Everything Wrong With HARRY POTTER Fanfictions

DON'T NO 11: Saggy Script

No, really, this happens. A lot of the time.

There are a lot of stories which contain this major deficiency.

Okay, fine, I agree, to most of you the only thing that matters is a killer catchy plot and that's it. But honestly, the dialogues matter too.

Suppose you have an awesome idea on the Death Eaters, say a story on Alecto's life or on Rookwood's, since Death Eaters aren't seen in fanfics much and then everything is going to be great. But here comes the giant loophole.

Lousy dialogues.

I mean, no one would like to read a story which is set in like a hundred years or centuries ago, and people are still conversing in the modern slang.

No.

Definitely no way.

You can't have Voldemort talk like, "hiya, g'day everyone! Imma gonna kill ya'll today! Why? Oh, cuz Imma badass Dark Lord who is royally pissed off at a teenager and has nothing fun to do at the moment."

And believe me, things start to get more cringe worthy as the story unfolds.

For a good and captivating story, you need captivating dialogues.

But frankly speaking, do not think that by stating this I meant that you should start talking like a philosopher. Nope, that's not the case either.

"When the big bang happened, all the atoms in the universe, they were all smashed together into one little dot that exploded outward. So my atoms and your atoms were certainly together then, and, who knows, probably smashed together several times in the last 13.7 billion years. So my atoms have known your atoms and they've always known your atoms. My atoms have always loved your atoms."

Now this is probably my most favorite quote from the movie I Origins, but what I am trying to state through this example is that when writing stories you should avoid getting this scientific as well. The movie revolved around this subject so such a dialogue does well over there but when writing fanfictions, you should avoid being Einstein+Shakespeare all at once. Unless these type of dialogues are extremely relevant to your story.

Speak normally through your characters. It's always better to do a tiny google search on the time period your story is set in and look up how people communicated, what were the languages, common words, etc.

And if you can't google everything or research a lot, that's okay. Just don't use slang words or modern abbreviations and everything's gonna be fine for you and for your story.

***

Keep in mind that while the plot is the main essence of a story, the dialogues are the spice which are just as essential as the plot. If you have good dialogues and a marvelous plot then nothing can stop your success.

But however if the condition is reversed, i.e you have brilliant dialogues and no plot, then that too is a complete disaster.

Stated below are the few points you must consider before writing scenes which have a lot of dialogues or characters interacting verbally with each other.

1. The way your character speaks is his/her voice and using that voice you can convey a lot of things to the readers.

2. The readers not only take the description into account before forming a mental image of the character, but they also consider the way your character talks, his/her opinions, likes/dislikes etc.

3. Speech is in fact an important aspect of one's personality and should be developed as such to give a clear impression to the readers on what exactly your character is.

4. If you are writing an emotional scene, then your script gets emotional too and kinda heavy. In that case make sure to use the right words to describe the situation.

5. Don't let the character do all the explanations verbally. It is always better to provide some background by demonstration (author's point of view on stuff / narrator's view). For example if your character is mentally distraught due to something, you don't just write:

Sara sighed, "I'm so mentally distraught. I think I will just die."

6. Instead of the character, take it upon yourself to describe the character's situation. For example, you can write the above dialogue in a different way as follows:

Sara entered the room, anxiety dripping from every feature on her face. She slumped down on the couch messaging her temples, all the while thinking about the breakdown going on inside her.

7. Love confessions. These are what take the readers and authors by storm alike. Make sure that your confession is unique but believable at the same time. No one would like to read four pages on two lovebirds confessing their eternal love for each other and then breaking up just after a few more pages.

8. Use scarce but meaningful words in dialogues. Not everyone describes everything and keep that in mind while writing. Especially the characters. The character can not explain verbally all you want to convey to the readers, And that is where body language comes in.

9. Remember, you are writing a fanfiction, not a hormonal teenage girl's secret diary.

10. Whatever happens, do not copy movie quotes or song lyrics as references in your story too much. Or better still, just don't do it at all. A wisely inserted reference is tolerable but references added without an specific reason are simply damn annoying.

***

And that's all for now.

Next update will be up soon and I will try my level best to make that sooner for you guys.