McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Daily Recommended Allowance for Dialogue in First Person Narratives.
Aminar:
--- Quote from: meg_evonne on August 24, 2012, 06:23:38 PM ---I'd say whatever feels right as you read it out loud.
Here's a cool way to track it though. Take your manuscript and high light all dialog one color. Then using another color highlight your narrative. Personally, I'd also highlight another color on action and high tension scenes because they help break up the flow considerably.
Then shrink your manuscript down, down, down. You'll get a visual check of what is what and how much each is. If you see tons of one color, better break it up. You might not have as much dialog as you think or you haven't spread it out.
This technique has proven invaluable for me. Let me know if you give it a try and what you find out by doing so.
--- End quote ---
I can see that being great, but man that is a ton of work...
Paynesgrey:
Just do a search for quotation marks. That'll cut the finding your dialogue way down at least.
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: meg_evonne on August 24, 2012, 06:23:38 PM ---I'd say whatever feels right as you read it out loud.
--- End quote ---
Presuming your dialogue's actually spoken; if the bulk of it is in email or chat clients, the rhythms might be slightly different. (This is one of the technical contexts in which Homestuck fascinates me, for example.)
meg_evonne:
What you can learn from the shrunken manuscript is invaluable. I can't tell you how the visualization solved some flow and edit problems in past works. The color highlighting doesn't lie. You can't get wrapped up in your 'feeling' on what's happening to actually seeing it in technicolor.
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