Here are the guidelines:
- Reading responses must be AT LEAST 200 words.
- Include your full name at the end of your comments. Unnamed comments will be deleted.
- From the "Comment As" drop-down menu, choose Anonymous, then click "Publish."
- Reading responses are due by midnight on the night PRIOR to our discussion of the required reading.
The chapter was really informative and gave good advice on how to properly use dialogue. The tip that stood out the most to me was about how to not use it as a narrative. A lot of the critiques that the students have been giving out have been about dialogue so hopefully people use this chapter to better their writing. One new idea that the chapter introduced to me was including gestures as a part of my dialogue. I found that really helpful and I will hopefully be able to use it successfully in my short story. I liked that LaPlante mentioned that dialogue does not have to be grammatically correct. That allows writers to have more creativity and add lib to it. I feel like when someone tries to make the dialogue proper it can take away and even change the way a character is perceived. I really liked the exercises that are included before the short story. I plan on trying them out. I kept getting lost in the story with all the dialogue. I kept finding myself going back and forth and having to re-read a lot so that way i could figure out who was speaking. At one point I had to write who was talking, and that really turned me off from the story. It took me longer to read it than I am happy to admit.
ReplyDeleteJessica Guzman
Chapter 8 covered the main topic of dialogue, and how it can be used in separate ways, which I hadn’t really considered until it was pointed out by this chapter. When reading I had to admit to myself that I rarely think up strategies on how each of my characters are supposed to talk in my stories. Typically when I write dialogue I just let the characters write themselves out, but after reading the chapter, I noticed some of the mistakes I was making when doing so. So in the end I at least learned some new tactics when writing.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to “Hills like White Elephants” it wasn’t hard to notice the way the dialogue was being used in order to convey the main issue in the story, all while never really saying anything about the “problem” the two characters (the american and the girl) were having. At least not blatantly anyway, since the story never really said what issue they were having, it only slightly hinted at it every so often.
All in all I have to say that I actually liked this chapter and short story. And It was pretty interesting as to how dialogue can be utilized in separate ways then just a simple conversation.
-Kathleen m. Salinas
I flipped my desk over after reading Chapter 8 about dialogue. I had to re-revise my piece once more, after a long night of changing a couple of paragraphs. But hey, that’s the what we do, if there is something off, you fix it and make it right (or until you have to return again and make it more “righter” than before).
ReplyDeleteThe whole chapter brings more insight on how to handle with dialogue. I did say dialogue was fairly easier to put down on paper, but the procedures and tips are to be followed. Obviously, you can’t put narrative within a dialogue as that would be cumbersome. This goes along with added facts, details, and talking about an existential topic. “What is life?! Why are we here!? Why did I leave the oven on!?” I’m happy to know that there were some great examples that LaPlante put. It a relief to know that I can use “I said; he said; she said,” as much as I want (sort of). It helps point on several unwanted items in my pieces, especially with the story I’m typing now.
“Hills Like White Elephants” was an okay read, with the dialogue getting confused in just one portion of interaction. I love this kind of back and forth interaction, where there are actions and you know who is talking to who. What got in a pickle was when the woman serving the beer comes in again on page 270 and what the man and daughter want. I thought they were all talking. I guess I lost track of who is speaking first and second. Other than that, the breaks between dialogue or the “silence” was well put, having us take in the setting using the what the character is seeing, such as in page 271 where the girl stands up and venture around the station after the man had spoken to her.
(What I was flustered about was the “A word about Attribution.” Don’t use words like growled… I used it, and I went back to scrap that word and do something else. No desks were harmed in the making of this response.)
Hector Dimas
When I read "Hills Like White Elephants" by Hemmingway first, I found it to be a little boring and confusing. The dialogue to me was very plain and flat out dry. It was a lot of "he said/she said" and I got tired reading it cause it felt very dragging. Everything is pretty much dialogue throughout the story which could've used more description of the bar, what they were wearing, if the girl was fidgeting with something, if the waiter gave them a certain look cause of their talking... something more descriptive on the way they talked or what they were doing as they did.
