My Book

[Dimness]

Hello. I'm in the middle of writing a book, and I'd like to use this thread to ask questions pertaining to certain difficulties I may have along the way concerning my writing.

Problem One:
Can you ever have too much dialogue?

I write very little in the way description as far as character clothing goes. I just can't bring myself to describe a chair a character sits in for two paragraphs.

Problem Two:
How do you describe faces?

 

[Stephen]

Originally posted by Dimness


Problem One:
Can you ever have too much dialogue?

I write very little in the way description as far as character clothing goes. I just can't bring myself to describe a chair a character sits in for two paragraphs.

I'm no expert on writing books, but IMO you should just write how you yourself feel comfortable with.

Elmore Leonard for example has written many novels and they are all dialogue heavy in some cases up to 90% dialogue. He says he likes to drive the story with dialogue, and uses very little discription.

In a way it's all down to personal tastes, some people like to be told everything and some people like to use there own imagination.

Hope this helps and good luck with your book

P.S. Here's elmore leonards web-site, on there is some tips for writing, they might be helpful.

 

[Dimness]

Thank you.

I just feel uncomfortable with using the same adjectives over and over. I'm pretty good with colors, and I'm okay with textures, but I'm horrid with shapes.

A thesaurus only goes so far.

 

[Dimness]

I have a new question. What's that part of the building that seperates the outside from the inside? What I mean is that whenever you walk into any building (eg. shopping mall), you're in this enclosed space before you proceed past another set of doors when you're finally inside the building.

 

[dheiner]

foyer? entryway?? lobby??? vestibule????

 

[TheDon]

if your stuck, this website is great

http://www.hatrack.com/writingclass/lessons/lesson03.shtml

 

[TravisNC]

Dimness, my question is this...do you want to change the way you write and add more descripton or are you asking if you should change your writing. Like it was mentioned, every writer has their own style and you should stick to yours. Hemingway was very limited when it came to description and terse in dialogue, Faulkner was the opposite, he offered lots of description and rambling sentences, Thomas Wolff went on for pages with description. Just write the way you're comfortable with. And antechamber is another word for the small room seperating the building from the street.