From: BrendaWriter@yahoo.com   
      
   On 5/15/2014 3:33 AM, mumble wrote:   
   > On 05/14/2014 08:44 PM, Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor) wrote:   
   >> On 5/14/14 7:19 PM, Brenda Clough wrote:   
   >>> On 5/14/2014 7:19 AM, David Friedman wrote:   
   >>>> On 5/13/14 10:51 PM, C. E. Gee wrote:   
   >>>>> I've noticed, many writers have problems with dialog as they don't   
   >>>>> socialize with such people. Many writers graduate from college, then   
   >>>>> go on to fairly high-end careers, working with others of like   
   >>>>> backgrounds. And they socialize mostly with others of similar   
   >>>>> backgrounds.   
   >>>>>   
   >>>> I expect I've socialized with a fair range, given my SCA involvement. I   
   >>>> suspect the problem is that I don't have an ear for it, don't notice   
   >>>> and   
   >>>> remember how different people speak.   
   >>>>   
   >>>   
   >>>   
   >>> It is a mistake to model your dialog upon what you see on TV or in   
   >>> movies -- screenwriters get big money for writing that dialog, and it is   
   >>> not like life.   
   >>   
   >> And you don't want it like life, either. Real-life dialogue sucks.   
   >> A large portion of it is hesitations, rephrasings, self-correction, and   
   >> so on. It's not usually terribly witty, it's tremendously repetitious,   
   >> and rarely does it manage to address the information that should be   
   >> imparted in dialogue in a fashion that's coherent to the average   
   >> listener.   
   >   
   > I agree, real-life dialog is too heavily dependent upon the associated   
   > body-language, sights and sounds immediate to the location, and shared   
   > information to be meaningfully transcribed.   
   >   
   > At least the real-life dialog I'm involved in is... and sometimes even   
   > I'm not sure what the other half of it means; I might not constantly say   
   > "uh", but there's a high percentage of "huh?" and "you mean...?" with   
   > the occasional "WHUT?" thrown in.   
   >   
   > The goal seems to be creating something that works, not something that   
   > is precisely authentic, if you really want something precisely authentic   
   > you need a video camera and you need to recognize it as a "documentary".   
   >   
   > Maybe there is an occasional author who can write suitably "authentic"   
   > lifestyle-based dialog and pull it off without distracting from   
   > everything else, but I for one don't see it as a bridge that has to be   
   > crossed to get from hither to yon.   
      
      
   Yes yes, of course it is an illusion. And the stage makeup looks fakey   
   in daylight, but on the stage behind the lights it looks quite realistic.   
      
   I can do it -- shift voices between speakers. And vocabulary, and   
   cadence, and slang, yes, it all ccan be done. It helps if the speakers   
   are quite different, however -- time traveling British men versus modern   
   American women.   
      
   Brenda   
      
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