Scripts VS Novels: A Look At Writing Dialogue



By Wendy C Allen
eelkat_red_scarf.jpgWendy Christine Allen, 2019, able to sit up in a chair for the first time in years, and able to raise up my arm and wiggle fingers. This was when I started playing Witcher 3 on Twitch as part of my physical therapy to regain finger movement. Playing Witcher 3 daily from 2016 to 2019, is how I regained the use of my thumb and two for fingers on my right hand... it is also why I stopped playing Witcher 3 in 2019, once I had strengthen my two forefingers enough to start typing again.

Wendy Christine Allen, Old Orchard Beach's Autistic Author, Artist, Illustrator, & Art Car Designer

Counting Down to the September 23, 2028 50th Anniversary of my first published book (September 23, 1978)

If you are here looking for The Twighlight Manor series, The Crystonite Wars series, The Wild Years series, The White Rock Asylum for the Criminally Insane series, The Twisted Tales series, the Captured By a MerMan series, The Space Dock 13 series, The Kats of Planet Ptarmagin series, the stories about Miss Citten the Eel-Kat, or the stories about Etiole... ALL of those series were combined and consolidated into The Adventures of Quaraun the Insane Pink Necromancer series in 2014, so ALL the different series, are now under one series title.

List of the published titles still in print:

The Index of over three thousand stories in The Pink Necromancer series

What the series is about, for those new here:

The introduction to The Pink Necromancer Series. 

If you want some stories to get you started in The Pink Necromancer series, reading these first will give you a good introduction to the 3 main characters:

My Elves Are JellyFish...and I asked Google AI and ChatGPT 5.6 what they thought of this.

As requested, my daily writing prompt series is now available print paperback editions on Amazon.

There are 20 volumes of this writing prompt series currently planned and in varying stages of finishing, hopefully all 20 will be published by the end of 2026. I likely will do a 2nd series of writing prompt books in 2027.

The first of the Visual Novels/Video Games for The Adventures of Quaraun the Inane/The Pink Necromancer series is published and available on Itch.io, there are 3 more planned for release in 2026, 6 more planned for release in 2027, and the big 60-hour 80k word 150 page one (Quaraun Goes To the Fair) is planned for a 2028 release.

There is a Pink Necromancer card game and a Pink Necromancer board game, as well as a Pink Necromancer table top RPG supliment for Dungeons and Dragons, all in the works, and to be released over the next couple of years as well.

Health update: August 4, 2026 - in recovery for 6 months+ (at least until mid-January 2027...all book and video game releases are pushed back at least 6 months) see video below for why...
@eelkat

health update #maine #disabilityawareness #wheelchairlife #wheelchairvlogger #multiplesclerosis

♬ original sound - Wendy C Allen | 📚 Author
@eelkat Health update: #chickenpox #bellspalsy #RamsayHuntsyndrome #paralysis #recovery ♬ original sound - Wendy C Allen | 📚 Author
@eelkat

I seem to have had another stroke (during the night while I was asleep?) #stroke #paralysis

♬ original sound - Wendy C Allen | 📚 Author

Update Sept 3, 2026:

I am able to get around enough to take Koko to dog park... today is 29 days since getting out of hospital. My diet is still mostly liquid, but im eating some solid food again, but its like rice or soft mushy baby food type stuff because I still can not chew yet, though I can swallow again. My jaw is still not functioning good so im having trouble talking still. So there's been slight improvement to my mouth, throat, and jaw, but, zero improvement to my eye, which is a major concern, be Im almost fully blind right now. im legally blind since birth in my left eye, so I have no ability to fall back on using my left eye. My right eye is the one injured and my vision in it is "40% decreased" according to my doctor, but it wasn't good vision to begin with, and right now my right eye is not much different from my legally blind left eye. Which I why I have to have someone drive my car for me instead of me driving my car myself right now, which is very frustrating, because, being a female, I had to fight for over twenty years to be allowed to drive. I started sneaking out at age 31 and dressing as a man to go to Old Orchard Beach high school to get a ged, because us females are not allowed to go to school. And i was 37 years old when snuck out to the DMV and got a driver's permit and started going to college. I was 42 and 8 months pregnant when my family found out I was going to college and thats when I was punished by the backhoe driving over my house and my spine broken with a golf club and my baby born right then and killed with same golf club. So it's very frustrating now, so soon after finally being able to drive , to now not be able to drive because of an eye injury, especially after 14 years of being paralyzed from the golf club and not being allowed to have a wheelchair, again, because i am female and we females are simply not allowed to do anything. I hate the culture I was born into. I wish I had the freedom to go to school and drive a car the way American women do. I wish having my spine broken with a golf club and my baby killed with a golf club and a backhoe driven over my house was not how men in my family punishment women in my family for learning to read and write. Its so frustrating not being able to to drive again, so soon after 14 years being paralyzed, and being paralyzed by the golf club was the punishment for getting a driver's license back in 2013 after 30 years of men not letting me have one. I hate my family's culture and how they treat us women.

I get so sick of Americans telling me how they wish they could be a Gypsy… they are either misogynist woman hating pigs, or delusional idiots who haven't got a clue how shittily we Gypsy women are treated by Gypsy men, because no one in their righ mind who knows anything about Gypsy culture would ever want to be part of it. I hate that I was born a Gypsy. 

update sept 7, 2026

"You would not make a good teacher"... what does that mean, and why are there so many people on Railroad Ave and Western Ave and Cutts St why walk up to me and say that to me?

