Comments on Chapter 6: Dialogue and Scene

I will admit that of all the areas of writing covered thus far, it is in the area of dialogue that I felt I needed the most help. The books view of dialogue being easy due to our having done it all of our life was reassuring. The book does a good job of going through all of the little administrative problems that writers (such as myself) will likely run into. What I am referring to in administrative problems are the uncertainty of how to deal with dialect, slang, cursing, accents, and tone of voice. I believe that the book could have put a little more emphasis on the importance of visual data in everyday interactions. There is a reason why they have an application when someone sends a text, to add in some kind of facial expression along with the actual message itself, and this reason is that we rely on visual data to help interpret the meaning we think the other person holds when uttering a certain statement or phrase. The scene portion of the chapter did favor my way of thinking about how I write. The scene providing the overview or big picture than one knows contains all the elements that are necessary for the advancement of the story. There has to be a framework in which a character exists and interacts. A scene is where a plot is realized. The book goes into different kinds of scenes, but the overall purpose of a scene is still where and how the story is experienced.