posted
It seems to me that I am more often than not of the minority opinion when it comes to my style preferences in writing. For instance, I don't like hooks that begin with dialogue, but most others do; I don't like to read stories that contain mostly dialogue and not much description, but just about everyone else does; and so on.
Now, my question is: Does this mean that as a writer I should be trying to please the majority by writing the way they would prefer to see it written (i.e. by adding more dialogue into the story just because most people prefer it that way)? Or can I get away with being different despite that it might hurt my chances of selling a story or making many sales once it does (if it does) get sold?
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If you try to write in a style you don't like, you'll only be crippling your most valable skill as a writer, the ability to love your work.
Posts: 8322 | Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
I personally don't care whether a story has an excess of dialogue or an excess of description. I say you tell the story that you want to tell it in order to make it work for you.
Two examples: John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is almost nothing but dialogue, and this is one of the few stories I actually liked in high school. Ernest Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea was practically endless description all the way through, and it won the Pulitzer.
My point is, these are both very successful novels, and with very different styles. So make your success the way you want to make it.
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I think that the style you use depends on the story you are telling. Some stories require dialogue, others don't
Posts: 7 | Registered: Feb 2006
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I like well written stories myself. I haven't come across something with 'too much' dialog or not enough. Robert Jordan is heavy on description, and I enjoy it. I also enjoy writers that use much less description.
It comes down to good writing. As for what you should do, I think you should write however it comes naturally to you.
posted
For what it's worth, it seems to me that writing stories where the first line is dialogue tends (tends! I'm not laying down any hard and fast observations here) to be a newbie characteristic. The feeling is that dialogue gets you right into things. In fact, it doesn't work very well (usually) for the same reason that other forms of in medias res don't usually work--we don't know anything about the situation, or the characters, so we don't care about them yet.
As for how MUCH dialogue to use--and for how soon to use it--well, that depends on how much of your story (or scene) involves character interaction. When characters interact, there's no better tool for showing the nature of the interaction and the character of the individuals than dialogue (though please don't anyone take that as a suggestion to write straight dialogue with nothing else--it's not that good a tool). But if your character is struggling across a desert, or on a small boat trying to land the Big Fish, he's not going to have anyone to talk to but himself, and that usually sounds silly these days.
So if your story starts out with a scene involving interaction, you're going to have lots of dialogue right up front. But it's almost always better if we get at least a sentence letting us know the speaker's name and the rudiments of his situation before he actually opens his mouth.
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Thanks all for the input. I was feeling a bit discouraged the other day when I learned that my writing wasn't following the preferences of a some readers and other writers. I guess I was just worried that since my style is different from most other pieces I've read that I was doing something wrong.
Posts: 107 | Registered: Nov 2005
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I think that we often miss the point of writing. I don't know about you guys, but my purpose for writing is to enjoy the story and to make real art. Its like any painter or composer. You write how you like to write just like a painter paints how they paint. To give up your style is to give up what makes it enjoyable to write...unless you find another style enjoyable of course.
In the end, you hope you please an audience, but it is the originality that usually is best. All of the greatest authors have their own style, their own manners that set them apart. And there is no right and wrong in writing as far as I know.
But if you're just going for money, by all means, make sure you try to everything to please everyone! :P
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If you write using a style you are uncomfortable with, your work will show it. A good reader knows when something is good, and they will read it because of that, not whether or not your character thinks about going to the store or talks about it. I, personally, hate it when a story is all description, no action. I mean, I read a book that had four pages about a guy emitting bodily gasses. Now, that was a bad book, because the author didn't know where to stop. I have read books with a large amount of description that I absolutely loved.
So if you want to write well, write for yourself. A good reader can tell if you've written something truly good, whether it starts with dialogue or no.
[This message has been edited by The Fae-Ray (edited February 09, 2006).]
posted
I'm usually a sucker for a mix of dialogue and description in an opening scene in a story. My current WIP is something along those lines, I think (I'm not to sure at the moment.) I usually write descriptive openings and after I've established who the main charactor is then I start the dialogue, even though my dialogue needs a lot of work.
Posts: 384 | Registered: Oct 2005
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If you're seriously doing it for the money...find a different line of work, because writing is the starving artist occupation.
Posts: 8322 | Registered: Aug 1999
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That's the truth. Coming up on my thirty-first year of writing...not one dime of income generated off it...
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
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I've generated plenty of income writing. The problem is that the writing I get paid for begins with "Defendant, by his attorneys, moves for summary judgment" rather than "Once upon a time."
The moral of the story is that there's writing, and then there's writing.
[This message has been edited by J (edited February 10, 2006).]
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