I find it very confusing. I have low functioning Autism (the Rain Man type) and so i have very little understanding of words beyond the basic ones, and i never went to to school, so I never learned maths or sciences, and I only had remedial classes at Southern Maine Community College, because I did not have an education to enroll with regular, I was there taking every reading and writing class they had to learn how to read and write, and also took speaking classes to learn how to talk (i spoke Shetland Scottish language because that was language my grandmother spoke but she died when I was 8 so I only knew that language to speak and write, and I was 37 when I went to college and 42 when I learned English speaking and I still cant speak English good yet), all the other classes I took were art painting and cooking.

So the phrase "You would not make a good teacher" makes no sense to me because it seems to imply that I am trying to be a teacher, but I don't have anything close to the education ti be a teacher, and im not trying to be a teacher. So I don't know why people keep saying this phrase to me and I assume it must have some sort of a slang meaning, but I can't figure out what it could be of why do these people keep saying it to me.

see video below for more information: 


@eelkat "You would not make a good teacher"... what does that mean, and why are there so many people on Railroad Ave and Western Ave and Cutts St why walk up to me and say that to me? I find it very confusing. I have low functioning Autism (the Rain Man type) and so i have very little understanding of words beyond the basic ones, and i never went to to school, so I never learned maths or sciences, and I only had remedial classes at Southern Maine Community College, because I did not have an education to enroll with regular, I was there taking every reading and writing class they had to learn how to read and write, and also took speaking classes to learn how to talk (i spoke Shetland Scottish language because that was language my grandmother spoke but she died when I was 8 so I only knew that language to speak and write, and I was 37 when I went to college and 42 when I learned English speaking and I still cant speak English good yet), all the other classes I took were art painting and cooking. So the phrase "You would not make a good teacher" makes no sense to me because it seems to imply that I am trying to be a teacher, but I don't have anything close to the education ti be a teacher, and im not trying to be a teacher. So I don't know why people keep saying this phrase to me and I assume it must have some sort of a slang meaning, but I can't figure out what it could be of why do these people keep saying it to me. #mainelife #biddefordmaine #maine #disabilitytiktok #Biddeford ♬ original sound Wendy C Allen | 📚 Author

update Sept 15, 2026:

I have some slight movement in some my fingers again again after over a decade being paralyzed

you remember how I used to be a professional doll making, pattern designer, and embroiderer, back before I became paralized and before my son was murdered and being the backhoe drove over my house?

all my equipment, sewing machines, ect were all destroyed by the backhoe driving over my house, and I have been quardepelegic for over a decade because of it so could not use my hands to sew or draw or embroider, and so only continued to do my writing of novels since then because I could do that with dragon dictation software,

well, since 2016, I been playing Witcher 3 and don't starve video games on twitch livestream, one hand two fingers, as part of my therapy to regain nerve and muscle use of my fingers, and now after 10 years of that, I have somewhat more movement in my fingers and im thinking maybe I can try to do embroidery and doll making again, but not sure, anyways, now im rebuying all of my sewing and embroidery equipment that the backhoe destroyed when it drove over my house, and hopefully I can use my hand enough to embroider again.

waiting for stuff to arrive in mail, so soon I should find out if ten years of twitch gaming has given me enough muscle strength to use my fingers to embroider again.

update to the previous video, answering viewer question about lack of hospital vs broken spine

Wheelchair Fundraiser... I need to upgrade to a power wheelchair, the manual one just isn't enough anymore. But the power wheelchair is $25k. Yes, twenty five thousand dollars. Wtf? I can get a car for a quarter that price, why are wheelchairs so damned expensive? That's more money then I make in five years, so I need to start a fundraiser for it.

Scripts VS Novels: A Look At Writing Dialogue

In terms of writing, what do you think comics, movies, tv, and other mediums do better than novels? How should we use that to improve our writing?

In terms of writing, what do you think comics, movies, tv, and other mediums do better than novels? How should we use that to improve our writing? from writing

In terms of writing, what do you think comics, movies, tv, and other mediums do better than novels? How should we use that to improve our writing?

Scripts VS Novels: A Look At Writing Dialogue

I was a script writer before a novel writer. Been doing script writing and short story writing since the 1970s, but I didn't write a novel until 2006. And I've been told by many readers that my writing style (when it comes to novels) is EXTREMELY non-standard. And I think, it's because I'm used to writing in stage play format and short story format, and short story format has more in common with script writing then it does novel writing which is why I'm always saying the common advice to write short stories to practice before writing novels is BAD advice. If you are writing short stories in the same format as novel, well there no way around saying it: your stories are gonna be shit. I wish people would stop telling novelist wannabes to practice with short stories first. Not saying novelist can't write short stories, just saying the writing style from short stories to novels, is so different that using one as practice for the other is bad advice.

But back to your question before I have myself a 10 page rant on why I think that is bad advice!

LOL!

:P

>>In terms of writing, what do you think comics, movies, tv, and other mediums do better than novels? How should we use that to improve our writing?

Now for me, being someone who wrote scripts first and novels later, I have a tendency to write my novels in a weird sort of "novelized-script" format. Many readers have referred to my novel writing style as "avant garde" or "artsy-fartsy", which depending on how you look at it could be either good or bad. It also contributes to the fact that my novels are bottom feeders in terms of sales rank, because a quick check of the "look inside" tells the buyer, "this don't quiet look normal" just by looking at the text itself and how it flows on the page, without even reading the text.

