Just Talkin'
So, the main reason I'm not blathering here much is because I've taken my blather elsewhere. And when it comes to longer blather, well, I'm trying to blather out an entire novel. No, it's not any kind of NaNoBlahBlah thing, but... I have an idea, I'm gonna try to make it happen. At the moment, I seem to be averaging about 500 words a night, at best, and then once the story is laid down there will be a long period of editing and fixing all the stupid parts and whatnot.
Also, I find writing dialog easy. I enjoy reproducing the way people talk. But I find dialog in prose difficult - stuff like when do you put in a "she said" or a "he whined." I mean shouldn't the dialog just show who said what? But of course that's tough, and when you get more than 8 or 9 lines in of quoted dialog it's easy to get lost. For instance, imagine this conversation between a bus driver and a passenger:
"Good morning," said Bob, as he stepped onto the bus.
"Morning to you too, Bob," answered Mamie, as she said every morning.
"Seems like a good morning."
"It does, doesn't it?"
"Have you been watching these crazy debates?"
"Oh no, I just can't stand those Republicans."
"Ha! I don't blame you, but I guess I feel like I ought to keep an eye on the other side just in case."
"That's a pretty good point, I hadn't thought of it like that!"
"Sometimes I feel like it doesn't make any difference anyway, though."
"I know what you mean."
"You know what, though?
"What?"
"No matter who wins, you and I will both be here on this bus tomorrow, right?"
"You are so right!"
So who said the last line? You can count back and figure it out, but... that's not something you should have to do in a book. Indeed, if you do have to, I submit to you that the author has screwed up. When you're writing a screenplay, or even a regular play, it's a lot easier.
Anyway, the point is, I probably will continue to not be around here much. But I wanted to write about the difficulties I'm having in writing.