FF: Shoe Shopping

[quaggy_mire]

Title: Shoe Shopping 
Category:  "Post-Ep" for Take This Sabbath Day
Disclaimer: I do not own The West Wing or any West Wing characters.
Rating: G
Notes: Sometimes someone can inspire you without saying a word.  I was thinking about a proper birthday gift for

Comments

[bexatious]

Nice!

I adore fics with nothing but dialogue. I can picture them myself without having to read author descriptions.

[quaggy_mire]

Thank you!! I love writing pure dialogue fics, even though it's been a while since I actually have. They're a lot of fun and surprisingly fast to write! I can struggle for weeks with my description-heavy fics. This was such a nice change of pase!

[bexatious]

When I write, J & D just talk to me, they never really provide details and I have to fill that in. So many of my fics take forever because I have to add all the other things myself.

[quaggy_mire]

That is how it starts, isn't it? When you write dialogue that you realize will not make any sense without putting it into context. Dialogue comes pretty easy for me too, but the details is whole other problem. For me, it's trying to find the right words and include the right amount of detail so that other people won't be confused that takes the most time. I know what I want to say... but actually saying it is a different story.

[bexatious]

Sometimes though I can write nothing but decription because J&D are giving me their thoughts and so I don't need to write words, I can write actions. But either way, I'm pretty certain that most everyone can figure out who is saying what by the way they are saying it. Josh is oft whiny, Donna is oft patiently snarky.

I really am insane.

[quaggy_mire]

No, you really aren't! :-)

I agree with what you're saying. I have never got confused about who was speaking when I was reading one of your fics. You have a clear understanding of what their distinct voices sound like and it shows. I worried that they sounded too much the same in my earlier fics (or maybe they both sounded too much like me.) For this fic I was more concerned about alluding to the action going on without actually have to break the dialogue for discription.

[bexatious]

Best thing to help the stupid people reading is to, every few sentences, just add the name of the other person.

But Donna's tends to speak in longer sentences while Josh doesn't - he really only speaks for a long time when he rants or is depressed. Donna is also very explanatory about everything while Josh is like bang bang bang that's it. Unless of course he's explaining something for the benefit of stupid American viewers Donna. Then he does talk for awhile but it's easy to pick him when he does that.

I really think about these things too much you know.

[quaggy_mire]

Yes, I've done the name thing. I've noticed that Josh tends to be more casual in his word choice. I think I can get away with more... flowery language from Donna. (Though I did have Donna use the phrase "knocked up" once, so go figure.) And Josh is almost always the first one to startt swearing! Just stuff I noticed the more I write for them!

[bexatious]

She is more flowery! Josh is just too lazy to go into detail with anything unless he's losing his shit. I've never heard Donna even say the word ass onscreen but I've had her saying a few choice words in my fics.

I think Donna would say knocked up. She's also quite trashy sometimes (but only in the good way).

[quaggy_mire]

Oh there is plenty that we have never heard Josh and Donna say thanks to American tv standards and prectices that I'm SURE are a regular part of their vocabulary. And you can't tell me, for all of his love of words, that Toby doesn't have a potty mouth!

And I have to say... Josh didn't object to Donna's phrase... though that could have been more to do with where she had positioned herself!

[caz963]

I've never heard Donna even say the word ass onscreenOh yes she did!! In Angel Maintenance. Josh nearly chokes on a bottle of water when she says "You know what gripes my ass?" and then proceeds to complain about being an "also dead - Diane Moss."
But yes, clearly these people must have a more... extensive vocabulary than we've actually seen!

[quaggy_mire]

I would think with all the stress they were under, they would have to!

[elinorigbe]

Just stumbled upon this, and so enjoyed watching you two pros discuss process! Great insight into how you do what you do so very well.

and the fic's not bad, either!

[quaggy_mire]

Thank you! For both compliments! :-P