"It would be great if there was a writing program that..."

I had this moment yesterday: "It would be so helpful if I could quickly see how much of my novel is dialogue."

I don't know if this software exists, but it should. It would be pretty easy, theoretically: include anything between speech marks, and any sentences/phrases that consist of X said/exclaimed/shouted/murmured/whispered/stated/argued (you get the picture).

This arose because I'm worried that I have too much dialogue at the moment - as much as that's useful, you can have too much of a good thing. Still, as they are currently wandering around a desert, there's not much of interest except what they're saying. I'd also be useful for people who don't use enough dialogue, to make sure they're getting a bit in.

We should probably be feeling sorry for our pen-and-paper predecessors - they couldn't even do word counts, and as for Find and Replace... But has anybody else had a, "I wish there was a program that..." moment?

That could look for repeated words and phrases. Obviously things like "the", "to", "at", and "a/n" wouldn't count, but it would be nice to find your

"the rivers of light flowed toward him like rivers"

Yes, that line was in a story of mine.

If you have Microsoft Word you can find those repeated words and phrases.
Go to 'Edit', 'Find' then type in the word, check the box that says 'highlight all items found in' and click 'Find All'
It will highlight that word every time you use it in your story.

I wish there was a program that would write for you when you're stuck...

That would be amazing! I'd buy that.

I wish there was a writing program that told you when your writing wasn't nearly as witty as you imagined in your head. You can always read it out loud but... if its funny to you, it doesnt seem to change anything. And it would spare me-- i mean, one embarrassment from their first readers and the whites of their eyes as they encounter yet another artless joke.

Kibble wrote:I had this moment yesterday: "It would be so helpful if I could quickly see how much of my novel is dialogue."

If you zoom right out so you can see about 8 pages at once, you can see how much white space there is at any one time. Lots of white space = dialogue heavy. I know this isn't a perfect fix, but I find it helpful sometimes: if I see too much white space I know to go back and put some meat on those bones.

empressoftheuniverse wrote:I wish there was a writing program that told you when your writing wasn't nearly as witty as you imagined in your head. You can always read it out loud but... if its funny to you, it doesnt seem to change anything. And it spare me-- i mean, one embarrassment from their beta readers and the white of their eyes as they encounter yet another artless joke.

When my brother read my novel, he said, "These characters all sound like you when they're trying to be funny."

Ouch.