z

Young Writers Society


Fantasy Story



User avatar
47 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Male
Points: 879
Reviews: 47
Tue May 27, 2014 8:23 am
Moalex says...



Hello, my name is Alex and I'm new to this community. Recently I've been trying to write a small fantasy story to make use of my imagination. So my question is, how do you incorporate conversation in a story? I try to put in as much action that allows the reader to see what the characters are doing. But a conversation has a lot of dialogue and I'm having trouble trying to incorporate it.
  





User avatar
384 Reviews



Gender: Male
Points: 14918
Reviews: 384
Tue May 27, 2014 3:43 pm
View Likes
eldEr says...



You incorporate dialogue the same way you incorporate anything else! There are lots of different ways to flow into it, and come out of it. I'll give you a few examples, and hope that they help.

The last rays from the sun vanished behind the mountain peaks, leaving the small troupe to their own devices.

Maresh sighed and folded her arms, slumping against the trunk of a tree. "Do we waste the torches?" she asked Isan, the troupe leader.

He shook his head, lips cinched, brow drawn. "No. We wait for the moon."


Here, what you do is start with a description of a change in surroundings, and then a character's physical reaction to it. After the physical reaction brings the focus to one character, you can add as much or as little dialogue as you want. After Character A is done speaking, you find a way to shift the attention to Character B (in this case, the focus was shifted because Character A asked Character B a question directly).

The dusk settled, as if timing itself to add a mysterious edge to Maresh's story. A grin split on her face. Her eyes scrunched just so, and a mysterious gleam spread over them. "And then," she murmured, "Just as Reyn let his first footstep fall in the cave, a horrible shriek sounded! He fell, covering his ears just as-" she stood, arms open with her fingers curled at her sides as she took a half a step towards the wide-eyed child seated on the stone in front of her- "the shriek ended and he thought he could stand-" she took another step "- the dragon whipped out of the cave, snatching him up in her talons-" she lunged, gathering the child in her arms and pretending to gobble him up "- and swallowing him whole!


Dialogue alone can tell a lot about what's going on in the story, but it's the actions surrounding it- the body language and the facial expressions- that really tie it all together. Experiment with different pauses at opportune moments to toss in a bit of body movement. Sometimes, but not always, describing the way your character's voice sounded can benefit you. Usually though, if you use italics and punctuation, as well as the surrounding bod language, correctly, you won't need to tell the reader how your character is speaking, because they'll know! :)

Also, just a tip on dialogue tags ("she said" "he screamed" "they yelled", etc):

Unless you have to use something different, always try to use "s/he/they said" or "s/he/they asked". You can follow that up with a description of the voice, or a body movement, but always try to go with a simple speech tag. Complicated ones will only bog down your prose.
Guuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurl.

got trans?
  





User avatar
933 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Female
Points: 4261
Reviews: 933
Thu May 29, 2014 6:22 am
View Likes
Iggy says...



For me, dialogue comes more naturally than description. Maybe it's just because it flows easier for me, but that's how it is. :)

I'm not really sure you can narrow it down to where you can or can't enter dialogue in writing. Theoretically, you can enter it anywhere. It's just a matter of what works and what doesn't.

Usually the easiest thing to do is have two characters in the same place. I suppose they could also be talking on the phone or texting, but in-person dialogue is very easy to do. That way, you can talk about the facial expressions and actions they do.

Speaking of action, dialogue can always lead into action if you want it to! You can have two people chatting in, say, a throne room and then the door bursts open. Two guards come in to inform the chatters of an attack on the castle and then you go from there.

It all just depends on you. If you prefer less dialogue, then go for it. Dialogue-free stories are not unheard of. They may drag down a bit, as conversation is a necessity if you want human interaction, but whatever floats your boat and all. Just do what makes you comfortable and go from there.
“I can't go back to yesterday because I was a different person then."
- Lewis Carroll
  








I'm also not sure why but even though I normally wear cool tones I have a feeling red would have been my color in the 1860s.
— Elinor