But Here We Are!
1. Did you know that chicken nuggets you get at fast food places are about 40 % muscle and the rest is bones, skin, fat and veins. Veins! That makes me want to puke.
2. Did you know you can make your own chicken nuggets–and they are easy peasy?
3. Write In! Kyra and I are starting Write Ins–What? you may ask. Once a month we’ll meet in a public place for several hours–with other writers–to just write. I’ll let you know more later.
4. I haven’t done anything as far as creative writing because my main computer is sick and won’t stay on. What have YOU done with your writing goals?
5. And a post by Debbie Nance!
Truth Is Stranger than Fiction – by Debbie Nance
About a week ago, a friend of mine slipped at a Cub Scout camp and broke both of his elbows. Sunday morning, my house smoke alarms went off at 3:30, 4:00, and 4:15 a.m. (It took that long to figure out they needed new batteries.) Yesterday, my son found a live bat hanging on the wall of his coworker’s cubicle. The coworker hadn’t noticed and no one knows how the bat got inside the building. This morning, an Amber Alert was cancelled because four children, who were missing for 11 hours, were found safe at their grandmother’s house. Would these true events seem real if you read them in a book? Maybe. Maybe not.
The first full length novel I wrote was historical fiction based on a family story. I wrote the book in conjunction with a class I was taking. I plotted and planned the book and followed the true life events. When I finished the first draft, I hated it. The story didn’t feel real.
Have you ever had that problem?
Ever tried to write dialogue the way people speak?
I was a legal secretary for seven years and on occasion I transcribed recorded conversations. People don’t speak in full sentences. They interrupt each other. They ramble. They use slang. They use poor grammar. They speak at the same time. It is hard to understand them. Writing exactly as people speak doesn’t work in fiction.
That doesn’t mean that you must write dialogue with perfect grammar or complete sentences. That wouldn’t work either. You can have a character ask a question that no one answers. You can use poor grammar to set a character apart from others. You can use incomplete sentences. In fact, you could probably break every rule of good grammar and good conversation—IF there is a reason and IF you do it in a way that is readable.
The best rule I know for writing dialogue, is to make your characters sound real while keeping the language so readers can follow who is speaking and understand what is happening.
So what rules for writing dialogue do you use?
Throwing Up Words 