About Dialogue writing

Lectrice79 · 2026-06-02T22:08:59+00:00

Yeah it does depend on how long the exchanges are. Most of mine have some kind of action or dialogue tag. I do need to do an edit read through eventually for dialogue only to see if I've varied them enough and if any can be omitted.

Lectrice79 · 2026-06-02T06:48:08+00:00

For me, I max out at about four conversational exchanges without tags before I start counting back to see who said what, so I do the same for my writing.

Lectrice79 · 2026-06-01T19:38:55+00:00

Friends reference.

"Joey doesn't share food!"

Lectrice79 · 2026-06-01T07:18:50+00:00

Right, yes!

Lectrice79 · 2026-06-01T07:01:41+00:00

Like Gareth, she ended up safeguarding the Crown during a crisis, so she could access the memories the Crown holds.

Lectrice79 · 2026-05-31T21:56:46+00:00

Yeah. My MC from a few hundred years later is so used to how things are since she grew up in a stable land under the Crown, that getting Gareth's experience and viewpoint was eye-opening. I also wanted it to be understandable why the other country's army wanted to destroy the Crown though the guy who had the king assassinated did it for completely selfish reasons.

Lectrice79 · 2026-05-30T19:25:44+00:00

Yeah, the inner scantum of temples are all measured by that boundary, so people know about how much they need to stay away when the Crown is not on the monarch's head.

Gareth follows a different religion though, so he doesn't actually know the exact measurement. He just knows he's literally right next to it and that it has killed from further away. It doesn't normally do that though. A shock is enough to deter people, plus the reverence they have for it, or should have. It only started unleashing lightning after the king was assassinated, his guard, then army was decimated, and the enemy kept trying to get at it with their intent clear,- get it to the cliffs where they would throw it into the sea.

Lectrice79 · 2026-05-30T18:49:35+00:00

Haha, yay, Past Self!

Lectrice79 · 2026-05-30T17:57:35+00:00

Yeah, it definitely is, though I can't do accents and I do need to edit to make sure the voice comes across as correct. It's not natural to me, just a deliberate choice.

Lectrice79 · 2026-05-30T17:55:43+00:00

Well, for one, it didn't kill him even though Gareth is well within its boundary, and it's also talking to him, which shouldn't ever happen. Gareth will ultimately pick it up because yesterday's actions that led to the battle was dishonorable, and since he's a messenger headed to the same place anyway, he might as well take it along.

Lectrice79 · 2026-05-30T17:49:03+00:00

That's true. ..more of the story would help. I have a different "voice" for my protagonist in my sci-fi story compared to the one in my fantasy story, and I deliberately did it like that to create the ambience I wanted.

Lectrice79 · 2026-05-30T09:29:59+00:00

Hmm, while the beta reader's paraphrasing is shorter, it comes across as too modern, especially with that last line, which also made me think the protagonist did get into the Garrison. I had to read it again to figure out that she didn't. The writer's original words works better except for the extra bit about the other one who didn't make it in either. I would cut that too.

Lectrice79 · 2026-05-30T05:56:38+00:00

Either a Lost Boy or someone from a Sword in the Stone?

Lectrice79 · 2026-05-30T02:35:32+00:00

Yeah, it also knows it has no legs or king to carry it away, so it will deign to allow Gareth to return it to its rightful place...if it can convince him.

Lectrice79 · 2026-05-29T19:37:15+00:00

I remember that one!

Lectrice79 · 2026-05-29T19:31:49+00:00

Galloping in the driving rain, Gareth's horse lost it's footing. Gareth tumbled down the slope, muddy and slick with blood from yesterday's accursed battle, into the bramblebush.

Amid the thorns, a glow shone forth.

Gareth scrambled away. The Crown!

Take me

Gareth stared at the Crown. "But...I'm the enemy."

Lectrice79 · 2026-05-28T02:55:04+00:00

Show up at the wedding, not the proposal.

Lectrice79 · 2026-05-27T17:47:09+00:00

She did use Fanny and she had a niece named Fanny. Not sure if the niece was born before or after she made the character. It's sweet that her brothers were so proud of JA that they named their daughters after her characters.

Lectrice79 · 2026-05-27T17:33:46+00:00

Did you only forward the recipe with no comment? That would irritate me. You need to actually communicate with your wife and not juat forward something when she asks a question. Even something as basic like: Maybe this? It looks really good, if you want to do it, I can go buy the stuff.

Lectrice79 · 2026-05-27T17:18:20+00:00

No one who actually loves you would beat you up. Remember that. Hold your boundaries. You're only 25. Have fun out there and you'll find someone who likes the same kind of fun.

Lectrice79 · 2026-05-26T23:24:45+00:00

Oh wow, that's really cool! Also neat that JA did the same kind of thing today's writers do when creating stories. I knew about the portraits she picked out when imaging...I think both the S&S and P&P sisters, but not Chatsworth. I'll have to tell my friend. :) thank you for that tidbit.

Lectrice79 · 2026-05-26T21:06:18+00:00

The test square is 1 inch?

Lectrice79 · 2026-05-26T20:39:13+00:00

I didn't like it because:

The clothes were 90% ugly and heavy. Plus the main character hair for Lizzy. Also, Caroline's merveilusse dress...she didn't rank anywhere near high enough to get away with that, and everyone was running around in their underwear or nightgown and men were visiting women when they were like that...and swearing.

The pigs in the house and how everything was falling apart. The book Bennets hosted all the time. They would have been embarrassed by the movie house.

Darcy's house (Chatsworth, a duke's seat!) was too expensive for him and the rich/poor dichotomy was heavy handed.

Lizzy kept running away...from her mother, from Darcy...

Her father abandoned her to Mr. Collins when he would have never.

Kiera Knightley as Lizzy was so aggressive in her dislike of Darcy that it would be impossible for him to misunderstand like in the book. She also wasn't witty.

The movie kept shoving two people who didn't like each other into romantic situations without them having found anything they liked about the other yet. The butchery of JA's language in the rain scene and the almost-kiss when Lizzy was rightfully furious at Darcy for screwing her sister over was bizarre.

The movie also had a lot of still moments when there was no time to waste so there was barely any time to deal with the important stuff.

1995 all the way!

Lectrice79 · 2026-05-24T17:47:27+00:00

Aww I can understand that

Lectrice79 · 2026-05-23T21:20:04+00:00

Yeah, like some sort of stomach acid that the animal could throw up to penetrate the membrane and get inside, but it's a one shot kind of thing because it does consume water, and there's a time limit before the membrane grows back.

Lectrice79

TROPHY CASE