How do I avoid purple prose or sounding too pretentious? Also, how do I write convincing dialogue? I find it hard to visualize how people have normal conversations since I'm kind of a social autist myself. What can I do to fix these problems?
just BEE yourself op
>>8055932
You're fucked, if you can't draw from experience and observations then your not thinking. Asking someone to help you with conversations is like asking someone to be your friend. You can't get help like that. Consider thinking about experience and conversation.
>>8055932
By pounding loads and loads of audience pussy. If they like your "depth" in a sexual way, they won't accuse you of being pretentious.
This is what "paying your dues" as an author really means; laying prodigious amounts of pipe.
fuck "convincing" dialogue.
Your characters should say exactly what they're suppose to say. You invented these people so you ought to know them down to their essence. If you don't know your own characters that well then your story is already going to be D.O.A.
There's nothing wrong with being literary or ornate in your language. What you need to do is make sure the style you are using as a narrator makes sense and helps tell the story.
It can be easy to forget that you are not the narrator and it/he/she is also a character within the story. Once you have an idea of the tone you are trying to create and who the narrator is, you can make rules for your writing.
Perhaps they wouldn't use metaphors or very long sentences. If you're writing about a 20-year-old college student in 2016 then pompous English might be inappropriate. Even if you just want to avoid doing something making a conscious rule that you try to follow can help you a lot.
When it comes to specifically purple prose what you need to do is make sure that there is a point to everything you write. No matter how small. If it's not telling the story (by advancing the plot, creating atmosphere, giving necessary detail etc.) then it should be cut. Focus especially on descriptions and metaphors. If a metaphor tells the readers something that can be conveyed with ease non-metaphorically then you should try to.
>>8056003
Yeah, I guess I fall into that problem sometimes, however, I do think one of my problems is that my sentences are overloaded in their description, and because of that it ends up sounding like i'm simply adding a lot of pretentious filler. Definitely something to fix and work on. Thanks.
>>8056006
No prob. DFW knew the score. That's how he got so famous. But drowning in audience pussy is a very demanding lifestyle and he just couldn't take it, so it's not for the faint of heart.
>>8055932
match style with content. if you can't do it right away, puke out a first draft get some raw material, evaluate what you have, what lives on the page, create the style to suit your raw material, where your story/piece is going. do that like 6 times
dialogue has nothing to do with IRL social interaction at all so you are fine there. the post about drawing from real life is half right, you can draw on real life but it needs to be dramatized and made into literature. that is the skill needed far more than a wealth of personal experience. flannery o'connor said if you had a childhood, you have material enough
>>8055932
Read Strunk & White. Specific advice from an external source can help you establish some good habits and also form your own idea of what makes good writing. Also see:
>>8055975
There are a lot of answers you have to find for yourself. It may seem like discouraging/useless advice, but you'd be surprised at how much you can learn just looking at your writing and figuring out what's wrong with it on your own.
Also, you can start by removing redundancies from you writing. When you said "purple prose or sounding too pretentious," you could've just said "purple prose" or "sounding pretentious." You've gotta fight your natural instinct to stick cool sounding words/phrases anywhere they will fit and instead focus on communicating your ideas effectively. Here, you just wanted to ask how to avoid sounding pretentious, but you threw in the redundant phrase 'purple prose' for no reason. This slows the reader down, and over the course of many sentences, they'll lose interest entirely.
>>8056006
>my dialogue wasn't very 'convincing', and 'nobody would actually talk like that in real life'
I'd love to see some examples of this if you don't mind, OP. Either greentext or pastebin is fine. I've never read anything that has struck me as "unconvincing dialogue" and I'm interested in what that apparently is.
>>8057548
Whatever you do, ignore this fag. He'll have you writing like an effete little schoolgirl.
>>8056006
>people told me when I showed them my work was that my dialogue wasn't very 'convincing', and 'nobody would actually talk like that in real life'.
in real life, nobody would actually tell you that your dialogue wasn't very 'convincing'.
tell them to go fuck themselves.
convincingly.
also, I'd bet that whoever you showed your work to was a theatrefag, and not a novelfag?
>>8058391
I'll go ahead and bump my own post and truly hope that OP delivers.
Now that I've had some time to think about it, maybe the only way you can make a dialogue "unrealistic" is to have them answer in short, one or two worded sentences without any personality in either their verbal or physical patterns.
>>8058410
>strunk&white
>effete
Because encouraging minimalist, to the point writing, is the territory of women.
>>8059612
It is when you're advocating for it on the basis of not overwhelming your readers. That's the most effeminate concern you can have as a writer.
>>8059612
Hemingway was a manchild (woman) so yes
>>8059654
It's useful to learn different styles of writing; that's all. Especially for people who are inexperienced and need a blueprint of some sort for how a particular style can be achieved.
>>8055960
Underrated post.
Dialogue doesn't really have to be realistic. I think it more so just has to be "reasonable", that is, when presented with a situation do the characters asks things that make sense to ask, and things such as that?
"Realistic" dialogue is boring, neither movies or books really have it. People want meaningful statements and memorable conversations.
>>8055932
>Also, how do I write convincing dialogue? I find it hard to visualize how people have normal conversations since I'm kind of a social autist myself
Go to a bar or pub, get some beer and just chill and listen to the people around you. Early afternoon is a good time to catch people having actual conversations and being laid back, later in the evening it will be inane drunken yelling mostly.
>>8055932
>not being so purple with your prose it turns crimson and everyone who reads it isn't sure whether you're a hack or a genius
>>8055960
I've yet to understand this overused meme.
Is BEE a reference to the author, Bret Easton Ellis? Or has the joke gone over my head entirely?
>>8063606
It's some /r9k/ shit. I think it's supposed to be a joke about how robots are told to "be themselves" to be more sociable and/or get laid.
>>8063614
Huh,
Did not realise /r9k/ browsed this board, but I suppose some /pol/acks do, too, and they're somewhat similar in their perspective of the world.
Thanks for clearing that up for me, anon.
>>8056003
>you are not the narrator and it/he/she is also a character
Good to keep in mind. Thanks anon
>>8057548
This is a good post
