Dialogue (Part 4) - A Song of Speech and Story

In this episode, we start with a broad conversation about story and art that narrows all the way down to why dialogue is so useful in fiction storytelling, and how our own perspectives don’t hinder character development, but actually enhance them.

Helpful Terms and Links

• Dialogue- Finding ___* through talking (*logic, meaning, ideas etc.)
• Art- Applied aesthetics
• Aesthetics - The senses that we use to experience the phenomenon of meaning in the world.
• Anti-art- An intentional showcase of chaos, around the phenomenon of meaning.

Character is Dialogue

• Speech pattern, tone, and world view are the building blocks of a written character. Not necessarily their backstory (although that helps to form their worldview, two people can have very similar backstories and develop very different world views).

Dialogue is Mini-Story

• Symphonic dialogue plays out the central conflict of your story in three levels. 1. Plot themes (desire/obstacles = melody) 2. Moral themes (perspective/world-view expression = harmony) 3. Icon themes (keywords/key phrases/key imagery = accents.

Story is Change Through Conflict

• The change doesn’t necessarily have to resolve the conflict. The change could simply be a self-revelation, a recognition that there will be no change.
• Good stories help us to experience the phenomenon of meaning
• A worldview is a story of the world that answers questions such as, “what’s right with the world (if anything), what’s wrong with the world (if anything), what are the highest values in the world?”
• Stories exist because questions exist and questions exist because the belief in answers exist. Stories are compelling because the belief in answers is compelling.
• Conflict occurs in the friction between different answers for the same questions.

Art and Stories mentioned

• The Anatomy of Story, John Truby
• Daisy Jones and the Six, Taylor Jenkins Reid 

Music

1. Human, by Gallos
2. Big Ol’ World, by Firework Festival
3. Villain, by Jared Marc
4. Questions I Will Never Know, by Telepathic Teddy Bear
5. Jogo, by Primo Levi
6. In My Head, by Lainey Wright