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Violanthe
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Joined: 24 Jul 2003
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PostOuter Monologue

Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 3:52 pm
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So, you have two or more characters in conversation, right? It comes to a point where one character has to say a lot of stuff all in a row.

In other words, one character tells a lengthy story or gives a lengthy explanation to the other characters (which clearly benefits the reader, too, or else it could be recapped or paraphrased).

I know how to punctuate this sort of extended diatribe... but is it a good idea in fiction? Or should we purposefully attempt to break up such large chunks of dialog from one character?
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Nik
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Joined: 07 Dec 2006
Posts: 805
Location: UK

Post"As you know, Bob..."

Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 12:36 pm
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Great writers can carry it off, good writers work around, us mere scribblers *dread* reaching an 'expo' ...

Um, that's half of what's stalled my 'Hard SF' tale-- I gotta explain how a few aqueduct pumps and some kiddies' toys can take out something that could hand a Death Star its ass-- In pieces, yet...
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Mervi
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Joined: 29 Aug 2006
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Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 3:17 am
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If there's a story that needs to be told how about using the story within a story-structure? Just start a new chapter and "show, don't tell" and afterwards return to the ongoing story.

If this can't be done I'd do my best to make it a dialogue and not a monologue.
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Violanthe
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Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 12:05 pm
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But if it's not a narrative, but rather an explanation?
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Mervi
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Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 8:07 am
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Does it really need to be there? If there's no way around it, maybe you could cut it into smaller chunks?
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Violanthe
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Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2008 11:44 am
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How would you approach cutting it into smaller chunks?
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