I’ve come across a new problem during revising. I was revising chapter 3 and came across some dialogue that was so bad, I got up from my desk and stopped working on it for the day. I had lost all confidence in myself as a writer. I just could not believe I had written such a rotten piece of dialogue in my first draft.

Are there any published writers here who have had the same experience? If the answer is “yes”; then how could such a thing happen? Why didn’t I catch it when I was writing it? Of course, perhaps this sort of thing does not happen to profession writers.

I’m going to stop revising this chapter and just start rewriting it from the point where the dialogue starts smelling bad. It can’t be saved as it is. Better to start fresh.

Azel

Hemmingway said that all first drafts were Sh!t, if you'll excuse the (his) language.

I sometimes cringe when I am reading third or fourth drafts back to myself, and always second drafts.

It is good. It means you can edit. It means your quality control monitor is working now, and it wasn't when you were being creative, which is good too. It means you are a better writer now than you were when you wrote that. It is par for the course.

Good Luck

lady b

I second what lady b has said. I've cringed at clunky dialogue in the past. I think reading it aloud helps, to see if it sounds 'realistic' enough. As long as you don't have housemates who'll think you're mad, it's worth a shot.

JB

It means your quality control monitor is working now, and it wasn't when you were being creative, which is good too.

This is the key. For some kinds of writing - first drafts, mainly - you don't necessarily want to be too critical AT THE TIME. An over-active editor in your head can inhibit your writing to the point where you don't write at all. However, now that you're revising, you need your shit-detector, in Hemingway's phrase, to be on high alert, and obviously it is.

If you needed to get away from the work for a while that's fine, but it's actually a sign of your maturing confidence and skill as a writer that you could see that dialogue for what it was - a first attempt that didn't come off - and now you can set about sorting it out.

Emma

At least you can spot it. That's more than half the battle.

Rosy

We all need to evolve and improve. It's just sometimes depressing to see by how much! I am on a first edit and so I am finding quite a few 'urghhh' moments!
Take care
Tracy

Azel, I agree with the others that the really great thing is that you spotted it yourself now! So congratulate yourself on your editing skills and rewrite that bit. I do understand it can sometimes be a little disspiriting, but try to focus on the positive aspect of it, which is that you could see it yourself. I think the best way to improve as a writer is to start to see what's wrong with your own work, because then you can fix what needs fixing (without needing to rely on others' feedback, and trying to decide which of them are right!).

Do you think your dialogue needs work in general, or was this just one slip-up? My dialogue used to be one of my weakest bits, but recently people (inc my mentor) have said that my dialogue is particularly strong. Partly that change was just due to experience and practice, but several years ago I read a book on writing dialogue which I feel made a significant difference to me, if you're interested?

I'll look up the name when I'm downstairs and post it, in case you or anyone else is interested.

Deb

Well, I’m glade to hear I’m not the only one with this problem. It really shakes one’s confidence to find such bad dialogue in one’s own writing. It all sounded so good when it was being written. And then you read it again a few months later, and it sounds so ugly. It’s hard to trust yourself after a moment like that.

Thank you everyone for your help.

Azel

Azel, while I agree with everything that's been said here I sometimes think that previously written pieces can seem poorly crafted purely because you've read them so often. Have you ever said a single word so often that it begins to lose it's meaning in your head? Something like that. You begin to question yourself over and over and perhaps getting up and walking away was the best thing you could have done, but for the wrong reasons!

For me, the best test is usually to read aloud. Apart from anything else, this stops you writing dialogue that sounds OK in your head but is actually hard or unweildy to say. Many, many times I've written dialogue that seemed fine on the page but was just laughable when actually spoken.

Jon

For me, the best test is usually to read aloud

Jon, that's really interesting, and I've heard (seen) many accomplished writers on WW say the same thing, so I'm sure that must right.

But . . I don't know, I have a kind of sneaking feeling - based on pretty much no evidence at all (!!) that it isn't quite the case somehow, that dialogue that works on the page isn't quite the same, necessarily, as what works spoken aloud. (I don't just mean in terms of, say, having to be more succinct on the page - it's something more than that - rhythm certainly, but also soemthing to do with dynamic maybe.)

Probably complete rubbish- just a theory, and wondering what others think?

p

I think the read-it-aloud test isn't so much about whether your written dialogue truly reproduces the real thing, which it doesn't and shouldn't (no ums and errs, for a start!) but about hearing it afresh in a more general way. It works for non-dialogue, too, after all: you suddenly hear awkward turns of phrase, unconvincingly long sentences (because you run out of breath), peculiar syntax, punctuation in the wrong place, repeated words. You also get to like what you do like about your work again. I'll read aloud the odd clunky sentence or two that I can't get right as I go, but my main read-aloud happens towards the end of the process, and pickes up all the creaky bits, while also reminding me of what does work and why I did want to write this novel, which I've gone blind to with all the revising.

Emma

Yes, that all makes sense. I've got a feeling I just freaked myself out not so long ago by trying to read a passage aloud and being overcome with . . something, self-consciousness maybe. I don't know (I was alone in the house, so very strange.) But, hmm, probably something worth getting over, though,
px

Yes, you do get over it. Just imagine you're an actor learning your lines...

Emma

I had a similar thing when re-reading a first draft I wrote earlier this year, not the dialogue but man, was the first paragraph pants. I was shocked at my own crapness. I think I've realised it was probably so crap because in first drafts I write for atmosphere, feel, and 'world', and readability tends to come on the second or third draft. BUt indeed, all first drafts are rubbish, and that's what editing's for, you just have to get on with it, I guess.