petrel}

I've been fighting myself while writing on my novel this Christmas holiday. I've done a bunch of reading and sort of discovered my problem--I'm not thinking in scenes, segues, etc.
However, trying to do so has not been helping so I decided to isolate my weakest point and write the story concentrating on that. Well, I feel my description is one of my strongest points (comes from being a poet, I guess) and dialogue is my weakest, so at the moment I am tackling my book as if it was a play. I use initials and short descriptions to remind myself what to fill in later, and so far, it's working ok.

What I'd like to know: does anyone else do this?

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A man's subconscious self is not the ideal companion. It lurks for the greater part of his life in some dark den of its own, hidden away, and emerges only to taunt and deride and increase the misery of a miserable hour.

P. G. Wodehouse, Uneasy Money

Lilliash

Dialouge happens to be one of my my strongest points as character developement and reactions (thus conversation) is my strongest point. Detail and transitions are my weakest so we're sort of opposites. I'm not sure if other people use your method but you may want to try, not ignoring the rest of the book, but thinking about conversations your characters would have in various situations so that it comes naturallty in your book . Think of it as listening to their converstaion as opposed to writing it. If you have a good idea of character personality it should be easy. Otherwise try working on feeling your characters' personalities.

Icywind

Hmmmm....actually I think dialogue is the easiest part in stories..but of course that's just my opinion.

I think dialogue can truly make or break a story.

My only suggestion is to make the conversation not only engaging.....magnifying the feel of the moment...but plausible.

I mean you want your characters to be realistic...and not dull.

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LouDog11

Have you ever known somebody so well, that you know exactly what they say before they do? Or end up finishing their sentences sometimes? Think about it like that..

Don't think as much about what they should say in a given situation, but what they would say. Try doing it with your friends. If you just told Friend A you were pregnant, what would they say? How would they react? What if you told Friend B or C? A guy friend? A girl friend? Ive constantly caught myself saying something to my friend, and immediately catching myself before they respond, telling myself, "Why did I just mention that? I know exactly what they are going to say." It works better with loved ones. For example, a kid who is skeptical to ask his parents for something becuase he KNOWS what they will say, and is usually right.

This should be just like your characters. Once they are on that level of familiarity, you will know exactly how they react to your plot events. Then they might even surprise you, and then your in for a good story.

Rhea

Know your characters really well. Their personalities and how they would react to certain things (every character, and every person, is different after all). Try imagining a conversation with your characters, or just take more notice of how people usually converse. Try to make it sound as natural as possible. For instance, hardly anyone talks in proper, grammatically correct English, do they?

I find conversation easiest to write, though. Descriptions are harder

Dresdor

I create the base of my characters first, then the base of the world they live in. Then I create the events that make the world and the characters change, and change them appropriately. Once my characters become as real as they do, I don't need to write dialogue, I just need to put two or more of them together and they write it for me.

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