Lesson Six

Can we post here on the forum, that way we can comment/learn from each other's questions and postings without having to review several separate postings. Might result in a great discussion.

Dialogue Lesson Six, My Summary:
My initial intention for becoming an author was to write a memoir, not to write a novel or fiction. However, what I soon discovered, I needed dialogue to bring life to an otherwise list of things and facts.
In my sixty-seven years, I have never written or had to write ANY dialogue. This may explain why I have had such trouble with dialogue punctuation. Inner and outer dialogue, action tags, speech tags, what the hell are those? I thought I already had vaccinations for those!
Thanks to this class, I now know. I once used many 'caps' to emphasize words… wrong! Punctuation is my biggest bug-a-boo, of which I am still working. This class has helped tremendously.
My formal education ended at high school in 1965. I am sure LA can concur but I have attempted to educate myself in the years since. While I am far from being illiterate, some things in punctuation I was just ignorant. This class has brought me out of that fog. While I am not 100% yet, I think I am at 80% based on the in-line corrections I have received since I started this class. The most important thing, I now have basis for understanding which I did not have before.
LA, you have the patience of 'Job,' literally. I got a chuckle by your comments on my punctuation corrections. You would end your comment by saying, 'AGAIN!' Hey, you are dealing with an old dog! Thus, my comment about my thinking I was wearing a bit thin on you. If I were you having to deal with me, I probably would have snatched myself bald by now. Of course, I use that as a figure of speech but you know what I mean. This also explains my regard for your poise!
You read my before and after of lesson five. I wrote them one day apart, over that weekend. The first I wrote honestly, as I approached writing before this class. I gave no thought as to what I had learned. Then the next day, I applied the lessons we had been taught. The result was not perfect but you know I got the concept of what you were teaching. My teachers in school never got that point across to me after having me in their classes for years. The difference is, you made the subject interesting and relevant. Having us, review the work of our peers helped us understand how others were applying the instruction. It certainly opened my eyes.
As I have told you before, you formed this six-week class to be informative and thought provoking. You made it understandable and presented it in such a way, we could apply what we learned immediately. You gave us the simple basics as the foundation and gave us structure for major applications. I don't feel I am speaking out of line by saying, "This has been the best investment of time, in which I have ever participated."
My only regret is, being on-line; I would like to have met and shook the hand of LAMackey, for a job well done! Maybe someday… when I am a published author!!! (I know, I am old school)
Best regards,
Wyatt Goodwin

looks like I'm last to post

I have given this lesson a lot of thought.

One of my key flaws as a writer has been punctuation (and spelling but thanks to spell-check its not as big an issue as it could be), but the rules applying to dialogue make far more sense than punctuating prose. Commas are my downfall, ask anyone who reviews my work. So punctuation was easier than I thought. It’s hard and fast rules- whereas the rest of my wish list is more subjective.

One of the many key things I need to work on would be: when to use on-the-nose and when not to. I think there is a need for it (on the nose that is)- my current novel is already  205,000 so beating around the bush in every scene can get tedious, esp. when dialogue is a natural fit for backstory. I also have characters that just speak their mind- so on the nose would be good fit in some instances. What I need to do is finesse it. Look for those moments when subtext fits better and use it when applicable. I've also noticed that subtext could be used to misdirect the reader- and that sounds like fun to me! Another point for improvement is to avoid editorializing by my characters.

For me the most eye-opening moment was when you took the dialogue from the last lesson and broke it down - (esp. when you used neener-neener!) No reviewer has ever done that for me and it instantly demonstrated the point. Going forward I’m going to do that to my own dialogue and see if distilled, it goes where I want it to go and packs the same punch. I may also employ that method when reviewing others work on this site (get ready Wyatt and Randy), it was  that enlightening. Also going to read it out loud- I hear that helps.

The class was very useful and I’ve printed out the toolbox from both Lesson 4 and Lesson 5 and they’re pinned to my builtin board. I normally write “stream of conscious” style (sometimes 1-2 glasses of wine are involved) but now  I’m going to be more critical during the editing phase and keep these lessons in mind. Also going to cut many tags- that should help get that word count down!

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the class and thank you for providing it.  I’m in the middle of my third re-write of my first novel, and applying these tools will fix those problems I’ve noticed but wasn’t sure what to do about. That "there's something wrong with that, but I can't put my finger on it" moments. Now I know what to do thanks to this course.

I’ll invest in some more books (I see Randy has a  nice list going, as well as your suggestion) and I’m a current member of the Atlanta Writer’s Club, but have been lax in going to the meetings. They have really great workshops as well, perhaps I'll sign up for one or two.

Thank you again for the course and your guidance,

CJ