ReplyDeleteReading chapter 8 however, I realized some mistakes I've been doing when I'm writing with dialogue. In order for the dialogue to seem more realistic to the reader, the writer has to keep in mind they need to be short. Don't write word for word and there they may have 2-3 sentences explaining what was being said. Rather paraphrase between the dialogue on what the character is doing or looking like. Also keep the attributions simple by using the "he said/she said". Never use "said angrily" or "said happily". That is something I tend to do in my stories but found out to always keep it simple with just "said" but with the paraphrase of actions in between. The chapter provides some good examples on this. Another thing that I found out, was indicating pauses. If there is a pause between dialogues when characters are talking, the writer might want to indicate that so the reader can pick up on the tension the characters are having. What was also interesting was how todays writers suggest giving a character a certain accent or lisp to better identify them and add something different than the "perfect english character".
-Illiana Luna
Within LaPlante’s Chapter Eight, “He Said, She Said: Crafting Effective Dialogue”, we are show the various aspects of creating dialogue and told instances of where things can be applied and where they should be excluded. LaPlante explains that dialogue has certain roles to the story, such as moving the action forward and revealing things to the speaker. She also mentions that when adding certain aspects to dialogue, we need to make sure that the dialogue itself sounds and is believable. Certain aspects of things will not happen during believable dialogue, and when this occurs, the dialogue is weakened. One aspects she mentions that reached me on a personal level was the advice to not over use various ways to show the word “said”, as well as to add adjectives to it. Contrary to what I believed, she states that it is not bad to use the word “said” repetitively, and that it works better that using various variations.
ReplyDeleteErnest Hemingway's “Hills Like White Elephants” is an excellent example of all of which LaPlante has just told us. The two protagonists, the American and the girl, have a lengthy dialogue about a internal problem between the two. While the dialogue itself is various difficult to understand on the surface, it helps advance the story between the two as their dialogue furthers their own discussion. Eventually, near the end of their conversation, the two characters reach as solution as the girl proclaims that she is fine. While the whole piece was a bit confusing, the dialogue was an important aspect that helped the two characters reach a solution. Overall, the reading itself promotes the ideas that LaPlante brings forward, and those help the reader understand what occurred within Hemingway’s story.
David Leal
Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” is primarily made up of dialogue, not much to get in the way and fill your head with unecessary words, lengthy descriptions that add nothing to the story. It’s clean and concise and is able to get through to the reader within a small amount of lines. Laplante details, bullet by bullet what makes effective dialogue, referencing the story in its use of gestures that “inform the words spoken to such an extent that they can be considered extensions of the dialogue.” (261) It’s subtle, but precise; vague, but informative in its silences and interactions between characters we know nothing about other than that he is American and she is a girl and they are in Spain. The first paragraph sets the scene and leaves us there, stuck between the mouths of these two people.
ReplyDeleteWhat I found most interesting about the chapter was Laplante’s advisement against adverbs within dialogue. “Word choices and carefully chosen gestures can be much more effective than mere adverbs can be.” (260) Personally, I prefer a piece uncluttered of ‘substitutes” but I’m sure I’ve read many stories littered with them. What I don’t remember is whether or not it was necessary to the work or not.
Robin Turrubiates
LaPlante’s chapter on dialogue was very helpful, because while I like to believe I have a good grasp on writing dialogue, there are plenty of places where I struggle. I thought some of the points she made were interesting because she contradicted what I had been taught in previous English courses. Such as, in her sections titled A Word about Attribution. It had always been encouraged to substitute “said” for other actions, but LaPlante actively discourages it. One of the points I thought was one of the most important was “Dialogue is what characters do to one another.”, because every point she made in that section was very true.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, “Hills Like White Elephants” confused me so badly. I had no idea what was going on throughout the entire story. I couldn’t even gather what was going on from the dialogue, just that they started arguing. I feel like the American is probably moving the girl with him to America and they might be getting married???? But I could also be wrong. I don’t know if Hemingway wanted his dialogue to be vague and give away nothing plot-wise, he does give some insight as to the relationship between the American and the girl.
