In Creative Writing,
'Dialogue' is the title given
to when two or more
characters are speaking.
It is rare to find several
characters in the same scene.
"Dialogue never copies real-life
conversation. It simply takes on the
air of real-life conversation" - Open
University Text Book - Doing Things
with Words (A105), p. 123
Sol Stein suggested for a story to
have good dialogue, the dialogue
needs to be 'oblique' (to contain
indirect responses)
See Sol Stein (P.
123)
Distinguishing One
Voice from Another
Voices help
create a
character.
Having a good character
voice is essential for
writing fiction since the
characters are at the
centre of the story
Character voices can give the readers
facts: whole, partial or illusory.
A Good Character Voice can lead/mislead the
reader about what direction the story will take.
If your characters all talk the same, the
story will become undramatic and
confusing for the reader.
'The Way Character's express
themselves is key to their identity' -
Doing Things With Words (A105) P. 117
The Narrator's
Voice
Stories are told by the narrative
voices
There are a variety of narrative
voices that can be used to
intrigue a reader
Neutral Narrative Voice - The Significance
of Voice passes to a greater degree to the
characters
Character Narrative Voice - Someone who is
either directly involved in the action or on its
periphery.
A Peripheral Narrative Voice is
sometimes called a 'witness
narrator'
A Peripheral Narrator
observes the action of the
other characters but does not
take central part in the action.
E.G. 'The Great Gatsby'
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
(1925)
It isn't uncommon for the character to tell the story.
The first-person
narrative can be biased
&/or opinionated so the
given voice is
important.
A first-person narrative is often thought os as
'unrelaible' and so is used by authors to create
tension and force the reader to think about thier
own responses to the story.
Subtext
'Subtext' is a hidden meaning behind
the conversation
E.G. In 'Pretty Ice', the faulty tyre on Belle's Mother's car is
used to subtly inter how Belle considers her mother to be
incompetent.
"There are two silences. One when no word is spoken. The other when perhaps
a torrent of language is being employed. This speech is speaking of a language
locked beneath it [...] The speech we hear is an indication of that which we
don't hear [...] I think that we communicate only too well, in our silence, in
what is unsaid, and that what takes place is a continual evasion, despite
rearguard attempts to keep ourselves to ourselves" - Harold Pinter
No matter what is being written creatively, the
author must have some idea of subtect in their
head.
"Working with subtext is not a matter of
working it out with notes on it. It's a matter of
understanding perfectly what's really going on,
what's not going on and why it's not, and how
much of it will show on the surface [...] you
have to leave some [of the subtext] for the
audience to work out for itself [...] as a
member of an audience [I] love to be forcede to
think and be challenged" - Jules Feiffer.
Subtext and Prose
Fiction
The subtext in prose and poetry is less obvious
but just as important
When writing fictional prose, the author has to give context
and insight to the characters and what their taught may be
Adverbs and powerful verbs don't have to be used for this.
A narrative technique allows for a look into the character's
head and to hear their thoughts.
In effect, the subtext that is brought to
the surface of the page gives the
reader their inspection
Subtext in prose has
reached a stage where
it is interpreted by the
readers.
"Readers bring their own
experiences and
prejudices and
personalities to a text" -
Doing Things with Words
(A105) P. 130
As a writer, you can indicate subtext (it is important you do), but
cannot reach a stage of reading your voices and texts as definitive.
"Having a sense of your subtext is important, but
repeatedly defining it for the reader is to be
avoided - a prose writer, like a dramatist, has to
relinquish ownership" - Doing Things with
Words (A105) P. 130
Voices from Real
Life
Autobiographers and Biographers, also known as Life
Writers, have a challenge in creating voices for both those
who are currently living and those who have died.
No one can perfectly recall conversations so they
have to be re-created with some artistic liberty
Essentially, Life Writers have a similar task to Fiction Writers
"[Life Writers] have to edit any re-created dialogue so that
the speech is believable and gives an insight into character"
- Doing Things with Words (A105), P 132.
Life Writing often balances between fictional and
factual, often distinguished by the stated intention.
Many fictional novels have been discovered
to have been autobiographic.
E.G. 'The Bell Jar' by Sylvia Plath
Many autobiographies have taken creative
liberties with what is the truth and what isn't.
Transcripts, Oral History theatre and Verbatim theatre
Oral History is the act of recording
voice by social historians.
Most Notably Charles Parker.
Oral History can be traced to 60--70 years ago when the BBC Radio Services
became interested in presenting dialect of the time and using new
portable recording equipment to cover the period.
"Creative writers have found
this process interesting and
fruitful for a variety of
reasons, just as the opening p
of Mass-Observation (MO)
archives from the 1980s
onwards has also lef to
numerous life-writing
anthologies and works of
fiction" - Doing THings with
Words (a105) P 134
"Oral history theatre and verbatim theatre are extremely
conscientious about about fidelity. 'Oral History Theatre' is
an overarching term used to describe drama that uses
transcripts to a greater or lesser degree. 'Verbatim theatre' is
more specific used of drama that is almost entirely
constructed from transcripts and, occasionally, public
documents." - Doing Things with Words (A105) P. 135