_Lynn_
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I'll have to look for some of the old threads on tags. The discussions had helpful information from what I recall.
And I'll go clean my eyeballs now so I read the next posts right.
On adverbs
- Thread starter SydneyBlake
- Start date
I'll have to look for some of the old threads on tags. The discussions had helpful information from what I recall.
And I'll go clean my eyeballs now so I read the next posts right.
sr71plt
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I'll have to look for some of the old threads on tags. The discussions had helpful information from what I recall.
And I'll go clean my eyeballs now so I read the next posts right.
This one isn't like the easier bad tags to pick out, e.g., "'I looked into the room and saw that he was wearing a dress,' he snickered."
This one's bad because you can't really say that phrase while snickering. At the minimum, you'd have to build in some . . . pauses to accommodate the physical needs of snickering.
On the "apologized" example, it's mostly that it's redundant, I think. "Sorry" is already an apology.
_Lynn_
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There are so many things to learn about writing -- and editing -- that I often feel as if I know nothing.
mynameisben
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On the "apologized" example, it's mostly that it's redundant, I think. "Sorry" is already an apology.[/QUOTE]
Not to mention it insults the intelligence of those readers who are already aware that it's an apology.
Not to mention it insults the intelligence of those readers who are already aware that it's an apology.
cocput
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Isn't the atmost-four-tagless-dialogue convention good enough for that?
I have been using that rule with algorithmic consistency now.
sr71plt
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I have no idea what that convention is. I don't use formulas for writing.
mynameisben
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God, I am such a HUGE fan of erotic computer code!
cocput
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Oh Ben!! stop poking fun. I am only a fucked up piece of code lying in the recess of forgotten storage tapes.
Derroreaper
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I believe it means never go more than four lines of dialogue without an identifier tag?
cocput
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Yes. Never go more than four lines, if you are not addressing the other person in the conversation. But even then, just drop the tags. i read a corollary somewhere that if there was no need for a tag after 5 exchanges, then the conversation is mostly superfluous.
Check Charlie's Birthday Present by pop_54 for a story without tags involving 3 players. Of course, it was an academic exercise. But you can always make out who is talking. pop_.54 has one more story with just conversations. Millie's Valentine present. This one has more players. The first one is in incest category, the second in Loving wives.
--scorpio
cocput
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How long do you go before you start looking for an identification tag in mainline books?
Derroreaper
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I'm with Pilot on that one. Trying to find hard and fast rules to write by, in my opinion is a waste of energy.
mynameisben
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Learn the rules, know the rules, and then break the rules whenever your artistic sensibilities demand it. But know you are breaking the rules and know exactly why whenever you do.
sr71plt
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If you notice the identification tag in a mainline book, it's probably a problem. They are supposed to support understanding and flow while being invisible. So, I don't look for identification tags in mainline books. If I'm finding I'm looking for one, the book has failed for me.
cocput
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sr71plt
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They are there to maintain understanding and the flow of the read.
SydneyBlake
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Please continue the discussion about dialogue tags here:
http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?p=40622990#post40622990
Thanks.
I thought it important enough to start a new thread, since someone with questions about them won't necessarily look in a thread about adverbs.
http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?p=40622990#post40622990
Thanks.
I thought it important enough to start a new thread, since someone with questions about them won't necessarily look in a thread about adverbs.
J
JAMESBJOHNSON
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If you like schizophrenic word salad toss the rules overboard, by all means.
Forty years ago I read an amazing book about the nature of rules, and what I learned serves me everyday. The book is NEW THINK by Edward de Bono.
In a nutshell: Once you master the rules, learn the properties of things, then apply the rules to them. You quickly discover that many rules are conditional and limited; the stuff of clever story resolutions.
With this issue, I would take a stronger look at the voice rather than just the conventions. A narrating character's verbal ticks can be entirely apropriate in spite of our wanting to to clean them up.
Did anyone else start reading this thread and get School House Rock stuck in their head?
Did anyone else start reading this thread and get School House Rock stuck in their head?
mynameisben
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Probably. We're all a bunch of brain-washed lunatics over here. Would you be interested in purchasing a tuba filled with yak sperm?
elfin_odalisque
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Quite right.
They can be vital but never important in themselves. If so, don't they reduce the impact of the dialogue?