Here, let me show you what I mean. A novel format, on the page looks like this:

Paragraph one, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words.

"Blah, blah," he said.

"Blah, blah, blah," she answered.

"Yap, yap," he replied.

Paragraph two, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words.

Paragraph three, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words.

It's pretty distinctive, blocks of text.

But a script doesn't have blocks of text, because scripts contains no narrative or descriptions and are DIALOGUE ONLY.

While comics, movies, tv, and stage plays each have their own distinct formats, the basic look of all of them on page is this:

This story takes place in a small fishing village on the coast of MAINE.

ACT ONE takes place outside, late evening, on the dock. LOU has just returned from a week long deep sea fishing job. DAVE and MARSHA were there to meet him.

ACT TWO takes place in the front parlor of DAVE's home which has a window overlooking the shore. It is late at night. LOU sits in a rocking chair smoking his pipe and reminiscing about his young days as a sailor. DAVE listens while standing looking out the window. Everyone else has gone to bed already.

ACT THREE takes place early morning, on the shore. DAVE and MARSHA are watching as LOU sails away once again.

MARSHA: is a young woman late twenties to early thirties. She is homeless and so wears a mix and match of ragged cloths she found in people’s trash. She wasn’t always homeless, she used to be an average housewife, but a massive flood took that all away. Her family died in the flood. Her house was washed away. She has nothing left and has given up on life.

DAVE: is a college professor. He is ten or twelve years older than JANE. He remembers her before the flood. He loved her than and he still loves her now. He wants to find a way to show JANE life is still worth living.

LOU: is the fishman next door. He too was affected by the flood. Lost his boat, his trap, his gear. While other fishermen gave up and sought other careers inland, LOU is attempting to rebuild if career.

DAVE: (Walks into room.) MARSHA! What are you doing here?

MARSHA: (Slaps *DAVE** on face)* I know about you and that hussy. (Throws wedding ring on floor.) We are through! I want a divorce!

:CAMERA: Close up on DAVE's face.

DAVE: (Stares speechlessly.)

LOU: Don't firght guys.

DAVE: Blah, blah, blah. (Yells.)

MARSHA: Blah, blah, blah. (Yells.)

DAVE: Blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah.

MARSHA: Blah, blah, blah.

DAVE: Blah, blah, blah. (Paces nervously.)

MARSHA: Blah, blah, blah.

LOU: Blah, blah, blah, blah. (Walks to window.)

DAVE: Blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah.

MARSHA: Blah, blah, blah.

DAVE: Blah, blah, blah.

MARSHA: Blah, blah, blah. (Starts crying.)

LOU: Blah, blah, blah, blah. (Hugs MARSHA .)

DAVE: Blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah. (Yells.)

MARSHA: Blah, blah, blah.

DAVE: Blah, blah, blah.

MARSHA: Blah, blah, blah.

LOU: Blah, blah, blah, blah.

Can you see the difference?

The top of page 1 of the script, tells you a quick sentence for the scene. One quick sentences to describe each act. One or two quick sentences to describe each character, and that is the ONLY descriptions and narrations in the ENTIRE script, and the script may be 100+ pages long. There are generally 10 pages of script for every minute of play, and as most small theatre stage plays are 10 minutes long, most stage play scripts are 100 pages exactly.

In a script the characters names are always in all caps and bolded, and start every sentence. This is so the actors know who is talking. Every action the actor is to take while speaking, is in parentheses and italics. This is so the actor knows not to say those words out loud, but rather to physically act out that part.

Now. when you take that and turn it into a novel, what you get is this:

It was a quiet evening in a small fishing village on the coast of Maine. Lou had just returned from a week long deep sea fishing job. Dave and Marsha were there to meet him.

Dave walked into room.

"Marsha! What are you doing here?" He exclaimed.

Marsha slapped Dave's face.

"I know about you and that hussy," she said, while throwing her wedding ring on floor. "We are through! I want a divorce!"

Dave just stared speechlessly at her.

"Don't firght guys," Lou said to them.

"Blah, blah, blah," Dave yelled.

"Blah, blah, blah!" Marsha yelled back.

"Blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah."

"Blah, blah, blah."

"Blah, blah, blah. "

Dave paced nervously.

"Blah, blah, blah," he said.

"Blah, blah, blah, blah," Lou said to them.

Lou got up and walked to the window.

"Blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah," Dave said.

"Blah, blah, blah," Marshar answered.

"Blah, blah, blah."

"Blah, blah, blah," Marshia said. She began to cry.

"Blah, blah, blah, blah," Lou interupted. He hugged Marsha, trying to calm her down.

"Blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah!" Dave yelled.

"Blah, blah, blah."

"Blah, blah, blah."

"Blah, blah, blah."

"Blah, blah, blah, blah," Lou said trying to calm the arguing couple.

Well.... you can see how dramatically different that looks from this, right:

Paragraph one, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words.

"Blah, blah," he said.

"Blah, blah, blah," she answered.

"Yap, yap," he replied.

Paragraph two, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words.

Paragraph three, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words.

Okay, so, back to your question...

>>In terms of writing, what do you think comics, movies, tv, and other mediums do better than novels? How should we use that to improve our writing?

Personally, when I look at a novel and see that it is block upon blocks of descriptive text and narration, I don't even bother to read it.

I personally find descriptions of scenes and settings, and even descriptions of what a character looks like, to be dry reading.

Dull.

Boring.

I've no interest in it at all.

