/lit/ - Literature

>>16188241
Shakespere.

those are called plays

>>16189135
>>16189136
Sure, but I can't exactly use much of what I've learned from shakespeare in my sci-fi fantasy novel

>>16189160
It worked with Proust for Wolfe

>>16189160
You can. Some of the greatest stories follow old formulas. Star Trek TNG was set up to basically be ships on the sea, but in space. You can take elements from Shakespeare and apply it. Take a look at any space opera.

>>16189177
Another example that just came to mind. King Arthur was a big influence for Warhammer 40k (at least the Horus Heresy part). Take a look at the lore on the wikis and tell me you don't find many similar themes just reimagined.

>>16188241
The Recognitions

>>16188241
Journey to the end of the night
Death on the installment plan
Nothing can compete

>>16188241

The dialogue in almost any good book will be good, so you need to be more specific. I'm guessing you want books with a lot of a certain sort of dialogue.

>my sci-fi fantasy novel
Not specific enough. Is it comic or serious? Do you want it to sound like modern idiomatic, slangy English, or deliberately, archaic, or deliberately "other-worldly"?

Great dialogue flows from great characterization. Hard to help you with that. If you just want to try to avoid sounding stilted, then I would recommend reading good film scripts. Failing that, plays.

If you're really interested only in novels, then try "hard-boiled" writers, like Dashiell Hammett or Elmore Leonard. These tend to focus on external events rather than delving into the minds and hearts of the characters, so the dialogue has to be good, because it carries a lot of weight.

Alternatively, look for modern novels written in the first person. Often they sound like the narrator actually speaking to you, the reader, so you get basically a whole book's worth of pure dialogue. (Catcher In The Rye is a good example.)

>>16189177
Maybe for plot, but not for dialogue

J R

>>16188241
My diary desu

>>16189325
>Not specific enough
I'm not exactly sure yet which way I want to go. I want it to be quite readable and "fun", but I also have a decent amount of "lore" (for lack of a better term) that I want to build out through dialogue in addition to prose.
My main character is a researcher on what can best be described as an archeological expedition. He needs to sound smartish while also obviously having room for growth and character development as he goes about his journey.
>Great dialogue flows from great characterization.
This might be part of what I'm missing. While I have a mental image of who I'm trying to portray, I haven't really made it concrete. Initially I was hoping the characters would reveal themselves to me as I wrote but I feel that might not work. Even then though I think it's still only part of what I'm missing. I can't seem to get it to flow in a way that doesn't sound like a bad script to a b-grade movie or student film.

>>16188241
The ones with people talking

>>16189388

>While I have a mental image of who I'm trying to portray, I haven't really made it concrete.
Imagine they are going to film your book. Who would you want playing the MC?

If you hear the dialogue in a specific voice that might help a bit with the concreteness thing. Make the lines sound cool when he says them.

>>16189561
This is helpful, many thanks

>>16188241
Anything by Oscar Wilde

>>16188241
moby dick

>>16188241
Gass and Barth

>>16188241
Hemingway and Camus.
>which ones
Yes

George Higgins' The Friends of Eddie Coyle is about 80% dialogue, and the dialogue is great.

The book had a huge influence on Elmore Leonard -- essentially showed him a new approach to fiction writing.

>>16189136
I am holding a copy of Shakespeare's collected plays in my hand. It is a "book[] with great dialogue."

>>16188241
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (especially the dinner argument early on) and Ulysneed