I know there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to creative writing, but I'm having a bit of trouble getting my head around dialogue in diary-style prose and how it should be handled. It is not normal diary practice, I think, to include exchanges of dialogue in the traditional sense (speech marks, tags, etc) and yet a novel without dialogue in some form would be very difficult to write. In a diary, to note conversational exchanges, we would likely say, 'Fran asked me why I didn't show up on Saturday, so I gave her some lame excuse and she bought it.' But to get across dialogue in only this way would start to grate very quickly and take away from any immediacy or excitement in the story.
Agree, which is way most novels use epistolary elements sparingly or as interludes. Or if it's a fully epistolary novel, the author will often mix diary entries with correspondence between the characters so each can "talk at" the other. Used to be letters and postcards but now you can mix texts, emails, and FB posts if you like. If you're looking to do a straight diary narrative you'll have to adjust the prose and expectations accordingly. Write it in a way so fully fleshed dialogue isn't necessary. You'll have to become a champ at writing summary and making summary engaging for obvious reasons. And a short story will be much easier than a full novel, of course, but it can be done. Steve Kluger has written some good epistolary novels but he uses every tool in the box, not just diary entries. And the "conversations" are sculpted in a way that doesn't require traditional dialogue, not to mention that the story is also framed to de-emphasize conversation in the first place. Often, Kluger will have two characters firing postcards back and forth to each other in lieu of dialogue. Don't think that will help you much if you're aiming for straight diary, but it's a good example of how epistolary authors have to get creative.
@Homer Potvin Thanks for the input. What I didn't mention is my motives for wanting to write like this and that it being a series of diary entries isn't really vital to the story. I wanted to write like this as, with my current mind-set, it would be just about the only way I could muster the motivation. I told myself, write a diary, but a fictional diary about a really exciting period in the protag's life. I've also been inspired by a book by Jeff Noon called Falling Out of Cars, which is clearly written in diary form (although he doesn't use header dates), and yet he uses dialogue in the conventional sense. I never finished the book but I can't honestly say this was because I had any problem with the mix of diary style and regular dialogue exchanges. Maybe I'm just over-thinking as usual, and should just switch to conventional form when writing dialogue.
Well unless he was completely alone the entire time, plenty. Not being sarcastic there, I just don't understand how or why you're equating an exciting time with an absence of dialogue.
I am equating it because it is real. Picture a scientist making a huge breakthrough on a project they have been on for 5 years. If you were to read their diary, some people would be mentioned, maybe a few quotes that set them free to see where they needed to go, the steps that failed & the steps that worked. I seriously doubt there would be "Jane said it would never work". I told her she was wrong. She replied "No, I am right and you are wrong, and here is why......" I love to read diaries when I get a chance- from garage sales, trash cans, things people left when they move out, etc. There is rarely any dialog. The dialog is usually reserved for a pivital thing and is usually short. Jane came over, saw what I was doing, and said "Try using red where there is yellow". Holy crap! That worked! Jane is so smart! A lot of diaries follow the same patterns. Well, we are 15 years into our marriage and we had another big talk. He says, again, he will change what he is doing. They are written like that because you already know what the problems are since she has been writing about the problems up to that point and there is no need for her to write the conversation since she is living it.
I absolutely loved a series of books when I was younger; they were written in diary form and they just included dialogue. If you want a passage I can get you one, but I'm on holiday right now without the books. It was just included, no big deal made about it at all.
Well I understand better where you're coming from now, but I'm not sure these rules have to be followed. Maybe 'diary' is the wrong word. What I'm going for is someone who is recording the events as they unfold, rather than recounting the whole story in one 'sitting', in a traditional narrational style. Each 'entry'/chapter would read like it had been written at the end of a given episode, recording that day's/week's events. And yes, I do realise I've pretty much just defined what the keeping of a diary involves.
I used to keep diaries/journals pretty assiduously (my HS teachers thought I was taking class notes). I'll check what I did and get back with you. Though you might not want to take me for a model, because I'm weird. EDIT--- I checked, and yes, I did write down a significant amount of dialogue set off by quotation marks, as verbatim as I could. I went to a large urban high school full of intelligent, creative, and often hilariously funny people, and (as I'm now reminded) recording the talk that went on was a major reason I kept a journal. I tended to put entire conversations in a single paragraph, however. When I started typing up the one from my senior year I took a ridiculous amount of pleasure in giving each speaker his or her own paragraph, just like in Real Dialogue. So, for your purposes? If what people say is important to your diarist, by all means have him/her write down the talk as exactly as he can. If she's more concerned with stuff that happens and what she did, not so much.
I think you should do whatever best suits the overall work you're trying to create. If you want to include traditional dialogue, include it. I don't think it matters in the way you think it might. Maybe use a mixture of direct dialogue and indirect dialogue? Direct dialogue: "I don't like the way you make meatloaf," Jan said. Indirect dialogue: Jan told me she didn't like the way I made meatloaf. I have no problem buying direct dialogue in an epistolary novel. The Perks of Being a Wallflower did exactly what I've described. There are both kinds, and I think it works pretty well. ETA: I think what's going to matter more than whether or not you include direct dialogue is how well you nail down the character's voice and limit his/her knowledge. The book I mentioned above is a great example of this. In an epistolary novel everything has to be filtered through a very specific lens. If that lens includes direct dialogue, then that's fine, but be consistent.
Cheers, @Spencer1990. I think somewhere in the back of my mind I'd already decided this is how I would go about it, but then clouded things a little with the whole 'diary' element. I think epistolary is a much better way to describe how I wanted to approach this.
Yep. I am unclear as to why there's a problem at all. Sure, it's not all that realistic that someone would remember their daily conversations in great detail, but it's the kind of compromise that happens all the time in fiction.
I think another reason this 'recording of events' appeals to me is that it helps me focus. It means I can make direct references to 'today' and 'tomorrow' without the internal arguments that always crop up regarding tense, when I'm just 'telling a story' in the conventional sense.
