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Be sure to keep the time that the other characters keeps listening short or use the time for your character to think or analyze other things in the environment. In reality sometimes phone calls can...
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#2: Post edited
by
Secespitus
·
2020-06-11T23:01:30Z (almost 4 years ago)
- Be sure to keep the time that the other characters keeps listening short or use the time for your character to think or analyze other things in the environment. In reality sometimes phone calls can very well have a few minutes of what I've heard being called "social grunting" here in Germany - sounds like "hmm" or "yea" that you would use at the end of a sentence of someone else to signal that you are still there and listening to the conversation. Nobody wants to read five minutes of one-sided "hmm" grunting.
Make sure that the side that the character can hear is hinting at something interesting that has happened or is about to happen in the story. Or use the time to take a look around and anylze the surroundings of your character while simply skipping over the uninteresting conversation that the other character is having by stating that "she is talking with her friend about their plans for the weekend while I am taking a closer look at the figurines in the vitrine".
- Be sure to keep the time that the other characters keeps listening short or use the time for your character to think or analyze other things in the environment. In reality sometimes phone calls can very well have a few minutes of what I've heard being called "social grunting" here in Germany - sounds like "hmm" or "yea" that you would use at the end of a sentence of someone else to signal that you are still there and listening to the conversation. Nobody wants to read five minutes of one-sided "hmm" grunting.
- Make sure that the side that the character can hear is hinting at something interesting that has happened or is about to happen in the story. Or use the time to take a look around and anylze the surroundings of your character while simply skipping over the uninteresting conversation that the other character is having by stating that "she is talking with her friend about their plans for the weekend while I am taking a closer look at the figurines in the vitrine".
- The formatting would simply be the same kind of formatting you would use for talking as it is simply one person talking. It's just that you are missing the response by either making sure that the one-sided exchange is interesting and intermitted by thoughts of the main character or actions that describe the important part of what's happening in the current scene. Formatting phone calls differently from normal conversations would feel weird for most readers if the other character is simply talking normally, just via telephone.
#1: Initial revision
by
Secespitus
·
2020-06-11T22:58:46Z (almost 4 years ago)
Be sure to keep the time that the other characters keeps listening short or use the time for your character to think or analyze other things in the environment. In reality sometimes phone calls can very well have a few minutes of what I've heard being called "social grunting" here in Germany - sounds like "hmm" or "yea" that you would use at the end of a sentence of someone else to signal that you are still there and listening to the conversation. Nobody wants to read five minutes of one-sided "hmm" grunting. Make sure that the side that the character can hear is hinting at something interesting that has happened or is about to happen in the story. Or use the time to take a look around and anylze the surroundings of your character while simply skipping over the uninteresting conversation that the other character is having by stating that "she is talking with her friend about their plans for the weekend while I am taking a closer look at the figurines in the vitrine".