Dialogue (Patreon)

Writing dialogue is like playing a game of tennis with yourself. You go with what feels right and surprise your other self with what you can come up with. An action, a sentence, a decision leads to another, just like a real-world conversation.

Back and forth.

I love doing it. Letting the pencil go free and take me where it will. What does it mean when you do so in Interactive Fiction? A headache, of course, but one meant for my future self.

Let her worry about diverging dialogue trees and how to tie the conversation into a common branch. Let her weep for the dialogues used in one route that don't fit in the others, and how some readers might never see them. Let her deal with the responsibility of making all choices equally fun and engaging to play.

Right now, I'm playing a game of tennis with myself. The MC and a character are going back and forth, and while I know where I want the conversation to end up, the in-between is left a big, blurry, grey zone.

But it is so much fun. Even if, in the future, I know how deeply I'll curse my selfish, foolish, reckless past-self.

In any case, I'll post the sneak peek later on today, but I'm knee-deep in dialogue right now, and I suppose I had some thoughts to share. 😊