Authors... How Do You Write?

Dialogue allows us to show different pov's without having to actually narrate from those different pov's.

I could not have written any of my tales and given the different pov of each character without the use of dialogue.

The verbiage needed to overcome a lack of dialogue would have sunk every single one of them. And, IMHO, the reader really needs to understand how the different characters are reacting to the unfolding tale from their respective viewpoints for the reader to understand, and enjoy, what is going on.

I guess you don't like plays very much then, do you?

I think dialogue, when properly written, significantly speeds up the reading, as opposed to a few paragraphs of exposition, which slow it down. Most authors I read tend to intersperse more dialogue into their stories when they want to increase the pace of a story; conversely, they tend to slow it down by writing more descriptive text.

With regard to dialogue and the way to write it to tell a story, I heartily recommend 'Shorts Story' by ruegirl.

There's hardly a complete or grammatically sound sentence issuing from anyone's mouth and yet it works brilliantly.

Dialog is good, it brings the characters to life and moves the story along. But it creates a problem that I see fairly often and that is the phenomenon of "talking heads". A story must paint a word picture to be effective and without some exposition, mere dialog can be too dry. The reader needs to see the characters, to visualize the scene. So with dialog include facial expressions, body language, movement, setting.
Like this:
He frowned and jumped off the fence slapping his hands on his jeans, raising dust. "I told you not to ride him."
She bit her lower lip, worried, as he approached. "I thought it would be ok," she said, backing up.
"What did I say I'd do?" He was rolling up his right sleeve.
She looked around, panicked. "You wouldn't dare."

Now imagine that exchange with nothing but the dialog. What you have there are just talking heads and you can't see what is happening. Just a tip.

Including information on tone can also help. For example:
"What did I tell you would happen if you did that?" David roared.
"What did I tell you would happen if you did that?" David smirked.
"What did I tell you would happen if you did that?" David whispered gently.
"What did I tell you would happen if you did that?" David chided.
"What did I tell you would happen if you did that?" David said, his eyes full of promise.
"What did I tell you would happen if you did that?" David said, his eyes cold as ice.
"What did I tell you would happen if you did that?" David said, his lip twisting in a sneer.
"What did I tell you would happen if you did that?" David said, licking his lips suggestively.
"What did I tell you would happen if you did that?" David asked disapprovingly.
"What did I tell you would happen if you did that?" David asked laughingly.
"What did I tell you would happen if you did that?" David asked sorrowfully as he picked up the dreaded paddle.
"What did I tell you would happen if you did that?" David asked sorrowfully as he lowered his jeans and bent over the bed.

The same question, different ways of asking it. Some of the tones imply good times, some of them harsh discipline, and others... With some of the others you need more context to know what the tone means. The last two have the same tone (disappointment, regret), but the added action give them completely different meanings.

Dialogue is the often the best way to show, not tell.

For example, which sounds better?
After catching me smoking again, my husband David reluctantly used that awful paddle on me. While the paddle was failing I was sure that I would never smoke again. Afterwards, God did I need a cigarette.

Or

As the door opened I turned, staring like a deer in the headlights. There was my husband David looking at me and there I was with a cigarette in my mouth. Smoking, after I promised to quit. After I forced David to promise to help me quit. He hadn't wanted to, I had been forced to drag that promise from him. But since David was a man of his word I knew what was coming next. What had to come next.
"What did I tell you would happen if you did that?" David asked sorrowfully as he picked up the dreaded paddle.
I swallowed hard. With in minutes I was crying and promising never to smoke again. And I meant it - at least while the paddle was falling. Later, after David left, I banished my tears with a good smoke.


Both selections of text impart the same information - wife caught smoking, husband David reluctantly paddling her for it, she doesn't stop smoking (implying that she will be paddled again). The gist of the two are the same, but in the first selection I just told you that David was reluctant while in the second I showed you. I used dialogue and the narrator reminded the reader that David didn't want to paddle her but he was a man of his word who felt that a promise was a promise. Reading just the first section, the reader might doubt that David was all that reluctant to paddle his wife. Reading the second section, it's much cleared that he doesn't want to do it but feels that he must.

There are many "Show, don't tell" tricks out there, but dialogue (combined with tone) is one of the easiest to use.

Goodgulf

This is a very interesting thread, but I notice that almost all the discussion refers to writing tips that would be true of any kind of writing. NJRick made a good point a while back when he commented that the Big Three list — plot, character, dialogue — leaves out a key ingredient: spanking. A spanking story is a particular sort of problem and aims for a different kind of effect than other forms of fiction. If handled well, plot, character and dialogue (I side with those who value dialogue) can all enhance a spanking story, as they can any sort of story — but only up to a point. I'm not sure if everyone will agree with me on this, but I think a spanking story is primarily about providing the fictional circumstances that will trigger an erotic response in the spanking-oriented reader. Although skillfully executed plot, character and dialogue can aid in that goal, it's possible for a story to be so well written that it doesn't work as a spanking story. Sometimes the plot can be too intricate, the characters can have too much depth and the small talk can provoke the kind of irritation that Goodgulf noted.

