OK my character is in bird form is this just a squawk or should it have its own line like speech does?
Since you are in the POV (head) of the bird and you are telling us what the bird is thinking, I think it is probably unnecessary to add "bird dialogue". That is, unless you feel brave enough to pull it off!
lol my first book is first tense present tense from point of view of a 17 year old boy. My second is from POV of a 29 year old gay man. I am stupid and naiive enough to be brave But it is more when the birds squawk, tweet etc at a human to indicate their emotion or feeling on a subject. I am unsure if its speech or not. I do have a scene in a short story with bird speak in it, one of my characters whilst in bird form gets picked up by a sparrow called Maggie May I use it for the flirting scene and the one where she is unhappy their son hasn't been kicked out the nest yet She reckons his father is mollycoddling him. That I handled like dialogue its more the communication between bird and human that I am unsure of.
it's up to you... try different ways and go with the one you like best... don't try to write 'by committee' or your work will turn out looking like a camel!
or maybe like a Monty Python I just wondered if there was a convention for how to approach my bird trying to 'speak' to his brother Having gone with a commitee of friends have decided to treat the squawks, tweets etc as speech
That works great for my sparrows etc I actually think my squawk needs to be a screech as in the example given its a falcon speaking lol I also have cooing in the next one for a race of people that can become doves The tweeting was fun to do when I rewrote a story called Sparrow Through the Heart, you get the impression they are giggling away.
