Olibu your post didn't really pop out that much. It was kind of bland, and I think I know a couple of reasons why.
For a piece heavy on dialogue, the lines weren't that great. When you commit to something like that, you have to make sure it is your premier talent. Tarantino has movies heavy on the dialogue because he knows how to do it extremely well. Would you sit through 20 minute conversations in movies that Tarantino didn't direct? I wouldn't, and Tarantino gets away with it because he has a sort of comic book style zeal. Which is the place to go for building dialogue... if you want to write dialogue heavy work, read comics.
The characters didn't have that much character. I didn't continue reading to see who would say what next, and that made the dialogue kind of flat. One trick I know that works when dealing with redshirts (short lived characters) is to make him and your character have conflicting personalities. Like how he asked too many questions ('what is your age'), instead of Olibu being silent he could have said something like 'dont worry about that' or 'next question'. Idk if you want to portray Olibu like that, but I don't see it as butchering your character... it just means the other guy is treading over a sensitive area.
Another thing that works is having the two characters misunderstand each other. Joseph Heller did this a lot in
Catch 22 (great fuxing book), and it added depth to the pages, as well as a comedic tone. When I say misunderstanding I mean maybe a character didn't hear what another one said... or maybe add some Abott and Costello type circular logic. Anything that will make me wonder along with the characters as to what the hell is actually going on. And it adds realism.
And westerns. Westerns have great dialogue. And I am such a hypocrite here; dialogue is my weakest point. But I just don't put stuff into practice when I write, I just do it. If you are like me, then put more stuff into practice when you write, and sooner or later, you won't have to do much revision and stuff. It will come naturally.
So, hopefully this is how you write and it wasn't just one post that's totally different from everything else you do. If so, I just wasted a lot of time. =( That flashback was pretty good, and the post wasn't that bad. It's just, for something that was mainly conversation, it wasn't interesting conversation. And good luck in DA.
/cheesy thumbs up
Yay. Me:
Free-For-All
Best thing I've written in a while, and still not that good. Help a brother out?