William Blake Bradbury
11-21-2004, 02:02 PM
I should have my I-was-raped-and-turned-into-an-asexual-whose-sociopathic
-girlfriend-blackmailed-him-into-dating-him-with-threats-of-
suicide-then-attempted-suicide-with-a-butter-knife-after-
she-tried-to-rape-me-twice memoir essay finished in a couple of days. Hoorah!
One question: dialogue.
I can't remember exactly what was said, but I can remember snippets and the general gist of exchanges. I want to re-create dialogue, because three scenes in particular would be well-served with conversation. Unfortunately, I'm not sure of the rules for dialogue in memoir. I've written out 300 pages of exchanges, but I don't want to insert any of them (streamlined to the extreme, of course) and then have a publisher say, oh, that's all made up, poo to you, and send my precious ms. to the fire can.
So how does one handle a situation like this? Is there any way to write a conversation between two people, with a modicum of give and take, without quotation marks [shaking reader lightly by the shoulder with mock violence]? Is it? Is it? [as John Lithgow in histrionic mode] Why won't you answer me? Just kidding ;) Anyhoo, sorry I haven't been around for a while (as you guys quickly tuck the champagne bottles behind your bottles and nod in mock sympathy), but, with any luck, I got quite a ball of literary fire speeding your way.
Thank you, thank you, thank you all. You're stardust, glittering, shiny, shiny stardust!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:rollin (Lord, what've I been smoking?)
-girlfriend-blackmailed-him-into-dating-him-with-threats-of-
suicide-then-attempted-suicide-with-a-butter-knife-after-
she-tried-to-rape-me-twice memoir essay finished in a couple of days. Hoorah!
One question: dialogue.
I can't remember exactly what was said, but I can remember snippets and the general gist of exchanges. I want to re-create dialogue, because three scenes in particular would be well-served with conversation. Unfortunately, I'm not sure of the rules for dialogue in memoir. I've written out 300 pages of exchanges, but I don't want to insert any of them (streamlined to the extreme, of course) and then have a publisher say, oh, that's all made up, poo to you, and send my precious ms. to the fire can.
So how does one handle a situation like this? Is there any way to write a conversation between two people, with a modicum of give and take, without quotation marks [shaking reader lightly by the shoulder with mock violence]? Is it? Is it? [as John Lithgow in histrionic mode] Why won't you answer me? Just kidding ;) Anyhoo, sorry I haven't been around for a while (as you guys quickly tuck the champagne bottles behind your bottles and nod in mock sympathy), but, with any luck, I got quite a ball of literary fire speeding your way.
Thank you, thank you, thank you all. You're stardust, glittering, shiny, shiny stardust!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:rollin (Lord, what've I been smoking?)