Avoiding FeaturelessPlaneOfDisembodiedLanguage

I discovered that I have a little trouble with this trope. I tend to describe the place where a conversation occurs only when people reach the place for the first time or when a relevant change happens.

My biggest problem is finding interesting features in the place to interrupt the dialogue every now and then with, and figuring out how often I should do it.

Edit: ... Aaaand I messed up the title. Great. Help?

edited 8th Aug '11 7:39:41 PM by Teraus

The easiest way I've come to avoid that is simply injecting details into the conversation at hand. Actions going on, changes happening around them, details about the scenery or area that weren't glanced over in the first description (usually relating to a character doing something or noticing something s/he previously didn't notice.), stuff like that.

It livens up conversation and when I've read conversations that do that (mine or anyone else's) it tends to draw me in more.

Try to picture the action in your head, then write that picture. I know that sounds terribly generic, but it really does seem to be the best way to do it.

Reactions are your friend. People wave their arms around and bump them into things (or avoid bumping into things with them), have to sit down, etc.

edited 8th Aug '11 8:40:54 PM by Night

People do things when they talk, so describe their mannerisms, hand gestures, little quirks, etc. It really helps is feel like there's actually two people talking instead of... well, you know, the title.

To me, it just looks very wrong to have simple dialog ping-ponging back and forth; I need some sort of dialog tag. But I avoid plain two-word dialog tags like the plague (they're boring, and don't really add anything); in fact, most of the time I don't even use 'said' or any synonym, but mention a character doing something as he speaks. When it's working well I really like the effect, but it can be hard to write.

I sort of do the contrary. I have a little trauma with Said Bookism, so I often use as little description to their actual dialogue as possible. I'll try to add more physical descriptions, though.

Yeah, Said Bookism is clumsy. I tend to avoid the dialog tag altogether, unless there's more description associated. Tends to be of the form

"Dialog," said Character, doing something.

or

Character did something. "Dialog."

where what's being done is usually some nonverbal mannerism that contributes to the flavor of the conversation.

I get a lot of mileage out of the second one there (Character did something. "Dialogue"). I get sick and tired of seeing "said", and I had a horrible experience with Said Bookisms in my youth, but that particular formula never really grates on me.

edited 8th Aug '11 9:02:30 PM by nrjxll

I only use "said" when it's really not obvious that that specific character is saying it.

Body language. It's an important part of social interaction in real life, so you shouldn't leave it out of dialogue.