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Voice in Narrative and Dialogue - A Contrast of Writing Styles

One of the nice things about being an author
is  that  we  can  breakthe distinction scrapped, but that's another
story.)The dialogue portion of VIGILANTE
any rule we want. (I just did.) It's part ofJUSTICE  isn't  difficult  to
our  job  description.
describe. The hero is a self-destructive cop
Language changes through usage --named  Gary  Drake.  He
definitions,  spelling,  grammar
is based on a real-life cop, my little
-- and authors can help it do this. But onbrother.  So  his  dialogue
the  other  hand,  we
was easy because, in my mind, I always heard
have to have some sort of agreement on theGary  speaking  in
language  or  we  won't
Barry's voice.For my other characters, I had
be able to talk to each other.When we asto  find  some  other  voices.  For
authors break a rule or two, it's not because
we'reexample, the voice of Doctor Garrett Allison
is,  to  me,  that  of
ignorant. It's because we have reasons to
break  them.  That's  oneMichael Jordan.That's right, people. When I
write,  I  literally  hear  voices  in  my
of the joys of writing.Having said that, now
I'm  going  to  explain some rules. There arehead.As a beginning writer, and not a very
good  one,  I  read  some  advice
two types of writing in your novel. There is
your  narrative  andsomewhere saying you might want to cut
photos  out  of  magazines  and
there is your dialogue. The rules for the
two are not the same.For example, comma use.use them when writing your physical
In  dialogue,  it's  not  so  difficult.  Putdescription,  in  case  you  can't
in a comma wherever your speaker pauses inform a mental picture of your characters.
his/her  speaking.  InI've  used  this  technique,
narrative, you have to consult the styleand with some modification I've extended it
guides  and  hope  that  youto voices.As an author, you should always
play  to  your  greatest  strengths
and your editor, working as a team, can sort
it all out.NARRATIVEA cop thriller like mywhile working to improve your weaknesses. I
VIGILANTE  JUSTICE  has  a  simple  set  ofknow  many  authors  who
rules for the narrative portion.think visually, and I envy them that. I've
Third-person,  straightforwardread  some  stuff  that
writing, light on adjectives and adverbs,can make you feel you're skiing down a
easy  to  read  andsnow-covered  mountain  when
grammatically correct. Sentence fragmentsit's actually 85 degrees in your flat and
are  acceptable  ifyou've  never  skied  in
communication is achieved, and you'll noteyour life.One author told me that when he
that  I  use  them  oftenwrites,  he  literally  sees  movies
in this article. Why? Simply because it'sin his head, then just has to type them
more  effective  thatreally  fast  because
way.To a degree the genre will help youthat's how they're playing. Lucky him! My
identify  what's  appropriate.novels  first  come  to  me
For a cop drama, write in the dry style of ain snippets of dialogue. Every character has
journalist.  Forthe  same  voice  at
horror, a bit of hyperbole may be acceptablethat stage. (My voice, of course.)Tight
in  the  most  dramaticdialogue is one thing I enjoy when I read.
Here  are  the
sections. For romance (not my genre), you
can  probably  use  lotscharacters at some sort of verbal showdown.
I  know  them,  I  know
more adjectives (swollen, heaving,
throbbing,  etc.)  than  you'dtheir motives, I can read between the lines
and  know  what's  being
normally dare.When I wrote RISING FROM THE
ASHES,  the  true  story  of  Mom  raisingleft unsaid. I can just feel the tension in
the  air.  I'm  not  so
my brother and me alone, I tried to adopt a
"childlike  voice"much mentally picturing bulging veins and
angry  glares  as  I  am
early in the narrative. As the character of
Michael  thejust feeling the spoken words.I also have an
excellent memory of voices. I always have.
storyteller grew older, I abandoned thatLike  a
childlike  quality.  (An
dog remembers scents or an artist colors, it
entire book of that would get old fastseems,  I  can
anyway.)When I wrote AN AMERICAN REDNECK IN
HONG  KONG,  the  humorousremember voices. If I hear an unfamiliar
song  on  the  radio  but
sequel, I once again used first person
narrative.  But  theI've ever heard that singer before, I can
tell  you  who  it  is.  I
narrative of RISING is first person only in
that  it  uses  "I"can tell you that the guy doing the voice of
Gomez  Addams  in  the
instead of "Michael." Michael is only a
camera.  It  still  followsoriginal Addams Family cartoon is now doing
one  of  the  voices  in
all the rules of "conventional" narrative.
