Blog Post #12

I'm starting to think I might actually catch up on these exercises, but then I remember that some of the last ones are quite long. I've still got over 24 hours until Nano starts, though - I can definitely do this. Right?

This next exercise is about dialogue. I was really wondering how I was going to get this exercise done in time, because it involves recording a conversation and transcribing it. But then we had unexpected guests tonight (yes I am typing this up with guests in the room, because my friends are excellent people who understand the importance of NaNoWriMo planning), and so I recorded our utterly inane conversation about how amazing Mac and Cheese is.

After transcribing the conversation, the next step of the exercise was to rewrite the conversation for dramatic effect. Now, I think the chances of characters discussing Mac and Cheese in a novel is quite low, so I was already at a disadvantage there. But I did my best.

I'm sure it's an obvious lesson, but real conversations are dramatically different to fictional ones. For starters, fictional conversations are rarely as pointless as the one I just had. If you're writing a pointless conversation, edit it out, or think about how it could be relevant to the novel. Unless it's NaNoWriMo, in which case have as many inane conversations about food as possible - the more words the better, right?

People in real conversations also change topics halfway through, use incomplete sentences, leave the room halfway through the conversation, and fail to use context. You can always use these things in a novel, but there has to be a point to them: they should either develop the characters or forward the plot.

Fictional conversations are usually more structured. They may look casual, but a lot more thinking goes in to them than in to real life conversations.

I had a couple of other points about this exercise, but basically they all boil down to: make sure your novel conversations are relevant to the plot, and that what your characters are saying is clear (or, if it isn't, make that a plot decision, not a result of poor writing).