Took the words right out of my mouth...

[slaymesoftly]

Today’s entry is courtesy of goldenusagi who posted the following on her journal:

You know, when your first chapter contains nothing but word for word dialogue from the show, it's never a good sign. But not only is it boring and unnecessary, it makes it even more glaringly obvious that your own dialogue is extremely OOC

And then, after I commented (and asked to borrow it for RRU), she added this explanation of how one can avoid boring the reader with stuff she already knows:

I know people think they need to set the scene, but especially for famous canon conversations, you can usually pick a memorable line from the end and readers will know exactly where you are. For less famous canon conversations, you can summarize, start in the middle, condense the back and forth dialogue just to get the main points in, etc.

This is such a common mistake made by many newish authors that I was thinking about making it a post just the other day. I don't know what they're thinking - that they need to set the scene by showing it in great detail, or that they just need to pad the chapter - but it really does make for a boring chapter. And if it's your first chapter... yeah, reader go bye-bye. I hadn't even thought about the second point she brings up - that if your own dialogue isn't exactly sparkling, and/or isn't very in character, you've just given the reader a chance to compare it to the real thing. Not a smart move...

And a doozie sent to me by a RL friend:

In this world of hi-tech gadgetry, I've noticed that more and more people who send text messages and Emails have long forgotten the art of capitalization.

For those of you who fall into this category, please take note of the following statement.

"Capitalization is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse."

Is everybody clear on that?