In  REDNECK,  I  threwthe Tasmanian Devil's cartoon series. I can
spot  an  actor  like
most of the rules out the window.I used what
one author referred to my as "conversational"Andreas Katsulas no matter what species of
tone  torubberized  alien  he's
maximum effect in REDNECK. This fellowplaying, because I recognize his voice,
author  felt  like  he  wasn'talthough  really  that's  no
so much reading my book as just listening togreat challenge in his case.(For the record,
me  tell  some  storiesif  you've  read  THE CHRONICLES OF A MADMAN,
over a few beers. That's exactly what IAhriman looks and sounds like Andreas
wanted.When I wrote the sequel to REDNECK,Katsulas.  Clyde  Windham  is
another  bit  of  humor  called
Dennis Franz. Wendy Himes is some girl who
WHO MOVED MY RICE?, I chose to keep thatsold  me  some  horse
same  narrative  style,
feed about 15 years ago.)But just "hearing"
which I'd spent three years perfecting in mythe voices (if you're able) isn't enough. The
newsletter.In RISING, while I was the "first
person"  character,  I  wasn'twords themselves will be different depending
on  who's  speaking
really the book's focus. In REDNECK and
RICE,  I  am.  Center  stage,them, even if they're relaying the same
information.To get back to VIGILANTE JUSTICE,
in the spotlight. Using more of a "dialogue"Gary  Drake  doesn't  use  a  lot  of
style  in  what  should
words. He almost never describes his own
have been "narrative" allowed me to focusfeelings,  and  if  he  does
the  reader's  attention
he always feels guilty about it. He speaks
on the first person to a greater degree thanwith  a  Southern  drawl.
simply  describing  him
He tends to use a single swear word, and
ever could. You may love me or you may hatethat word is "f*ck."Marjorie Brooks, on the
me,  but  you'll  knowother  hand,  mentions  feelings  and  uses
me and you'll laugh at me. Or, in the casewhichever swear word is the most accurate,
of  RICE,  you'll  feel  myexcept  that  she  never
frequent confusion. I had to write that fromsays "f*ck." Doctor Allison doesn't use as
"my  perspective"many  contractions  as
because it was often the only one Ithe rest of us do. These are things I kept
understood.If you want to see such ain  mind  as  I  wrote
technique  used  to  maximum  effect,  I
their dialogue.Who remembers Mr. Spock? His
recommend A MONK SWIMMING by Malachyspeech  sounds  like  written  language,
McCourt.  (I  read  it  after
very grammatical and correct, and that's
writing REDNECK, by the way.) It's about andeliberate.  He's  a
actor  who  gets  drunk
scientist, he's logical, and for him
and does very bad things to himself and hislanguage  is  a  tool  to  be  used
family,  and  it's
with as much precision as possible. That
amazing just how much I laughed out loudisn't  just  a  different
reading  it.  Doesn't
style of dialogue; it helps define his
sound like a funny subject, does it? It'scharacter.In THE CHRONICLES OF A MADMAN,
not,  and  yet  it  is,Ahriman  used  fewer  contractions
thanks to his unconventional narrativethan the rest of us and he avoided sentence
style.To tell you the truth, I don't evenfragments.  He
think  McCourt  "wrote"  that
probably even knew the difference between
book. I think he just said it all into awho  and  whom  or  lie  and
tape  recorder  and
lay. That's because he's intelligent, you
transcribed it later. It reads that muchsee.  It  kinds  of  goes
like  "a  guy  at  the  pub
with the territory when one is evil
telling a tale." If he used the grammarincarnate.During an edit I did of a sci-fi
checking  function  inbook,  I  saw  that  the  author  wasn't
MSWord, I bet it underlined every sentence.using contractions in dialogue. I made many
And,  bright  fellowsuggestions  that  he
that he is, he ignored them all and didn'tchange the dialogue of the humans to use
change a word.If you're going to use a morethose  contractions,
conversational  tone  in  your
except when military officers were giving
narrative, don't think that means you justorders,  because
write  something  down
order-giving officers tend to be more
and don't have to edit it. You still have to"serious"  and  "thoughtful"
organize  your
than folks just being regular folks.I also
thoughts, and that means rewriting. Whilesuggested to this author that he change
your  style  may  benothing  about  the
unconventional, you have to make the ideas"stilted" speech patterns of his aliens.
easy  for  the  reader  toEnglish  isn't  their
follow.(I'm not entirely serious when I saynative language, you see, and one thing I've
McCourt  just  spoke  into  anoticed  from  living
tape recorder, and even if he did thatin China is that the locals don't use nearly
doesn't  mean  the  rest  ofas  many  contractions
us can get away with it.)In the case ofas I do. So I thought that added realism.
