I was hoping someone would take a stab at the meaning behind the elemental order…
First Fire, then Earth, then Water, then Wind, and finally, ‘Ideal‘.
Where do we see this pattern in nature?
Here’s a visual representation I cooked up on Photoshop:
Did these hints help?
Also—-lately, I’ve been fighting a battle with my own dialogue.
There are two parts to this battle. The easy part is that I’ve recognized I’ve been afraid of the word ‘said’. I need to use that more.
The hard part is—-after much more practice, I’ve found writing dialogue is a lot like trying to play chess against yourself: You have to keep walking between Player 1 and Player 2′s sides of the board, trying to forget everything the other player knew, attempting to reassess the entire situation from a completely different frame of mind.
I’ve found that because of this, it’s very hard to judge your own dialogue from an unbiased point of view. And, after I’m done writing dialogue, I can’t shake the feeling that a trained eye could pick up that the same person played both sides of the board.
Hopefully, this will go away with practice. But please share if you have ever struggled with this. Any tips are definitely welcome. I do intend to win this battle. :)
Prev: The Five Rings system -part 3- | Next: The Five Rings system -part 4-
Also, about your dialogue. ‘Said’ is your friend. It’s an invisible word. Use that more than anything else. You could also try reading your dialogue out loud. It’ll help you get a feel for whether you sound conversational or force.
I’d be willing to read and offer an outside opinion if you like.
Good luck!
[Reply]
Comment by Steph — June 10, 2008 @ 1:40 pm
Even though it’s harder, I think in a scene between two characters, giving them personal dialogue patterns really helps erase the feeling of manipulation.
[Reply]
Comment by Saint Know-All — June 10, 2008 @ 5:59 pm
‘Said’ is definitely my friend! I’ve been reading Holly Lisle’s The Ruby Key, and she uses ‘said’ a lot without trying to fish for other unruly, awkward synonyms. And it became clear to me that dodging the word ‘said’ appears amateurish. I’m not going to use it too liberally, but there’s definitely plenty of room in my writing for it.
And thanks for the offer to be a beta-reader! :D I’ll probably pass some snippets of dialogue along to you fairly soon to get your opinion, if that’s okay.
[Reply]
Comment by cirellio — June 10, 2008 @ 8:56 pm
I’m almost done reading Wizard’s First Rule by Terry Goodkind, and one of the most irritating things about reading it is that it sounds like the same person is saying much of the dialogue. Taken out of context, it’s difficult to tell if Richard or Kahlen or the Narrator is speaking, because they all speak like this:
(These are not direct quotes. I’m making it up as I go along.)
‘I wanted you to know the truth; to know what I was thinking; to know how much I love you.’
‘I am so relieved; so glad you finally told me; so glad it’s off your back.’
And so, the two pressed onward; pressed beyond the darkness; pressed on despite the danger.
And the dude uses the word ‘hunkered’ a lot. Blech! If I ever describe something as hunkered, just shoot me.
But … Terry Goodkind wrote the book in an impressive 10 weeks, so I can’t fault him too badly.
I guess my main goal is to have the dialogue flow and feel completely natural, something like the modern dialogue found in some of the newer edgy ‘realistic’ movies. I want my characters to react to something shocking, difficult, painful, or suspenseful … ‘correctly’.
To more closely illustrate what I’m talking about, I’m going to overexaggerate a bit: I dislike it when characters in books and movies don’t seem to be the least bit afraid for their lives in a situation when they should realistically be peeing their pants. Or when someone has tragically been without somebody else they loved for many years and when they finally get reunited, instead of crying or leaping for joy, they seem despondant or mildly amused. (Unless, of course, that kind of reaction is ‘in character’ for them.)
But maybe I’m being too picky and I just need to keep writing and worry about this kind of stuff in editing :P
[Reply]
Comment by cirellio — June 10, 2008 @ 10:10 pm
[Reply]
Comment by Steph — June 11, 2008 @ 6:18 pm
I just got through the parts with ‘Scarlet’. I’m still getting over all the plotholes and logical fallacies that occurred. *shudder*
[Reply]
Comment by cirellio — June 13, 2008 @ 1:34 pm
[Reply]
Comment by Steph — June 14, 2008 @ 10:57 am
Don’t worry, though: Book 1 had given me more than enough reasons not to continue.
(Even though I was OCD enough to finish the first one :P)
[Reply]
Comment by cirellio — June 15, 2008 @ 7:16 am