"Wisdom has been chasing you, but you've proven to be faster"

I just wanted to say how refreshing it is to see writing instruction that actually is focused on the strengths that novels can offer and isn't just screenwriting advice repurposed for novelists.

I think it is also important to know which characters will use subtext. Some characters will be very direct in what they say, others will be subtle enough to talk around the edges of what they mean.

Character voice is not just how  they talk (cadence, word choice, sentence length, etc) but also how they behave/react and what they talk about.

Level 1 "I got this, why do I need to know this?" Bro I'm always gaslighting myself into being unable to tell how punctuation is supposed to work. It's harder than you think.

A quirk of Japanese writing is that they use three writing systems, hiragana (ひらがな), katakana (カタカナ), and kanji (漢字), and how much of each that a character speaks in tells you about the character. Hiragana and katakana are very simple and are learned in 1st grade, while around 2,000 kanji characters are taught up until the end of highschool, and usually college educated people know around 4,500 kanji.

In writing, young children, dog characters, etc often speak in just hiragana. Very educated or pretentious characters might speak using many obscure kanji characters. A character might use katakana because it is more "cool" and "slangy". There's a ton of variation and flexibility in when to use each, and it lets you differentiate characters without even changing what they are saying, just how it is written.

i love how you take examples from real books for both good and bad examples it really shows how even successful writers can make mistakes

Unfortunately, you showed the wrong David Mitchell. David Mitchell, the comedian, did not write Cloud Atlas. David Mitchell, the writer, did.

British, and I have NEVER seen the commas outside the quote marks

I'm so early there arent even chapters yet 😭

0:42 The meme "dumbledore asked calmly" lives in my head rent free.

Commas go INSIDE the quotation marks for dialogue in British and Commonwealth punctuation.

Oops!  9:51 - not that David Mitchell!! 😂  That’s the British comedian, not the author…

I just finished Pride & Prejudice and Direct/Indirect/Summary was all over that book. Jane Austin gear-shifted through all three like she was a rally driver. Moving from direct to indirect based off of who was speaking and what information was conveyed. Summary was for catching up the reader or for reiterating what was already said or written.

FYI, the pronunciation of 'bris' rhymes with 'this'. Thought I should mention, lest an unfortunate misunderstanding arise at your next cheese and wine night.

Hey. I've only watched the first 90 seconds of the video but felt I had to comment. Even level 1, "the most basic stuff" is not trivial. I've kinda figured this out on my own, over a long time struggling with a good way to format dialogue, but having it detailed in this manner is very helpful. Don't underestimate the ignorance of the beginner.

Cormac McCarthy's dialogue tags feel invisible because they are

“Crumby” is just an older spelling of “crummy.” It’s not “crumb bee”, just “crumb” + “y”. The b is silent.

As someone who is guilty of overusing direct dialogue, this video has given me much to think about. I need to use more summary dialogue as too much dialogue can kill pacing. Amazing video, it’s taught me to rethink how I write.

4:20 just described Dr. House. Every character is street smart, cunning, scientifically knowledgeable, self conscious and ironic.