This post is quick.
I don't wish to point out a particular company (because that's
not my point), but one commercial makes my husband laugh every time he sees it.
Sure what's going on visually adds to the humor, but what really seals the deal
on the guaranteed laugh is the speaker's inflection on a particular word. The emphasis of one word can turn a
grown man into Pavlov's hyena.
My point is, to me, there is a certain level of immersion in
commercials so subtle and unconscious, you don't realize you're drawn in until
you're already in the middle (or at least somewhere off to the side). The same
goes, I think, with great fiction, especially great dialog. The function of a
word or phrase in italics, or a comma versus a period, or (Oh, dear, sweet baby
Jesus) em dashes can convey who a character is and isn't and what a character says
and doesn't say, are bigger deals than you may think. They border on the
magical.
Great punctuation in dialog is like the Ninja Illuminati of
Show/Don't Tell.
Don't get me wrong. I appreciate and acknowledge Place and
Time. I know Frodo can't travel a shopping mall in 1066 Europe to kiss Rapunzel
and kill the dragon.* I think Dialog is the corset** that keeps the story from
sagging to its knees while the strings
of Setting keep the corset on.
See people. I can do descriptions.
*With the exception of fan fiction or a gaming mod.
**French for, "Great posture, but not allowed to
breathe."
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