Writing Dialogue

Dialogue is a must-have when we write our narratives, whether in first or third person narrative. We thus must make use of this opportunity to enhance the writing, giving the text a greater, richer feel that allows readers to "hear" what characters are saying.

When writing our narrative, we should release information one by one in each sentence. We can make use of dialogue to do so. When we use direct speech, we can change perspectives, and twist the story a little, which makes the narrative twisty and jumpy and more lively.

Also, when we decide on what the character says, we have to consider the character's personality, physical factors and other stuff that is related to the character. We also have to consider the alike things for his intended audience. The setting, mood and situation too plays a part in what the character says.

We should not put in random dialogue that are just to fill up space. There should be a meaning to it and help bring out the feel of the narrative. Redundant dialogue only make the context more confusing and gives the readers a hard, unplesant time reading the narrative.

Finally, interjections should not be used freely. They represent a meaning like other dialogue and too help us understand what the narrative is about. They can be used when someting sudden happens or when the character has to give a reply but has nothing much to say.

Some extra things is that we should mind the tense as it is really important for direct speech to be shown chronologically and make sense. We should also avoid vulgar speech, Singlish and colloquialisims.

(Term 1 Post #7)

A poem on Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose

Mrs. Dubose was plain hell.

She was two doors up the street from us,
Jem would either avoid Mrs. Dubose or
Walk the street with Atticus as
Dubose was unanimously the meanest woman who ever lived.

She was very old, spending most of the day in
Bed or a wheelchair. Rumours said that
She had a concealed CSA Pistol under covers.

Jem and I hated her. We would be raked by her
Wrathful gaze, subject to ruthless interrogation regarding
Our behaviour. We could do nothing to please her.

Jem concluded it was cowardly to
Stop at Miss Rachel’s front steps and wait.
Atticus would say
“Good evening, Mrs. Dubose! You look like a
Picture this evening.”
I never heard Atticus say a picture of what.

“Not only a Finch waiting on tables but one in the courthouse
Lawing for niggers!” Jem stiffened. He cut the tops of every
Camellia bush Mrs. Dubose owned and bent
My baton against his knee.

The result was a talk with Mrs. Dubose and she wanted Jem to
Read to him. So, Jem was in the house, and read Ivanhoe to Mrs. Dubose.
After a while, Mrs Dubose lay on her back with cords of saliva
Collecting on her lips.

The alarm clock went off and
We went home.

That routine happened every day until
Jem said he regretted tearing up her camellias.

We had not seen Mrs. Dubose for
A month already. Atticus had come back one night and said
“She’s dead.”
Mrs. Dubose was a morphine addict.

She had died conscious and cantankerous.
She had disapproved of my doings.
She had given Jem her Snow-on-the-Mountain which
She treasured very much.

Mrs. Dubose had won.

Sensory Imagery

There is a wide range of vocabulary in the English language, but I know that there are not many related to our senses. Actually, these rare words are important in helping us write our essay (see previous blog post: First-person Narrative).

Firstly, when students write essays and inject direct speech, they would use it like "'...,' he said." or "He said,'...'". That is already outdated and we must use more creative words to replace this. Instead of "said", we can replace it with "declared", or "mumbled" if it is soft, or maybe "hollered" if it is loud. Some other words are "growled", "whined", "stammered", "snarled", "whispered", "ordered", "announced" and "shrieked". These are the common ones which can easily fit into normal contexts of narrative essays.

After direct speech comes the indirect speech. In indirect speech, we cannot directly express how the surroundings are, thus we must use figurative language and their tools to help us describe. We can use metaphors, similes and personifications for that fact. That helps to brighten up the language and make the text more intriguing and interesting. Mixing a type of sense vocabulary with a different one, will result in undescribable results if done correctly.

Finally comes the action words. In narratives, there is a lot of action happening, especially in the rising action, conflict and climax. We need to know the appropriate words and apply them so that we can depict the scene in a flow of words. These words can also be divided into subgroups like fast and light sounds and actions, deep sounds and heavy actions, breaking sounds, quick-ending sounds, unhappy sounds, blowing sounds and awkward sounds and actions.

Even in narrative writing, we need to use imagery to assist us in bringing out the flavor of the essay, giving the reader a good feeling about the writing.

(Term 1 Post #6)

First-person and Third-person Narrative

After analysis of the short stories "On the Run", "The Use of Force", "The Case for the Defence", "The Apprentice" and "Red Letter Day", I have finally understood the application for first or third person point-of-view to write my narrative.

