Today's blog is a bit of a challenge... Next week, there is an exhibition in Thurso Art Gallery (it's the back room of the library, for any people in the area who are are interested in going along!) entitled Caithness Connections . I've had a little sneak peek on social media and been amazed by the variety of ideas the artists have used to consider the theme. It set me thinking about how differently people see their home, and how greatly it differs to how other people see it. Caithness is not a well-explored area, either in tourism (although this has improved since the NC500 route became popular) or in the arts, as its near neighbour Orkney. This is not always a bad thing - the Orkney which exists now is a far cry from the one I knew as home in my childhood thanks to the insane amount of cruise ship traffic, but when you say Caithness to most people from outwith Northern Scotland, most of them have no idea where it is if they've even heard of it. A few years ago, I wro...
Monday 11th November - Dialogue
In my world, this is one of those necessary evils. Writing dialogue is a bit of a poisoned chalice. Do you go for how people really talk? Or do you go for how people can read and understand it? My lasting memory of Wuthering Heights is the use of a written-in Yorkshire accent, whereas most people remember the story! Perhaps because of this, dialogue is something I've always felt strongly about!
Dialogue tells your reader a great deal about the character. For last year's Book Week Scotland, Crowvus hosted an event called Consequences, in which other people gave you your characters through their own words (it's free to read here!). One of the toughest things about it was fitting in the words your characters had to say. After all, writing a story with a man and a woman in a place with a certain ending - that's pretty vague. But as soon as the words were introduced, the vague characters became 3D: you could hear their voices.
As soon as you talk to someone, you can get an idea of who they are - much more than looking at them. Your characters want to be just the same. Most writers only use a couple of "Points Of View" in their writing. This means dialogue is the strongest way of ensuring character development for the other players in your books.
Here are a few things to bear in mind:
In my world, this is one of those necessary evils. Writing dialogue is a bit of a poisoned chalice. Do you go for how people really talk? Or do you go for how people can read and understand it? My lasting memory of Wuthering Heights is the use of a written-in Yorkshire accent, whereas most people remember the story! Perhaps because of this, dialogue is something I've always felt strongly about!
Dialogue tells your reader a great deal about the character. For last year's Book Week Scotland, Crowvus hosted an event called Consequences, in which other people gave you your characters through their own words (it's free to read here!). One of the toughest things about it was fitting in the words your characters had to say. After all, writing a story with a man and a woman in a place with a certain ending - that's pretty vague. But as soon as the words were introduced, the vague characters became 3D: you could hear their voices.
As soon as you talk to someone, you can get an idea of who they are - much more than looking at them. Your characters want to be just the same. Most writers only use a couple of "Points Of View" in their writing. This means dialogue is the strongest way of ensuring character development for the other players in your books.
Here are a few things to bear in mind:
- You don't speak to everyone in the same way - neither will your character. It's not a continuity issue to have one character speaking a number of different ways to a number of different people - it's realistic.
- An accent is a great way of identifying someone, but don't leave your readers out in the cold! Sometimes it's better to put the accent in as a qualifier after their speech. I spent my university years in Hull, and if I tried to write that accent out, most readers would not have a clue what I was on about!
- A lot of what we say to each other is reactionary. Dialogue is usually a conversation. It's fine to go off-topic if one of your characters takes it that way.
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