Ayesha Crutchfield
I really loved the way LaPlante presented her advice on dialogue in chapter 8, "He Said, She said: Crafting Effective Dialogue". The reason it was so insightful and easy to comprehend, to me, was because she tells us what to avoid rather than what to do. I think that gave the writer a less constricted and hardly vague vision on how to effectively create dialogue. What inerested me the most was the "gesture is a part of dialogue" section. I usually struggle with the in betweens' of my dialogue. When I go back and re-read my writing I always find that the characters are frozen in place as they speak and I tend to forget that in real life body gestures can speak a lot more than actual words sometimes, especially in scenes with conflicted characters. Subtext is also something I need to implement in my writing more often. I learned that it is more realistic for the character to not say what they really mean or to say it in disguised words and that it makes it more interesting to read something that doesn't outright tell the reader everything in such a direct manner.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants" was quite vague and confusing (which I'm pretty sure was purposefully written so), the dialouge was a great representation for the advice LaPlante incorporates in her chapter. It flowed smoothly when it was supposed to and was tense at the right moments. I enjoyed the back and forth between the American and the girl, as well as their repetitive answers to each other. I always try to avoid repetition of dialogue because it just sounds awkward and unrealistic when I write it, but the dialogue between them was very believable.
Diana Gonzalez
Chapter 8 is a very insightful chapter. I agree dialogue does a lot for a piece of writing. The most helpful piece of information for me that Laplante writes is how dialogue should not be used in cases when direct narrative can be used. She talks about how if a scene is empty, then no dialogue is required. If dialogue ends up being included it’s going to really bring the writing down. Dialogue should only be used to serve a greater purpose. Another super great thing is that she mentions that we should write “said” whenever we can. For a while I was scared of writing he said or she said because I felt I was being repetitive. Laplante says not to write synonyms to said like he squealed, or he smirked, etc. Instead stick to basic one like said, shouted, whispered, etc.
ReplyDeleteHemingway’s story was pretty great. Very interesting and dramatic. My take of the story was that it centered around a couple who was on their way somewhere, maybe they were travelling. The couple seems to be expecting a child, thus most of the dialogue revolves around this issue. I want to point out that this was well written given the fact that Hemingway never used the word abortion or baby. It is what is said in subtext that gets us to realize what’s going on. He makes great use of subtext from both characters. Hemingway literally used dialogue to give us a very dramatic and somewhat heartfelt story that addresses an issue that is in some cases very controversial.
Mykle Angelo
Chapter 8 has been one of my favorite chapters so far. I found the information in it to be very helpful for my writing. In my own experience I have found that I am one of those who does not prefer using “said” every instance of dialogue so the remedy I followed was one described within the chapter itself. I would find myself replacing “said” with “responded”, “replied” and etc. so I was excited to discover the much more advanced solutions to this issue that I have with “said”. My favorite discovery of the chapter was when LaPlante presented the dialogue from the assigned short story, “Hills Like White Elephants”. The way that Hemmingway incorporates the gestures of the characters as a part of their dialogue was a paradigm shifter for me. Up until now it had not occurred to me that body language should be as much a part of written dialogue as it is a part of our real life everyday speaking. That was probably my greatest takeaway from the chapter. Also the fact that dialogue should not be totally grammatical was a nice reminder of the notion of maintaining three-dimensional characters. It follows that a character from a poor socioeconomic upbringing should perhaps not speak with the eloquence of a well-studied rhetorician and I think that the dialogue the writer chooses to present does well in dressing the character for whom they truly are. This, coupled with the “never in a vacuum” material, in effect, could help produce a vivid and lifelike world that is occupied by a believable character in a breathing/organic world. The Hemmingway story as I mentioned before briefly was fantastic in applying gestures to the dialogue. I found it to be a great piece to attach to this chapter as it contained bits of all the elements LaPlante discusses.
ReplyDeleteAndres Trevino
For me, dialogue has always been difficult and I could never understand why it would never come out how I wanted it to. Chapter 8 did well to explain what dialogue is and isn't and in turn helped me realized where I was struggling. The advice of taking out the "said" and using the words being said to express the emotion was pretty solid, even if it should've been obvious to me at the start. I especially liked the mentions of gestures and how that's used to further convey the dialogue's message. Also, LaPlante mentions that dialogue is what characters do to one another and in thinking of a conversation as two character doing something to each other, I think it'll help me with my writing since it's easier to imagine what I want done.