When I write with a first-person viewpont, I mainly want to maintain a close distance betweeen the reader and the main character. This includes the main character's feelings, reasons for every action and emotions. Also, it is because I want the reader to be the main character's "eyes", who can view everything the main character is supposed to feel. That is why sensory imagery comes into place, and with appropriate corresponding feelings, it would make a good essay. Finally, I will use the first-person viewpoint when I want to describe the main character's psychological and mental changes. If I use other viewpoints, I would not sound as appropriate as if I were to use a first-person point-of-view.

However, when I write with the third-person viewpoint, it is because I want to describe physical factors better. With this viewpoint, I can reveal important information at anytime suitable, and I can also describe the setting of other characters, instead of just focusing on the main character itself. It is to give the story a whole "overlooking" feel. Also, I can change which character I want to talk about anytime, and I can even talk about objects.

Thus, when I plan for my essay, it is always advisable to choose which point of view to write in, so as to bring out the correct feelings.

(Term 1 Post #5)

"Anyone is guilty who watches this and does nothing"

Discrimination is a type of bullying. Bullying exists in different sorts: physical, verbal, cyber and intimidation, but the main topic today is discrimination.

Discriminations is a result of prejudice, which is in turn caused by racial differences, skin colour, age, weight, height and other physical qualities.

When someone is being bullied because he is short, tall, fat or mentally challenged, the most likely is that he would be constanly surrounded by people who would taunt the person everyday. This is not because of anything else but because of his predestinied qualities which make him such a person. Thus, other people would think that the person is a weird or strange person and would try to avoid or attack him.

In the past when I saw someone discriminated against, I would just usually walk past and not do anything about it because I did not want to get myself in to trouble. Even worse, I know of some cases where others would join in to discriminate the person.

However in the present, I think that I should not just walk away only, but report it to an adult which will resolve the matter. I think that this would result in a better agreement and that they would get along together better.

(Term 1 Post #4)

Reflections on the Singapore Short Story Essay

After drafts of the essay, the final product was finally completed. The story is about me, a chef sent to participate in an inter-continent cooking competition, together with my handy assistant. The conflict is developed when the chefs realize that they have messed up the ingredients. However, they persevere and finally come up with a dish that totally amazes the judges and wins them a special prize.

I am confident that I have met the criteria for a good story. Firstly, I have thought of the characters. The chefs are excellent in their area of expertise and expected to be the champions. They were all prepared, ready and confident, but with a little tinge of nervousness.

Also the theme "Identity" has been applied into the story setted in the Singapore Expo in the present day and age. The two characters displayed a good characteristic of Singaporeans which is the ability to come up with new solutions when they hit a hard wall.

I also have a developed conflict and a climax. The conflict here is that they suddenly find out that they have purchased the wrong or expired ingredients. Slowly they learn that more and more things are being messed up, and soon they are ready to give up, however a slight accident leads to a big chain of events. They have found out a way to solve the solution, and when they present it to the judges, there lies the climax. All the characters are so tensed up because they want to know the result of this competition.

At first when I started writing this essay, I wondered if this was a good idea because it was not really connected to a Singaporean identity. However, after hours of brainstorming and tweakings to the story, I finally decided on this plot. I think that i have made a correct choice because it had a great effect in the end. It was overall exciting and I also had an enjoyable time trying to craft this story.

(Term 1 Post #3)

An incident that I was in a group that was unkind to a someone

During primary school (when we were still immature), we had simple thoughts on these and those stuff. We were very subjective however, most of the time judging people by their first impression. There was one incident which led to us boycotting a classmate.

Then, we were in Primary 5. The classmate had already been with us for 1 year, but then we did not take much notice about him, until that year where he started to become irritating. He became more unhygenic and started to pester people. This led to the female classmates and selected males (including me) leaving that person alone.

The next year he became better and we came to our senses and tried to stop the ignoring and then we finally got along together again. So, what I learnt from this incident is that we should not ignore one person because he has weird qualites or something alike but try to understand that person better. I think that will make the society more friendly.

(Term 1 Post #2)

A poem that left a great impression on me

A poem that sunk deep into my mind was the first poem that I had encountered: The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

This poem was the first poem I had analysed. In the first read-through, I could not understand why there were random breaks in the middle of every sentence (now I know, enjambment) and why they did not rhyme as I expected them to be so in the first place. I thought this poem was faulty or something alike and was so tempted to choose another more sensible poem but then slowly I managed to decipher it and also learnt of all the figurative language which was very different compared to a normal prose. Now I can analyse poems with ease because of this initiating poem which led to the startup of my poem analysis. Thus, this poem left a huge impact on my learning journey in poems.

(Term 1 Post #1)