I look for novels that have a high rate of dialogue. If the novel is 70 to 90% dialogue, I'll pick it up and read it. Otherwise, I'll pass.

Why?

I like a character driven story.

I'm not a fan of plot driven stories and I tend to avoid them.

When I look for books to buy, I often go to The Writer's Market, and read through the listings of publisher submission guidelines, looking specifically for publishing houses that request: "Character driven stories" and then I search for that publisher's website and take a look at the list of books they publish and buy those, because I know if the publisher is asking for character driven story, then they will also state something like: "Must contain at minimum 70% character dialogue."

In the publishing industry, a story is considered plot driven if it has less then 70% dialogue and character driven if it has at least 70% dialogue. If you have less then 75% dialogue in your story, then it is NOT character driven and I want nothing to do with it.

MOSt novels however, are plot driven, and finding a character driven story, is next to impossible. MOSt novels published are 60% description and only 40% dialogue. (According to several studies that have been done.) Which means for me, as a reader, most books are slow moving slogs of dull, dry, bored out of my mind, reading.

I prefer fast paced reading, and to have a fast pace, that means your paragraphs have to be fewer then 20 words long. And the only way to have page after page after page of none stop, heart pumping, fast paced, 20 words or less paragraphs, is with steady, none stop dialogue for page after page.

The more dialogue, the faster the pace. And every time you insert descriptive or narrative text, you kill momentum, dead short, and the pace has to slowly start all over again.

The longer the descriptive text and narration, the slower the pace becomes and the more difficult it becomes to pick up pace again later.

So in the end, for me, I think the answer to your question...

>>In terms of writing, what do you think comics, movies, tv, and other mediums do better than novels? How should we use that to improve our writing?

What do scripts do better than novels?

Dialogue.

90% of novels suck at dialogue and will never be read by me because of the 60% narrative to 40% dialogue ratio that those novels have.

Why?

Because for me, I want to know who the character is.

I want to know what they are thinking, what they are feeling, what they like, don't like, why they act like ths instead of that.

You could have to most amazing plot and the best built world ever, but if you don't let me have an emotional connection to the characters, than all your plotting and world building might a well be heaping piles of shit.

And you can describe what your character looks like all you want.

It means nothing.

Describing your character is TELLING instead of SHOWING. Don't TELL me in the description, your character is doing this, that and the other thing, SHOW me in the dialogue instead.

I'm not reading to fall in love with your stupendously amazing plot.

Give me a character who feels real instead.

I'm not reading to find out how good you are at map making and creating alien lifeforms that look like trees. I don't care how great your world is or that it has 5 continents instead of 7.

Give me a cast of characters that are as well thought out and built with as much passion as your world is, and you'll find me your biggest fan.

The plot is just the thing that is happening to the character.

The world is just the place the character lives.

The character is what is important, and far too often authors focus on plot and worldbuilding to perfection, then toss in some underdeveloped cookie cutter cardboard character that makes all their plotting and worldbuilding a waste of time.

And another thing...

In scripts, dialogue is almost always 7 words or less before another character jumps in.

In a script characters almost never make it to the end of a sentence without being interrupted by another character. It mimics real life conversation. Real people have a fast pace of back and forth banter while they talk. Script dialogue mimics this, moving back and forth quickly between characters, with no character even getting to the end of a complete thought.

Not so in novels.

In novels a character can drone on for 10 or 12 sentences while everyone else in the room, quietly, patently, and unrealistically, waits their turn to speak. Real people don't talk like that. Real people jump into conversations. Real people have a fast pace of back and forth banter while they talk.

I can't stand it when novels let a character yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, and NO ONE steps in to interrupt? What a way to pull a reader out of the realism. I find it very hard to follow plots when characters act like this, because it keeps pulling me out of the story, with me thinking: "Who talks like this? How unrealistic is this? I can't see this character as a real guy. Real people don't talk like this. I can't identify with this character..."

There it is...

I can't identify with this character...

The worst thing an author can do.

As soon as something happens to make the reader think those words, you've lost that reader, because they'll put down the book and look for a novel that does have characters they can identify with instead.

And so to me...

>>In terms of writing, what do you think comics, movies, tv, and other mediums do better than novels? How should we use that to improve our writing?

Script writing is very good at being character driven and keeping a readers' attention by helping the reader identify with the characters, because of it's super short sentences in dialogue and it's quick spanning back and forth banter and I feel that novelists could write better novels if they followed after scripts' example in this aspect of writing. Most novelists excell at world building and suck at dialogue. Most novelists write great plots and cardboard characters. Most novelists are too focused on plot and world building to spend time fleshing out an identifiable character.

The biggest difference between scripts and novels is how scripts put characters front and center while novels toss the characters in as an afterthought, putting plot and world before characters.

So, I think it would be to most novelists advantage if they took some script writing courses and used them to improve their character creating and dialogue writing skills.

Comment from discussion In terms of writing, what do you think comics, movies, tv, and other mediums do better than novels? How should we use that to improve our writing?.


>>Good question. Movies and TV are nowadays dictating how we digest novels. Lots of people can't really focus on reading for a longer time anymore so we have to be careful with long monotonous sequences. What worked in the last century won't work in the future decades. That's what I think.

And you make a good point.

I have very limited knowledge of either TVs or movies, considering it's been more then 30 years since I owned a TV and I only go to 1 movie a year on Christmas Eve with my brothers as going to a movie was such a rare thing to do back in the 1970s in our childhood, it was rather common for families to only go once a year for Christmas, thus we still do that decades later. It's not so much about the movie as it is, hanging out with my brothers for Christmas, so very little thought even goes into what movie we go to.

