Voice

[The Pecman]

I'm sometimes put off by contemporary teenage characters who don't swear more, and who act in ways that I don't think are very believable in 2013. For example, I can recall a recent online story where the two teenage characters referred to each other as "love," as in, "be careful when you go to the store, love!" or "don't forget to take your raincoat, love!" Call me crazy, but I don't think 15- 16-year-old kids talk this way in 2013.

[Former Member]

I'm sometimes put off by contemporary teenage characters who don't swear more, and who act in ways that I don't think are very believable in 2013. For example, I can recall a recent online story where the two teenage characters referred to each other as "love," as in, "be careful when you go to the store, love!" or "don't forget to take your raincoat, love!" Call me crazy, but I don't think 15- 16-year-old kids talk this way in 2013.

 

They really don't and that's a great example of what really drives me nuts.  If a real 15-16 year old is using those terms, it's more for a laugh than anything I'd think.

[Thorn Wilde]

They really don't and that's a great example of what really drives me nuts.  If a real 15-16 year old is using those terms, it's more for a laugh than anything I'd think.

 

They might in Britain, actually... Those kinds of pet names are quite deeply ingrained in the culture, and will in some places be used by pretty well everyone.

 

In Nemesis, Dave calls Nick 'love' on more than one occasion. 

[Former Member]

They might in Britain, actually... Those kinds of pet names are quite deeply ingrained in the culture, and will in some places be used by pretty well everyone.

 

In Nemesis, Dave calls Nick 'love' on more than one occasion. 

 

Maybe it's my American background, but I found that very odd, to be honest.  If an American in their early teens calls someone love, it's normally meant to be ridiculous and old-fashioned.

[Zombie]

Maybe it's my American background, but I found that very odd, to be honest.  If an American in their early teens calls someone love, it's normally meant to be ridiculous and old-fashioned.

 

 

Okies now we need a thread on the use of idiom, which is generally culture and time specific and which can enrich the dialogue and characters, without alienating *scratches head*

[Timothy M.]

Interesting discussion. I'm wondering whether this problem with people speaking out of character applies mainly to dialogue or is also something you notice about the whole narrative ? So if the 1st person narrator describes things in a way that is much to mature or with a vocabulary that does not fit his or her personality, you'd also find that annoying ?

I tend to avoid dialogue in my stories, because I find it hard to make it realistic, and I'm always impressed when I read stories where there are large chunks of good dialogue. But after reading this discussion I've suddenly realized why my stories are always 1st person POV with main characters who intellectually are equivalent to me. It's so I don't have to worry about how they sound, only about how to make other people in the story distinct. Am I being lazy or just sensible ?

[The Pecman]

I tend to avoid dialogue in my stories, because I find it hard to make it realistic, and I'm always impressed when I read stories where there are large chunks of good dialogue.

 

Work harder! Dialogue is just another building block of good storytelling. To me, the key is having a good balance between dialogue and description. Stories get clogged up much too much with excessive dialogue, and excessive description robs the story of the personality quirks and distinctions between different characters. 

 

I think Monica Wood's book on Description goes over that in great detail, and Nancy Kress' book Characters, Emotion, and Viewpoint provide a lot of details on how to craft effective dialogue. Both were very helpful to me when I first got into fiction about 13-14 years ago, and you can pick these up cheap used on Amazon for a buck or two apiece. It'll take you a day or so to read them, then just keep whatever insights and tricks that work for you. 

 

And read the great authors you love, particularly books you've read before, and pay attention to how they delineate each character, how they give each one a distinct voice, how they handle overlapping dialogue among multiple characters, and when the writer chooses to create a scene with description rather than dialogue (and vice versa). A morning breakfast could take five pages to do in dialogue, or you could do it in two paragraphs in description; neither is correct -- whatever serves the story best is what you need to use. Only relying on one of these is wrong; I think you have to use a combination of both to make the story readable and keep the reader's interest going.