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  Should I go with the flow?

  I have been editing my latest draft and at times get very frustrated with my editing program. I understand that it corrects all grammar anomalies, but sometimes it seems to be the "Old world English teacher".
  
  We use sentences of varying lengths, and of course must be watchful of "Fragmented sentences" and "Wordy sentences or run on sentences". When I am developing my character I often do this through the dialog, and therein lies my adversity with my editing program.
  
  Good grammar structure vs style in dialog.
  
  Is if acceptable in the world of published work to use passive sentences and fragmented sentences in dialog?
  
  I do this in a conversational style to develop my characters for the reader, to help them identify with them.
  
  Is this acceptable, or a lazy bad habit?
  
  
  If this question is too simplistic to some of you I apologize, remember "newbie".
  
  
  Thank you
  
  Bud

  Bud Gilham started this discussion 1 month ago. ( reply )

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  Tina F 

  If your character speaks that way (fragmented sentences) then use it. How do we normally speak? We don't all use full sentences. Do we. It makes your character seem more real. Just be careful to not overdo something to the point where the reader is left scratching their head, wondering what something meant. But dialogue is a great way to SHOW what is happening and keep the action moving.

  posted 1 month ago. ( reply )

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  Fabio 

  Bud,

  You made me remember Ulisses. Entire chapters with unfinished thoughts. Really difficult to follow up, but a mark in literature. If you let your editing program guide you, you will transform your novel into a report. I always listen to it, but I discard its suggestions like 90% of the time. Go ahead with your style, having in mind that this is an advice from newbie to newbie. ;-)

  Regards,
  Fabio.

  posted 1 month ago. ( reply )

  show 2 replies

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    uplandpoet 

    i think the beginning writer would do well to not try to write the new ulysses, your character can talk however he/she wants, but make sure the non dialog part of the book is in perfect standard english. if you become as famous as joyce or as rich as king, you can write however you want, in the meantime, good writing means correct writing

    posted 1 month ago. ( reply )

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    Stacy-Deanne 

    Once again we say the same thing, LOL.

    posted 1 month ago. ( reply )

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  Stacy-Deanne (edited)

  Hi Bud,

  Anything is acceptable when writing dialogue as long as it's true to the particular character. There are all types of people in the world so your characters must reflect that and stay true.

  The only thing wrong to do in dialogue, other than it not sounding realistic, is to write too properly. For example, "whom" is the correct word to use most times but how many people in real life use whom? Not many at all. Some do, but the general public doesn't even know the correct way to use it, LOL! So it's more realistic to have your characters saying, "who" even if they should say "whom". Even a lot of teachers don't normally use that word.

  Just wanted to give an example to show you that if you try to write dialogue with great grammar for all your characters it's going to sound fake. Most people have average grammar and some horrible, LOL! You don't want your characters sounding like a thesaurus. There is nothing worse than fake, wooden dialogue. What's worse to do in dialogue is when a writer doesn't know how to present characters of different cultures realistically. I've read books where characters were English-speaking foreigners but they spoke too "American". What I mean is, a lot of foreigners, even Brits say different words than we do. A lot of authors skip over this and it makes their characters unrealistic. So, take in account where folks come from too. So just stay true and remember, dialogue is one part in writing where there aren't many rules at all.

  Narrative however reflects the author's ability and knowledge and that should be as crisp and precise as possible. There are a lot of good editing books (my favorite writing guides are the Writers Digest books) you could try books if you haven't already. If you wanna save the money, then there are a lot of sites that you can read online for free. There are also a lot of good self-editing books that make things even easier.

  As for program, all I use is Word combined with my knowledge of editing and grammar, etc. Word works good enough for me. I don't find that the fancier programs are necessary.

  Best Wishes!

  http://www.stacy-deanne.net

  posted 1 month ago. ( reply )

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