In my other post, I complained about the fact that I have trouble finding novels these days that do not focus on wold building a describing the world.

But, you look at novels written from the 1930s to the 1970s and this is NOT the case.

Novels from the 1930s to 1970s were HEAVY on dialogue to the point that most are a full 90% dialogue with only tad bits of descriptions at the front of each chapter.

But books written from mid-1980s to today, have very little dialogue, minimal character interaction, and page after page after page after long, dull, dry, boring page of sweeping landscape descriptions, descriptions of the city, descriptions of the army, descriptions of the battlefront, descriptions of the clothes, descriptions, descriptions, descriptions.

So little story. So little character interactions with other characters.

I feel like most novels being publish these days are nothing but authors trying to describe the amazing world they built... like they want us to be WATCHING their novel like it was a movie, instead of reading the actual story.

And... I don't think a lot of authors even realize they do it!

And I think the reason they do it is because they has so very little experience with the written word. They read one or two books a year, at most, if they even read books at all (and the way some books are written these days I seriously suspect many authors never read a book in their life!).

I think, they watch TV every day and movies every week, and maybe read a book once every five years, and because of this, they have absolutely no clue how to write a story, all they know how to do is write vivid descriptions of what the world LOOKS like. Which is fine if people wanted to read a geography book describing what the world looks like, or if they were writing the descriptions for the graphic designers of a movie set.... but they are not! They are supposed to be writing a novel and they have so little understanding of how a novel is put together, due to their high rate of movie watching vs low rate of novel reading, that it has changed the way novels are being writing these days.

I mean I start reading 7 to 10 books a week and struggle to find even 2 or 3 that I make it to the end of because they are not written like some opening scene of a movie set.

There are so many new releases, especially self published ones, that SOUND AMAZING, in the description of the book, but then you read it and... there's maybe 30 pages of story squished in between 300 pages of scene description.

I spend most of my book buying time in yard sales and flea markets looking for old paperbacks from the 1930s to 1970s instead of reading new releases, just because it's so hard to find a well written story these days... one that actually tells a story instead of telling me how amazing the author is at worldbuilding.

I feel like there's a trend the past 5 or 10 years, with world building being seen as more important then creating characters or working on a plot.

It's becoming really hard to find a book that doesn't put the world front and center any more. And I think TV and movies are the reason for it. I think, because these authors never read how scenes are written in novel, only see the sweeping shots of movies, they think they have to write these massive scenes describing the world.

Comment from discussion In terms of writing, what do you think comics, movies, tv, and other mediums do better than novels? How should we use that to improve our writing?.


>>With that knowledge I think the answer to your second question ought to be that we should take advantage of the fact that books rely on the reader's imagination by pushing the boundaries of what they can imagine.

I agree with this.

And, I think that may be what I am seeing too, when I mentioned before that, I feel like there's a trend the past 5 or 10 years, with world building being seen as more important than creating characters or working on a plot. I feel like most novels being publish these days are nothing but authors trying to describe the amazing world they built... like they want us to be WATCHING their novel like it was a movie, instead of reading the actual story.

Yet, older books didn't do this.

Authors 50 years ago didn't feel the need to hold the readers hand every step of the way describing everything in details.

Authors 50 years ago, let the reader use their own imaginations to feel in the details.

I almost wonder, if the current trend in over describing everything in novels, isn't because authors feel like readers nowadays are too lazy to use their imaginations?

It's almost feels like, authors are pandering to the movie watcher habit of not having to use their imaginations any more, thus why so many these days feel like they have to spend 50+ pages describing in detail EVERYTHING before they can even start the story.

I mean, have you ever read a Fantasy novel prologue? OMG! There was a time when a prologue was a quick 2 page introduction to the back history of the story.

Not anymore!

Yie!

For the past 5 years, almost every prologue added to a Fantasy novel, is now a 50 to 90 page detailed description of not only the world, but all the things the author researched as well.

I started reading a book a few months back... it had a 90 page prologue on why Neanderthals make the ideal basis for the book's main character race, and why dinosaurs and Humans should never be in a novel together, and then a detailed history of all the author's Anthropology and Archaeology degrees, then listed off all the actual fossil dig sites he dug at....

I was like... does this guy even know what a prologue is? This is not a prologue, this is a damned history lesson! I mean, if this guy ever wrote a college textbook on the history of the Jurassic Period, he'd be amazing! He really knows his stuff, I'll give him that. But you don't put stuff in your novel! I just felt so much, like this guy had never read a novel in his life and the only movie he had ever watched was Jurassic Park, and that the only reason he wrote this novel was so he could tell fans of dino-sci-fi they were jerks for liking those types of books.

And I contacted this guy and asked him about it...oooooooooh boooooooy....

WOW! I got a 60+ page response telling me that Fantasy readers needed to be taught a lesson, and that they had no business making up fictional races that couldn't possibly exist, and he proudly boasted that he never in his life ever read a fiction novel and never would....yow.

Well, it certainly showed in his novel writing, that he had never read a novel before writing one.

But the point is... he was mad, because Fantasy authors and Fantasy readers use their imaginations! And he wrote a book that was supposed to show Fantasy readers why they were wrong to like make believe... he had the book listed as "A Fantasy Novel" and it was a non-fiction History Text, that tried to be a novel and failed badly. And this particular book, it went WAAAAY overboard on the descriptions. I mean, he went Charles Dickens over board on describing the ridges of fossils and the dust on the sand at the dig sites...

