There is an underlying frustration with the complexity of writing dialogue, contrasting it with the relative ease of writing narrative prose.
The piece suggests that the author sees dialogue writing as a significant hurdle in his journey to becoming a proficient fiction writer.

My struggle with dialogue

How do you write dialogue effectively? (Believe it or not, until I edited this article I didn’t even know how to spell dialogue. I thought it was dialog, like the input box.)

So how should it be done?

That seems to be my biggest stumbling block. I was just fine writing my little flash-fiction piece until I made it to the point where the main character said something. Then I froze.

Turns out this fiction writing gig is really hard.

It occurred to me I didn’t even know what he sounded like. I had never heard his voice. It wasn’t my voice, that’s for sure. I was the guy writing all the other words and trying to put this jigsaw puzzle together. I was the guy trying to be coherent. I was the one that was trying to guide the reader along as if he were sailing in the wind, not a care in the world, feeling the ocean breeze in his hair and thinking, “This is IT! Wow! What a wonderful place!”

In short, I was doing all the hard work. All my protagonist had to do was pick up the darn phone and say hello. And I had no idea what his voice sounded like. How would he say it? Would he be angry? Scared? No, not scared. Who gets scared at a phone? Well this one maybe. But how? Well I realized I had to get past that part so I put something down. He just stated his name. Like a real angry mess. The way you would answer a telemarketer or a scammer if you were answering.

Anyway, he picked up the phone and like a true jerk of a person he said his name. No hi. No cool suave nonchalance. Only his name, followed by a period. But then I was totally lost. I had no idea what to do next. How to carry the story forward, how to move forward in the action. The truth was, I really didn’t even know who was on the other end of the phone. Was it a real person? A robot? A computer voice of doom or mystery?

Dialogue is the first thing I bludgeon in my judgmental self-righteousness.

Turns out this fiction writing gig is really hard. I’m going to tell you this: folks that sit around in their little fancy office chairs writing blogging articles (like this one) don’t even have a clue. I try my hand at writing, get two pages in and freeze when my dude has to say “Hi”? What kind of writer am I? A n00b. A total n00b. For those of you that don’t understand Hacker-speak, that’s short for novice.

I realize I don’t even know how to write effective dialogue. You know what’s so ironic about that? When I read someone else’s writing, their dialogue is the first thing I bludgeon in my judgmental self-righteousness. I think it’s time for Ole’ Danny Boy to go to school.

“Oh this is a real piece of junk.”

“She would never say it that way.”

“Come on! Put some real heart in it why don’t you!”

“Well how did he feel when he said that, Mr. Author-Man, how?”

Yeah, I do it all. I’m pitiful. In my heart I know how to be critical. Really critical. Maybe even to a fault.

So I’ll start with myself.

Maybe Stew will figure out how to answer a phone for once.

Maybe Danny will figure out what’s waiting for him on the other end.