User: writing_101 (posted by cozzybob) Date: 2008-10-11 23:40 Subject: Dialog help and pondering. Security: Public

Hobbes: No dirt.
Fawkes: No dirt?
Hobbes: No dirt. This place is very *clean*.
Fawkes: And that spells danger to you?
Hobbes: With a capital ‘D’, my friend.
Fawkes: Really?
Hobbes: That’s right. Cleanliness is a sure sign of heekiness, my friend.
Fawkes: Is that even a word?
Hobbes: Yes it is. Heekiness.
Fawkes: Really?
Hobbes: A lot of heekiness.
Fawkes: A lot of...

I'm always struggling with dialog. It's my worst enemy, especially when I try (and fail) to attempt a certain accent. During random bouts of insomnia lately, I've been re-watching The Invisible Man--not the old one, but the newer one that aired on Scifi some years back, the one that got canceled. I noticed that while the show had some minor flaws, one thing it did very, very well was dialog--the speech patterns were very realistic. Characters repeat themselves, sometimes monotonously, and they talk over each other, endlessly interrupting what the other is trying to say. They also talk about the most mundane things anyone could conceive, ranging from obscure observations about cleanliness to an argument over food appreciation. And then there's the specific habits characters pick up--Hobbes' my friend added on to every other paragraph, for example. I spent the day listening to my family talk, and I noticed that they do pretty much all of these things on a regular basis. Real people hardly ever wait for what the other person is trying to say--interruption is almost expected in my house. Talking over each other is also common, as well as body language and tone.

Anyway, noticing these traits, I've been tempted to put it to use in a fic. I found this site:

http://fictionwriting.about.com/od/crafttechnique/tp/dialogue.htm

Seems really helpful! Anyone else have dialog problems?

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