And he admitted (on a public forum) that he did that because he felt it was BAD to allow the readers to use their imaginations.... And I wonder how often someone goes into writing a novel, with exactly that mind set?

Novels are such a wonderful canvas to paint the start of a picture, then let the reader's mind fill in the rest. A reader can imagine a far more detailed image of the world in their mind then the author will ever be able to write.

Movies are pictures. They show us things. Novels are words, and I wish more authors would focus on building insanely captivating characters for their stories and leave the world building to architects. I can imagine the world with a few clues, but, I'd rather not be left imagining who the character is, because the story is supposedly about the character (NOT the world the character lives in), and I want to know what makes that character tick, rather then know the point of gravity on your fantastic planet.

So, I was over on Reddit, you like I often am, and found this question. And answered it, like I do. However, the answer I initially gave was a simple generic answer. If you want to read my original answer unaltered, simply click on Reddit's embed feature links which Reddit provides for webmasters to be able to post their answers on their websites, while linking back to the original thread on Reddit (if you didn't know Reddit offered and encouraged the use of this feature, look for it in the "share" features underneath every post, comment, and reply on Reddit).

I am answering random questions today about world building, over on Reddit and decided to take my answers from there and expand upon them even further over here. So that's what this page is. Me rambling on about various aspects of world building techniques I use when writing the Quaraun series. The questions I am answering are embedded here. Clicking the link in the embedded question will take you to the original Reddit page where you can see the original answer along with other people's answers. If you wish to comment, you can do so on the Reddit page where a place to do so is provided.

In any case, as with all of my Reddit answers found on my site here, my original post on Reddit is much shorter then the article here.


Crosspost & Embed Features Are Now Live & Out Of Beta! Yay! (I've Been Beta Testing Both For The Last 6 Months Or So Now Everyone Can Use Them! Go Ahead And Share Any Post You Make or Find Here Via Embed and/or Crosspost! Have Fun!) from StorylWritersGroup

Where to find more info on my methods to writing Elf culture, Elf society, Elf ethics, and the Elven way of life (aka other writing related articles that started out in life as Reddit answers):

  1. What makes an Elf an Elf?
  2. Moon Elves - Albinism in The Quaraun Series.
  3. How To Write Hot Sex - Video Interview On Elf Sex Lives
  4. On Writing A Clinically Insane Character Accurately, While Avoiding The Psychopath Stereotype
  5. Wizards vs Witches vs Sorcerers: How are they different?
  6. FAQs About Quaraun
  7. Psychedelics In A 'High' High Fantasy World (High Elves Getting High)
  8. High, High Elves: Elves on Opium | Drug Use 
  9. Writing Horror That Features Violence Against Children 
  10. Spell-casting Side Effects of Magic
  11. Child Sacrifice in Fantasy Novels
  12. Meet the Characters - Who is GhoulSpawn
  13. Marriage in Moon Elf Culture 

The Complete Index To Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Moon Elf Society, But Was Afraid To Ask;

or

The Zaharam-Chapelle-Parunas  Ethnographical World Building Questionnaire





While there are around 20k pages on this website, most of them are blocked from search engines, with only around 800 of them available for appearing in Google/Bing/etc search results. The remainder can only be accessed via the various links found throughout this site. This was done deliberately on my part, and I did it because the bulk of the pages on this website are chapters from 138 novels and 423 novellas, so only the first page of each novel and novella indexed by search engines, and the remainder are linked in order, one page at a time, via clicking "next page" at the end of each. So if you are looking for a specific page from a specific novel, Google can't help you.



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Wendy Christine Allen 🌸💖🦄 aka EelKat 🧿💛🔮👻
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Wheelchair Fundraiser

@eelkat

i just found out there is yet another bizarre rumour going around. where are these wild rumours coming from? who is starting them? and why?

♬ original sound - Wendy C Allen | 📚 Author
@eelkat

since I've been flooded with hundreds of messages the past two weeks asking if I still own "the world's most haunted car", yes, and here it is, filmed today May 18, 2026… but my son Xavier is dead, i am crippled and given that people are AGAIN showing up calling my Dodge "haunted", calling my friend "an alien", calling me "transgender", and spreading wild defamation slander connecting me to Stephen King, I think I need to start taking down the contact information of every blogger, podcaster, youtuber, and social media account spreading these rumors, and sue every single one of them for CAUSING my car to be cut in half May 10, 2010, for CAUSING the backhoe that drove over my house August 8, 2013, for CAUSING my son's murder November 14, 2013, for CAUSING me to be crippled and in a wheelchair November 14, 2013, and for CONTINUING to CAUSE harassers to show up in person to harass me near daily, STILL now in 2026. EVERYONE telling you my car is haunted, telling you my friend is an alien, calling my car "the goldeneagle", calling my friend "Etiole", or trying to connect me or my car to Stephen King, is lying to you. They crippled me when I was 8 months pregnant, and a woman with a golf club, severed my spine and bashed my baby's head in, I spent 9 years relearning to walk, and the FBI is 13 years into the murder investigation and not yet identified the attacker who crippled me and killed my baby, both violently with a golf club and the FBI believes that it is friends and family of the woman who did it, are the ones who started and spread the rumors saying my car is haunted, saying I'm an alien abductee, saying all kinds of similar bs about aliens, ufos, ghosts, witchcraft, demons, and Stephen King connections, even though I don't believe in ghosts, aliens, ufos, demons, and had never heard of Stephen King before 30k of his fans showed up in my yard trying to find my car! FBI believes the backhoe driver and the murderer are the same person and it is a developer who wanted my land and so started the Stephen King, ghost, and alien rumors all in an attempt to drive me off my land, and when it didn't work they drove a backhoe over my house, and when that didn't work they crippled me and killed my son. Why are they doing this? How do I get them to stop?