Granted, when spanking fiction is bad, it's more often bad because it lacks convincing plot, character and dialogue, not to mention even the basic rudiments of grammar and punctuation. But take, for example, the movie and story of Secretary. The movie is beloved by many spanking fans. The story by Mary Gaitskill that it is adapted from, however, while arguably a superior work of fiction, is so disturbing in its psychological realism that it is far less satisfying as spanking fiction. Her characters are too well realized to serve simply as triggers for the spanking aficionado. Her plot is so faithful to her themes and to the murkiness of life that a spanking fan may well feel the story is kind of a bummer.

For me, the spanking scenes themselves are the hardest to write, because it is so hard to find ways to make them fresh and unlike a thousand other spanking scenes. I conceive of spanking stories the same way nonwriters conceive of them: I fantasize them. And then I try to construct the plot, characters and dialogue that will connect the dots and bring my fantasy to life. But not so close to life that I miss the point.

Michael

I agree with this, in some instances. I've read great works of fiction on here - fantasy, historical fiction, romance, drama - that just had a random spanking scene in them. In some cases, the spanking actually does a disservice to what should have been a great, non-kinky story.

Well, AFAIC there are 'spanking stories' which are centered on the spanking(s) involved in them.

Then there are stories that focus more on non-spanking themes but in which the spanking action is still a fairly important plot element that helps advance the story line.

Finally, there are stories in which a spanking reference or two has been 'thrown in,' but which would actually work as well--or even better--without the incidental spanking action.

I'd venture that both of the first two types belong in this Library, while the last type arguably doesn't--however, which category a particular story falls into may well be debatable... --C.K.

I wonder if Mdare could cite any examples specifically this on this board. Potentially, I guess I could be guilty since in most of my stories I use what I call an "external plot", i.e., a storyline not related to spanking per se. In this type of story spanking occurs because of the characters, the culture, or the specific situation. For example "Retribution" and "Palm Springs" are crime dramas. In both spanking is a sub plot. In "Menace from Mongo", a sci-fi epic, it's the culture. In "It's About Time" , a time travel fantasy, the situation (girls school employs CP) dictates the heroine's fate.

I don't know if anyone has written anything here like "Secretary" and I'd agree that it would be a disappointment to most readers of this board because it contains too much irrelevant meandering and fails to deliver at the crucial action sequence. You might win the Pulitzer with that masterpiece, but on this board readers are likely to give it thumbs down.


SNM and I have had this conversation and while I don't necessarily agree, I see his point. But Random? Random? Really?

Now this point really interests me. Even excluding the different genres M/Fetc; domestic; romantic judicial; gentle, romantic, erotic, harsh; there are essentially two different types of story on this board,ie the short to the point stories which exist solely to illustrate/justify a spanking, and those which are longer, try to develop characters and in which the spanking is still an essential ingredient but which takes up very little of the story.
I generally much prefer the latter, but this is not to decry the former as it is a skill I find very hard to master, and I don't really enjoy writing to a set number of words.
As to my own means of writing: First an idea comes along, then when out dog-walking I enlarge upon it. If it's any good then as I walk at least twice a day then I build on it, and if I think it's woth it then I start to write it.
Many soon fall by the wayside, but some go to fruition. Surprisingly nearly all my stories satrt life as a 2to3K word stand alone, but if I get into them the they either race along to about 20K-Ashfield Grammar, Birchaven, The Rattan Woman, each gathering momentum and the characters really coming alive in my head and going their own way. The extreme example of this was Zireska, starting life as a short fairly typical judicial, and ending up after 4 years at 30k, with prob 6+K to come.
None of my works would ever have seen the light of day if I hadn't chanced upon the dear late Alex Birch's Flaming Cheeks website.
I emailed off line in great trepidation before I put my first work out and I was literally trembling with anxiety when I pressed the send button.
Where I get my style from is a mystery, being a scientist/manager I was far more used to writing letters and reports, and hadn't tried any fictional essays for over forty years.
I've read a lot, but mainly middlebrow stuff, and before retirement most of my reading was in the holidays.
I won't draw any conclusions as none of our stories are ever likely to be properly reviewed, on this board if you like it it's good to you and if you don't you read another author or genre- on this board it is impossible to be universally liked.