Stylizing Dialogue

Agree with FiBlue and flopsy. There are better ways to describe the emotional content that the speech conveys, and putting sound effects in the dialog just looks amateurish to me. That said, I've been guilty of that in the past myself, but now at least I know better.

I actually did this a bit in my early stories, especially during spanking scenes, along with onomatopoeia. I have tried to edit all of it out before submitting them to the library, but some could have slipped through. My lazy, bad habit now is over-using ellipses. It's just so darn easy...

I don't think I am guilty of using extended phonetics but I should be shot for the amount of ellipses I use. I feel like I want to use them in every other sentence and have to make a concerted effort not to use them. They're just so handy for indicating pauses in speech. And let's face it, natural speech is full of pauses.

But now I know how irritating it is...I will stop doing it...so much!!!

Shot? I, personally would rather be spanked for it... And, if that is the result, I guess I'll have to keep doing it.

Yes! It's bad enough when used repeatedly, but when it's the wrong letter being drawn out that's even worse! And I agree that it's generally bad form to emphasize dialogue like that, as well as include endless SMACK's and OW's.

I actually find it interesting to read older works by some established authors here and then compare those to their more efficient use of dialogue and description as they have matured as writers (not mentioning any names!) I know that personally, my earlier stories are certainly not as 'lean' in dialogue as my later ones.

As a little sidetrack whilst I disapprove of extending letters I find I want to write dialogue as people actually speak, so this includes shortening words, not using properly formed sentences etc. and I do want to indicate the pace of the speech and to be constantly explaining how words were spoken seems to be too much telling and not showing. Therefore you will find the dreaded ellipsis to show those places when the characters can't think what to say or they pause for dramatic effect

This is very true. "I ain't got none." This is perfectly fine for some characters who may be very intelligent or dumber than a box of rocks.


Me, too. I think the story comes off better than trying to embellish the story with twenty five cent words unless once again, you're dealing with a very intelligent character.

I'm okay with drawing things out in dialogue. Sometimes something can be read in many different ways - it's often a chore to wait until the "how she said it" part to see how you were meant to read it.

"Wait! No!" Jenny wailed as the hand crashed down.
"Wait! Noooo!" Jenny wailed as the hand crashed down.

The second sentence comes closer to capturing the sound of the words, giving you an idea that she's wailing before you read the word "wail". It's breaking some of the rules of English to tell a better story, and isn't the story the point of it all?

Goodgulf

I tend to agree with what Goodgulf says, as long as you're not doing it all the time and only to emphasise certain key points, and personally I'd prefer that than multiple exclamation points or interrobangs (an interrobang is a ? and ! combined).

Seegee

Do you mean an actual interobang (‽) or just this ?!