GH: April Discussion Thread

[Sylph]

What - Mallory's right?

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Meh, does Serial Drama ever actually praise a show for something? All I see is bitch, bitch, bitch on that blog...

[MarkH]

I think he's saying you're not engaging.

But, I wasn't singling out any poster. I think I've seen a few people espouse the "GH does good dialogue" position.

I'm intrigued that you say "the words spoken" do not represent "dialogue". Now I have to redefine my definition of dialogue....

Yeah...that never happens here.

[Sylph]

I'm not saying that. Where did you see me say exactly that. You just interpreted it that way. Wrongly. Again.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

More than often, I do see posters pointing out some good around here. I've probably only ever seen 3 positive entries on Serial Drama, ever.

[brimike]

I didn't mean it that way. Just that Becca and Mallory do something really fun and entertaining on their blog, with a sense of humor. I get a thrill out of reading it every day, and always find myself having a good laugh at the points they make. But I would never, ever, in a million years, hold their blog entries up to your scholarly education as an example of where GH might not have good dialogue writers. It's like pitting Chelsea Handler up against William Shakespeare to discuss writing.

[Sylph]

What I was saying is that Mallory is criticising the implausibility of a situation (Sonny) and not dialogue. Two different things. The quality & style of sentences, the rhythms, the choice of words... That's what GH dialogue does very well.

[brimike]

Yeah - technically, that's a breakdown issue. Not a script-writer issue. (Although a good script writer would have called their editor to see if they could alter the beat so it would make more sense, but that's neither here nor there)

It pains me to agree with Sylph ( ), but yeah. He's right here.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I agree, but you know, some people can't seperate their hatred for the character from anything else.

[Sylph]

And another thing: “dialogue is what real people would say if they could take a few seconds to think between lines. It’s faster, more direct, with much less filler than normal speech.”

[Sylph]

Am I happy about the Sonny scene? No. Was there a way to do it differently? No. Why? The point in daytime is to do something fast and do it well. Imagine if a scriptwriter went to the breakdown writer and then the editor and then we have to check with the HW... Hours, days wasted. That's why we pretend it didn't happen and move on.

[brimike]

Wow - I don't think I've ever heard you give something a free pass like that before! Ever!

[Sylph]

No, I mean, I won't pretend it didn't happen. I meant the SW. The SW thumps out the best possible line and moves on. The SW doesn't have the time to go talk to SE or BDW or whatever...

[brimike]

LOL! Okay, I understand now.

But to be fair, script writers have gone to breakdown writers and editors to ask questions, have things clarified, etc. Many writers have spoken about that in interviews.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Susan Wald, just saying....

I guess someone will be watching her scripts pretty closely now.