ReplyDelete"Hills Like White Elephants" does well to show what LaPante was talking about in terms of dialogue, especially with the pauses. While the story and narrative doesn't fill in any of the holes, the dialogue takes over and in my take, I imagine the two are running into marital problems and just hanging onto their loosening marriage. I liked how Hemmingway didn't overload the reader with details or any outright situation, but made them invested through the dialogue.
- Georginia Ramos
Chapter Eight deliver us with viable information on how to create useful dialogue to keep the reader engaged. It addresses the many good uses of dialogue like story progression, revealing facts, or developing the character. On the other hand, it also shows how not to use dialogue which is beyond important. Using dialogue for description building, establishing facts, or intense thought is described as an absolute no. Also, a big plus to dialogue is the lack of grammar being included. Dialogue revolves around dialect, and how the character speaks. Therefore, if the character has a Southern drawl, then it would appropriate to use the word, “y’all.”
ReplyDeleteAs so the short story, Hills Like White Elephants, is completely engulfed by dialogue. I personally appreciate dialogue and often use it throughout my pieces, therefore appreciate Hemingway for doing the same. I like how the author uses dialogue blocks in which he engages in constant back and forth conversation. Once he establishes the scene and situation, the conversation still remains human and intriguing. Constant conversation, to me feels incredibly human, because when we usually have physical conversation, we are tied to that moment and dialogue, not what is essentially around us. Hemingway know how to create a flawless flow of dialogue within the story.
Pedro Trevino
Chapter 8 gave a lot of insight to the alternative uses of identifying “good dialogue” in text. I found the examples given in the chapter particularly useful as the examples were in abundance and did not require me to think up my own examples, but provided more than enough for the reader (in this case myself) to grasp LaPlante’s concept. “Placeholders” is a good tool that is useful in clear cut back and forth dialogue (267). I did appreciate the outline, on page 259, that gives specifics on the use of (or refrain from) dialogue in narratives and warns the writer of overuse of too much information in that context. As a writer, I often find myself unsure about the vehicle of deliverance of my information that this provided me great insight on how to not force the information I’m providing to the audience but not providing too much too soon.
ReplyDelete“Hills like white elephants” is a piece full of allusions and metaphors. The ways in which Hemmingway captures dialogue in an effortless constant flow was magical. He allows the reader to stay engaged straight away with the character’s exchanges as the story proceeds with a fast pace and depthful content. The dialogue is swift and strong while the narration of the events leads to gems of information that can be interpreted in various ways. Like the beaded curtains, and the resemblances to a rosary when the girl touches them. The use of dialogue is predominant in the amount of text but it is useful and economic in the content it provides.
-Amanda Gonzales
This chapter on dialogue was very interesting to me considering how much I enjoy both writing and reading dialogue in stories. I had never really considered that dialogue is more than just what is said, it’s also the gestures, the spaces between the words, and even the lack of dialogue is dialogue. I think I still implemented these things that are mentioned in the chapter fairly well having not really thought about it, but now that it has been specifically brought up to me I can pay more attention to these kinds of things in my own work. Another thing that gave me relief to read was that there’s really no overusing the word ‘said.’ I try to avoid words that aren’t said when it comes to dialogue, specifically because sometimes it just sounds odd, or like a child wrote it. Of course I still use words like whispered, shouted, etc. but other words seem unnecessary, and I can think of one reason writers continue to use these words. Firstly, it seems to come from modern writers, and when it comes from young, modern writers such as myself, I am reminded of writing classes in elementary school where I was specifically told to never use the word said in my essays. I don’t know if the same went for everyone else in my generation, but I bet it did. And I bet it stuck. And every time I see someone use words like hiss, sneered, or growled I feel I’m proven right.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to Hills Like White Elephants, which happens to be one of my favorite Hemingway shorts, the dialogue is tremendous. Of course there’s no doubting it, Hemingway took pride in his dialogue in my opinion, and I recall being told in a course I took on Hemingway that he saw dialogue as something like boxing, the jabbing back and forth and treated it as such. I think that’s definitely true, and it definitely shows through in Hemingway’s work, and I think of that every time I set out to write dialogue. In Hills Like White Elephants it’s almost exactly the title of the chapter, he said then she said then he said, and I think it’s excellently done and continues to feel like I am sitting in a train listening to an American man attempting to talk his young partner into going through with an abortion.
Lauryn Flores