narrative, you have the choice. If you wantPlus,  the  contrast
to
should help the readers keep everybody
spotlight the storyteller to maximum effect,straight  even  if  they  aren't
you  can  go  with
consciously aware of why.I remember in one
first person and let the storyteller'sedit where I read some character saying, "I
narrative  and  his  dialogueam
read the same. If you'd prefer to "move thean historian." Oh, I hate that phrase. I
camera"  back  a  bit,hate  anyone  ever  putting
make the narrative conventional in contrast"an" in front of a word that begins with the
to  the  dialogue.  As  aconsonant  "h."  It's
rule, this reader likes contrast, because heterribly pretentious and arrhythmic. As I
gets  bored  readingkept  reading  the
the same thing over and over again unlessbook, I quickly learned that the character
the  style  is  reallyin  question  is
special. Or perhaps you can find a pointterribly pretentious. Nobody else in the
somewhere in between.Every story has a waybook  was  throwing  "an"
that  it  should  be told for maximum effect.
in front of "h" words. It was a deliberate
Maximum effect in the author's eyes, ofcontrast  on  the
course,  as  it's  a
author's part, and it worked quite
subjective thing. Keep it in mind as younicely.CONCLUSIONI suppose the point of all
write.  Make  the  call,this  is,  remember  the  difference
stick to it, change it if it's not working.between narrative and dialogue.In the case
It  might  even  be  okayof narrative, you're simply trying to
describe  what
to be inconsistent, but only if you do so
deliberately.  Just  keephappens. There is a famous quote of some
sort  that  says,  "Great
stuff like "ease of reading" and "maximum
effect"  in  mind  and  bewriting is like a window pane." Stick to
that  maxim  unless  you
creative.DIALOGUEHave you ever read a book
where  the  dialogue  reads  like  narrative?feel you have a good reason not to. If
you've  got  what  it  takes
I hope you haven't. But as an editor I've
seen  such  things,  andto make your writing style superior to the
conventional,  and  if
they're very ugly.Do you know why they're so
ugly?  Because  they  remind  the  readeryour story allows it, let that style be an
asset  of  your  writing.
of the one thing an author does not want to
remind  the  reader  of.Otherwise, just stick to the rules until you
master them.In the case of dialogue, you're
Namely, that every character on the page istrying  to  write  something  that
a  puppet  under  the
sounds like what the characters would
author's control.As readers, we put thatactually  say,  but  a  bit
thought  aside  so  we  can  enjoy  reading.
more organized because "real" speech can be
"Willing suspension of disbelief," to quoteboring.  Give  every
the  phrase  an  English
character his/her/its own voice.Am I joking
teacher used when describing the performancewhen I say "its?" Not entirely. THE
of  Shakespeare'sCHRONICLES  OF  A
plays. If the author ensures that the readerMADMAN contains a short story, written in
can't  suspendfirst  person  from  my
disbelief, the book will not be read.dog's viewpoint. But then again, I would
Stilted  dialogue  is  one  ofnever  call  Daisy  an
the quickest ways to make that happen.I've"it."There's a stylistic decision you can
decided that writing dialogue is the hardestmake  in  narrative,  by  the
thing  we  do.
way. I always refer to animals as "he" or
It's certainly not something we can go look"she."  Some  authors
up  in  a  style  manual
always use "it."In dialogue, you can let
like Strunk or Turabian.What are the rules?some  characters  always  say  he  or  she,
"Make it sound real." But with the corollary,
and let others always say it, to contrast
"not too real because people always say umthe  feeling  with  the
and  er  and  crap  like
unfeeling. (My heroes never call an animal
that." Oh yeah. That explains everything!"it.")In the end, the goal is always the
End  of  my  article,same.  Make  your  writing  as
right?Nope. I'm still writing it.Ideally,easy to read as you can. Keep that in mind,
the greatest of the great creators ofand  always  keep
dialogue  will  have
learning, and you won't go wrong.Copyright
every character "speaking" in a voice so2005, Michael LaRoccaMichael LaRocca's
distinctive  that  he/shewebsite  at was
need never identify the speaker. Okay,chosen by WRITER'S DIGEST as one of The 101
that's  enough  fiction.Best  Websites
Back to reality. None of us are writingFor Writers in 2001 and 2002. His response
dialogue  that  well,  arewas  to  throw  it
we?People use a lot more contractions inout and start over again because he's
speech  than  in  writing.insane.  He  teaches
They're faster. More sentence fragments,English at a university in Hangzhou,
too.  People  very  oftenZhejiang  Province,
use the wrong version of lie/lay or who/whomChina, and publishes the free weekly
in  speaking.  (Inewsletter  WHO  MOVED
never use "whom" in speaking or writingMY RICE?
because  I  want  to  see



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