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Formatting question

D

donotlookatdiagram

New member
So, I have a formatting issue. There's this one character who is monologing for a very long time. What do I do? The other paragraphs are less long, and frankly, it looks rather intimidating to have such a wall of text. How would I format this?

NOTWALLSOFTEXTS_zps911183ca.png


This is how the text normally looks.

WALLSOFTEXTS_zps9e7baaa1.png


This is what happened when the character started monologing.

RANDOM EDIT THAT I PROBABLY SHOULD INCLUDE BECAUSE IF YOU READ IT IT MAKES NO SENSE: In the second image (THE GREAT WALL OF TEXT), the character says that sex should cause pregnancy or disease. I meant the exact opposite when I wrote that. LOL OOPS.
 
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I think the most reliable fix is to break up the monologue a little bit! The dialogue doesn't have to change at all, but you can include little reactions from other characters to break it up a bit. An eye brow raise, a snort, a gasp, a shiver, anything. That character's interjection (verbal or nonverbal) will be its own paragraph, both breaking up the wall of text and making things a little bit more interesting. Not to mention you can add all sorts of character here - what would it say about a character who cries at the thought of getting a splinter, or a character who laughs at the prospect of death? You can get a lot out of characters' nonverbal actions!

You can do the same with the speaker, also; people often move around when they speak, or perhaps they might look at a particular person, or scratch their arm, or anything! There are infinite possibilities.

Also, this is unrelated to your previous question, but as long as we're talking formatting and such: the proper way to end quotes is with a comma and a lowercase letter.

Incorrect: "I ate the cake." He said.
Correct: "I ate the cake," he said.

Same goes with a question, except you use a question mark.

Incorrect: "How was your day?" She asked.
Correct: "How was your day?" she asked.

Hope this helps!
 
Sandstone-Shadow said:
I think the most reliable fix is to break up the monologue a little bit! The dialogue doesn't have to change at all, but you can include little reactions from other characters to break it up a bit. An eye brow raise, a snort, a gasp, a shiver, anything. That character's interjection (verbal or nonverbal) will be its own paragraph, both breaking up the wall of text and making things a little bit more interesting. Not to mention you can add all sorts of character here - what would it say about a character who cries at the thought of getting a splinter, or a character who laughs at the prospect of death? You can get a lot out of characters' nonverbal actions!

You can do the same with the speaker, also; people often move around when they speak, or perhaps they might look at a particular person, or scratch their arm, or anything! There are infinite possibilities.

Also, this is unrelated to your previous question, but as long as we're talking formatting and such: the proper way to end quotes is with a comma and a lowercase letter.

Incorrect: "I ate the cake." He said.
Correct: "I ate the cake," he said.

Same goes with a question, except you use a question mark.

Incorrect: "How was your day?" She asked.
Correct: "How was your day?" she asked.

Hope this helps!
Click to expand...

Thanks! I'll try that. The only thing is, the monologing character is a computerized persona, so she's not really doing much besides talking, but she is talking to two people, who have contrasting attitudes about what they are going through, so they can certainly react.
 
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