Tonguelashed
Dialogue can be delightful if dramatically or comically stylized or artistically blended with descriptive prose; in other words, if it is a feature of style and structure in a given work. If not, then it is nothing but automatic typewriting, formless speeches filling page after page, over which the eye skims like a flying saucer over the Dust Bowl.
- Nabokov, answering the question Why do you so dislike dialogue in fiction?
I don’t understand why so many authors fill their books with screeds of unartistic direlogue. I’m surrounded by dialogue all the time; when I read a book I hope to hear people talk differently, if they talk at all.
This entry was posted on Thursday, June 5th, 2008 at 9:25 AM and filed under New stuff. Trackbacks are closed.
The perfect book is a myth.
Let the dialogue be natural, colloquial. Let it be real.
I say, if you wanna be fancy then write in the first person and go mad with the inner dialogue. Else, just take your crayon and point it at life.
Who’s this Najackoff guy anyway? (…)
Nice blog. I’m a fan. Although sometimes you’re too much of a character. But if you weren’t I wouldn’t. Read it.
Posted on 05-Jul-08 at 11:28 am | PermalinkAh, I know who you are. Rock on!
Posted on 22-Jul-08 at 3:32 pm | Permalink