♬ original sound - Wendy C Allen | 📚 Author






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Get an email whenever Wendy Christine Allen 🌸💖🦄 aka EelKat 🧿💛🔮👻 publishes on Medium.

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Do you know who drove this backhoe over my house at 146 Portland Avenue, Old Orchard Beach, Maine on August 8, 2013? If you have any information, please give it to FBI Agent Andy Drewer at 207–774–9322 of the Portland, Maine FBI office.

My house at 146 Portland Ave, Old Orchard Beach, Maine, July 4, 2013, photo taken because we had just finished building a baby room on the back. vs My house August 8, 2013, when the same group of people (yes group, the golf club woman was not alone when she attacked November 14, 2013, nor was she alone with her second attack July 2016.) who murdered my son on November 14, 2013 at Southern Maine Community College and crippled me July 26, 2016 at scarborough WalMart,... they arrived the first time with a backhoe on August 8, 2013, that they used to drive over my house, during a time of day that I normally was home asleep... I had to work a different shift at the Waffle Cone Pizza Food Truck at George's Parking Lot by Bill's Pizza at the OBB Peir, that day, otherwise, I too would be at the bottom of a landfill, along with my house and everything I owned that was also in the house. I was 5 months pregnant at the time and have been homeless for just under 14 years, homeless ever since....

... which means it is now only a few weeks from the 14th anniversary of my son's murder. I was 8 month pregnant November 14, 2013, and a student ay SMCC, and coming out of the Buglight Lighthouse art studio after art class, when a still unidentifiedwoman wielding a golf club attacked me, severed my spine, while I was 8 months pregnant, triggered early labour, then killed my son minutes after he was born.

While accusing me of being transgender, screaming "transvestite freak" and "look at that thing, that's Ken's son in a dress"... while I was 8 months pregnant.

eelkats_house_before_after.jpgMy house at 146 Portland Ave, Old Orchard Beach, Maine, July 4, 2013, photo taken because we had just finished building a baby room on the back. vs My house August 8, 2013, when the same group of people (yes group, the golf club woman was not alone when she attacked November 14, 2013, nor was she alone with her second attack July 2016.) who murdered my son and crippled me, arrived the first time with a backhoe that they used to drive over my house, during a time of day that I normally was home asleep... I had to work a different shift at the Waffle Cone Pizza Food Truck at George's Parking Lot by Bill's Pizza at the OBB Peir, that day, otherwise, I too would be at the bottom of a landfill, along with my house and everything I owned that was also in the house. I was 5 months pregnant at the time and have been homeless for just under 14 years, homeless ever since.

The backhoe driver returned November 14, 2013, armed with a golf club, used it to break my spine and smash my baby's brains out on the ground

On November 14, 2013, my son was murdered. I was 8 months pregnant, leaving my college classroom, and just getting into my car, when 3 strangers, a man and two women, armed with golf clubs leapt out from behind my car screaming "kill or be killed, kill the transvestite freaks, kill them all before they kill us! look at that thing! That is Ken's son, look at how it's dressed! kill the transvestite freaks! kill or be killed"... while the bald man and the red haired woman chanted this over and over, the blonde woman, lunged with the golf club.

She severed my spine, I am now a quadriplegic, and been paralyzed arms and legs, and in a wheelchair for 13 years now. She broke my hips, my knees, my legs, ruptured most of my discs, and shattered three of my vertebrae so bad that the shards of bone acted like glass and embedded themselves into my spinal column nerve bundle.

The attack also triggered labour.

My son was born in that parking lot, and he lived only a couple of minutes, before the deranged blonde woman, beat his head in and smashed his brains out, with the same golfclub she had just used to sever my spine and leave me crippled for the rest of my life.

Realizing that I was not transgender, and they'd just murdered a baby, the man grabbed the 2 women and forcibly dragged them away to a 4 door white pickup truck, and they left me there to die.

The FBI told me later, that a few weeks before this attack, and transwoman, had murdered a cis woman, in a parking lot, abou 20 miles away from where I was attacked. The FBI, believes that my attackers, had somehow found out I wrote transgender fiction, connecting my real name to my penname, (my father's name is in fact "Ken", and I do have a brother) and believed that I wrote transgender fiction, because I was myself transgender, even though I'm not transgender. The FBI, believes the attackers, thought I was my brother, pretending to be a woman.

The FBI investigation, into my son's murder, has dragged on for 13 years, and still now in 2026, continues on, with the FBI, still not having yet identified my attackers, and only guessing at what their motive was.

Thus we come to 2014, and the full swing change of the series I write. WHY my series, went from just a transman main character living life, to the full blown Mpreg genre series that it now is today.

Before the attack, I had a chance of having a baby. I don't know. And because I'm in America, I'm too old to adopt. You have to be under 45 years old to adopt a baby. That is the law in America. I was informed this, when we tried to adopt, now that my injuries leave me unable to get pregnant a 9th time.

