300 Posts in 300 Days

Well, kind of. I actually missed that day so it's 302 posts in 302 days instead.  In the last 100 I tried writing a fiction story but it didn't get any comments.  Maybe I'll try a different style story later on.

Not sure if I'll keep doing this daily once I hit the one year mark, but I'm committed to that much anyway and will definitely post more frequently than I did before I set this challenge up for myself. It might be fun to keep this going until December 31 because at an average of a post a day this would be one of the few years that I could do 366 posts.  I welcome suggestions in terms of what people would like to see more or less of in this blog.  I also welcome being reminded of any anecdote I may have forgotten over the years.  It's definitely been an interesting challenge.  Writer's block has definitely become more common during the third 100 than during the first two.  Happily I still have trip reports which include long forgotten details that I can adapt.  Unfortunately my letter writing to friends has slowed a bit because I often feel like I've written a letter after doing one of these; it may have alo affected some of my other fiction writing.  Recently though I've realized that these can be a tool for my letters, letting people I write to know there's a link if they want more details.

I do recommend people try this. It's an interesting exercise and I do recommend people try this or something like it.

So what are people's favourite and least favourite posts to date? If I notice a trend in people's interests I might gear the next few posts accordingly.  I'm particulary curious to find out what people thought of my post where I rolled the dice 100times. It was fun enough that I could see myself trying it again, but it it something that people would find interesting to revisit or is it a paint drying topic?  What about other posts?

200 Blog Posts in 200 Days

This is my 200^th post since I’ve attempted to do the blog more or less daily.  Obviously there’s no way to do this perfectly (I posted extra times prior to longer trips to keep up) but this is indeed my 200^th post in as many days.  It hasn’t always been easy to come up with things to say (one reason why I started going back to trivia lists and started reformatting some of my more interesting old e-mails such as trip reports).  Thankfully every so often some new oddball thing has come along to talk about and it’s been fun at times going back down memory lane whenever something jobs my nearly 41-year-old memory.  I do recommend people giving it a try. Certainly it keeps you on your toes if you have to come up with at least something to talk about every day for 200 days straight (or longer, since a full year has always been the main target).  My weekly fiction, a recent addition, will probably continue for now, if only because that way I only have to come up with non-fiction posts six times a week instead of seven.  Let me know how you’ve been finding these and if you have any suggestions.

A Few Thoughts of Dialogue in Writing

Many people recommend saying dialogue out loud when writing. You may or may not want to do exactly that (talking dialogue out loud can take time and possibly kill the momentum of writing the story/script) but at the very least you should imagine the dialogue in your head to ensure it sounds "right".

Note that I said "right", not "real". Oh, don't get me wrong: if you can make the dialogue sound real for the story you are trying to tell, you should. And certainly if a story is slice of life, that's the way to go. But remember that your primary goal when writing dialogue is to help create the world your character is inhabiting.

By way of example, if you're writing a Superman story, Superman is so larger than life that his words should have extra weight. If you go too real, you might lose the effect that this is the kind of guy whom other heroes are in awe of. Or if you're writing the script for a slasher flick, you might want to make the victims a bit one dimensional in their dialogue so that the reader doesn't wind up an emotional wreck from all the killings. If you're doing satire, the dialogue should should fairly real, but have a bit of an oomph to it so the reader/viewer realizes you're not being completely serious.

Don['t dumb down the dialogue for the masses but don't pepper the dialogue with some many in jokes or so many professional terms that only a tiny fraction of the audience understands what the hell the characters are saying.

Invariably your audience is going to miss/forget stuff, so find ways to have characters make references to past events while not being transparent about it. Maybe a character snaps at someone and then apologizes, mentioning that the earlier event has them on edge. If you can't make it work without seeming transparent, don't force it. Maybe the character needs to be in a different situation before they'd naturally talk about it.

Remember that body language is dialogue too. Consider this:
"Oh yes," she said, "I love you," as she gazed into his eyes.
Now this:
"Oh yes," she said, "I love you," she said. She grabbed a wine glass and threw it to the ground.
In the first case the dialogue is sincere, in the second case the exact same words are sarcasm.

At this point I shall say, "Adieu," but this is helping me formulate a few things in my head so don't be too shocked if there's more essays to come on dialogue and other aspects of storytelling. For now I want to conclude, make the dialogue real or not, but at least ensure the dialogue facilitates the characters' world.