Young Writers Society

Sometimes, in the heat of the moment, you can write these horribly awful soppy scenes. Now, if you're lucky, then it's just narrative and you can cut it out and throw it in the trash can. Narrative, though important, isn't that important.

But sometimes that's impossible. Why? Because you might write it as dialogue. And dialogue, especially if written at the heat of the moment, should not be thrown away lightly.

So, if it's soppy yet has some potential, then try injecting some sarcasm in it. Not brutal sarcasm, but light sarcasm. This can be very helpful for making the scene less corny, yet still endearing.

Sarcasm, as in cynicism, Snoink?

Not necessarily. Just like a gentle nudge that, hey, this isn't the soppiest story alive. And a touch of really light sarcasm seems to do the trick.

And almost every story has a sarcastic/comedic relief character...so...you've always got someone handy.

How about keeping dialogue in character during soppy scenes? Any tips?

ERgh I know how that is...you're in some strange spur-of-the-moment and that's all it takes to come up with this awful corny scene. With any luck though, you haven't shown or posted it yet, so yes, click, DELETE. but dialogue scenes...you're right. Good tip. Thanks, Snoink

Joeducktape wrote:How about keeping dialogue in character during soppy scenes? Any tips?

My dear, that is a completely different rant and varies from character to character. Some can have soppy scenes, no problem. So when Sadie does this long soppy scene about friendship, it's okay and even Good. But when Sadie's father did a soppy scene, it just wasn't working right. Thus, the sarcasm thingy had to be done. Some characters can never do soppy scenes. So yeah. Claude, doing a soppy scene? Never going to happen.

It depends on who the character is, just like it depends on who the person is. We'll all react emotionally in some ways. The only question is how.