/lit/ - Literature

Try reading drama.

try talking to people

>>5888763
Malazan Book Of The Fallen
Especially some of its use of epigraph.

>>5888780
>use of epigeraph

Forgive me if I'm wrong here, but where exactly in MBoTF is epigraph used, ever?

Admit to yourself that it is a fabrication, perhaps.

Wilde's dialogue is excellent because he does exactly that, I think. (Also because he was gay lol)

A Confederacy of Dunces has good dialogue, at least realistic dialogue.

>>5888853
textual examples?

>>5888831
...are you serious? Or do you mean dialogue?

>>5888860
Well seeing as this thread is about dialogue; yes, dialogue. I can't remember Erikson using epigraph in dialogue let alone how he possibly could.

Talk to people, listen to people.

Love people, love their flaws and mannerisms and confusion. Learn to see their differences. Don't do it in a cold mechanical way unless you want cold mechanical dialogue, dive into it with emotion.

When writing it, be careful not to polish the speech itself. What I mean is that you can work on dialogue to flow best within your text, avoiding pace issues or giving the reader a good amount of information, but be careful not to work too much on the dialogue and make your characters stale, as if they were themselves thinking hard on each word to say. It is better for a dialogue to miss some work from you than it would be if you exagerated on it. It's a challenge to our perfectionism, to let it flow as it is, to allow the characters to make mistakes and speak from the heart as well as the head. After you write a dialogue, let it seat for a day, then speak the words out loud and even record it and listen to yourself talking.

Watch Coen brothers movies.

>>5888867
Oh, sorry - I meant dialogue-as-epigraph, just as a selection.
I mean, usually it's poetry or straight quotation, but every now and then it's dialogue (and is great)
Case in point (also the only example I can provide since it's the only one I have with me); 'Conversations of War' from GotM Chapter 10, I'm sure there are others in later books though.

Check em

>>5888887
Damn lol

>>5888885
Oh! so you mean those little Poems/hymns/durges/excepts Erikson puts before each chapter? Sorry for my lack of understanding; it's been a long day.

>>5888883
I second this dude on the bit about flow; I think that's hugely important. Most people don't realise it, but there is rhythm in everything that comes of thought, and it is essential; but in your vanity, you might miss it, then merely grating on the mind of your reader. Really, every word flows from the next - words are not some stand-alone, godly entities; but residing in ordered time and space, expression as if a river meandering between them.

>>5888900
Yeah, those! No worries, understandable (I certainly could've been clearer)
They are great, though.

>>5888945
During my time reading the books I never actually stopped to read those poems. For one, poetry has never really worked with me for some reason, and two, I just wanted to get on with what happens next. Oh well.

>>5888777
hahaha