Thus began my obsessively writing, my transman main character, pregnant. Always pregnant now. Every time. Every story. Stories that now fully focus on pregnancy, labour, miscarriages, babies dying, babies living, raising babies... the whole series, since 2014 has devolved into an outright baby obsession.

Meanwhile, reborn baby dolls were suggested to me by my therapist, and have also become a deeply obsessive part of my life. Because 13 years ago my son was murdered minutes after he was born, because a transphobic bigot mistook me for being transgender, I'm STILL in a wheelchair, struggling to relearn to use my arms and legs, now 13 years later, and I'm still DAILY dealing with police officers and FBI agents who while they are trying to find my son's killer, they are also daily reminding me... oh, yeah, my son was murdered, literally ripped out of my belly, by a transphobe. Who still has not been located and walks free to kill again.

The golfclub woman as she looked during the golf club attack at Southern Maine community college November 14, 2013. She is about 20 to 30 years older then me and would be around 75 to 85 years old now in 2026.

Clairescreenshot.pngIf you have any information about the identity of this child murderer, please call FBI Agent Andy Drewer at 207–774–9322

The golfclub woman as she looked during the shopping cart attack at Scarborough WalMart July 26, 2016. She is about 20 to 30 years older then me and would be around 75 to 85 years old now in 2026.

zzzz999ClaireRed2016-screenshotIf you have any information about the identity of this child murderer, please call FBI Agent Andy Drewer at 207–774–9322

The 2nd woman as she looked at both attacks, her hair goes all the way down to her knees. She is about 20 to 30 years older then me and would be around 75 to 85 years old now in 2026.

Kendrascreenshot.pngIf you have any information about the identity of this child murderer's accomplice, please call FBI Agent Andy Drewer at 207–774–9322

Do you know who these two woman who crippled me and murdered my baby, at Southern Maine Community College at 10PM on November 14, 2013, are, and what their connection to the backhoe that drove over my house is? If you have any information, please give it to FBI Agent Andy Drewer at 207–774–9322 of the Portland, Maine FBI office.

I am a legally blind quadriplegic, and low verbal, I have also published 138 novels in the last 48 years. It's not as impossible as people think. The problem being blind and quadriplegic, medically have different meanings then how those two words are used medically.

Fewer than 3% of all blind people see nothing. While 97% people who are classified as fully blind are able to see up to two feet in front of them. Legally blind means I can see more then two feet in front of me but not far enough to see twenty feet in front of me. In my case I can see about eight feet.

Quadriplegic, has varying levels, it means having a damaged nerve bundle in the spinal column causing limited mobility of all 4 limbs, (in my case this was done by a women wielding a golf club, who also beat my 8 month infant's head to pulp on the parking lot tarmak, at the same time she severed my spine with the same golf club; both on November 14, 2013; the FBI investigation into my son's murder and my being crippled has gone on now for 13 years, a few weeks away from 14 years now, and the FBI has still not identified the killer or her motive). Contrary to popular misconception, quadriplegic does NOT mean ZERO movement, it means means limited movement, specifically in means unable to lift arms over head, unable to grip fingers around objects to pick them up, and unable to stand for more then 5 minutes to a time. Because there are so many thousands of nerves in each limb it is actually very rare for there to be 100% no movement, but how much, and to what extent varies by patent depending upon the specific point of injury to the spinal column.

Meaning typing is still possible for over 60% of all quadriplegics.

In my case, it was the lower spine that was severed, cutting off completly my ability to move my right leg, leaving limited feeling in my left leg, and an ability to stand but not walk, with crutches, for the first 9 years. I regained enough nerve growth in my legs by the 9th year to be able to take ten or twelve steps allowing me to get out of bed for the first time since the golf club attack; This in turn lead to me being able to start using a wheelchair, as I was able to sit upright for the first time as well.

Because the shattered vertebrae bone fragments are broken off completly and embedded into the nerve bundle just above my tailbone, doctors were saying I would never walk again, but now at 13 years, I am able to push mu wheelchair like a walker, a distance of almost a thousand steps a day. Though doctors are still doubtful I will ever walk "normally" again, I have proven them wrong, when their said 13 years ago, that I would never walk again at all.

But because of the placement of the damage to my spine, regaining hand use, was always thought possible, it was just a matter of waiting long enough for nerve regrowth, along side daily finger exercises. I was able to continue writing, after becoming quadriplegic, because I still have use of my right thumb, and 2 fore figures of my right hand. And can type 90 words per minute with those 3 fingers.

I however have no wrist strength, elbow strength, or shoulder strength, so I am not able to form a fist, or lift objects, or brush my hair, or my teeth, all thing I have to have my caretaker do. But, those things are not needed for typing. Unfortunately, my pinky and ring fingers are "nerve dead" and drag over the keyboard, and cause horrific spelling errors and typos, which are incredibly frustrating to deal with.

Unfortunately trying to edit errors myself, just makes the errors worse, because those same two fingers drag over the keyboard yet again. Prior to the golf club attack, I rarely had spelling errors; now I got more spelling errors then someone is learning English as second language. Editing is a challenge, that I've had to accept, I simply can not do myself, and I have to hire several editors to help with that.

Low verbal means sounds can still be made, sounds that software programs like Dragon can be trained to recognize and translate, and type into full words. More then half my novels were typed with this method.

I still have a long ways to go before I am anything close to being able to do the things I could do before the golf club woman beat my baby's brains out and shattered my spine. And you know what's more frustrating then how slow mu medical progression has been? The fact that it's been 13 years and the police and FBI are still coming up at dead ends as to who the woman who murdered my baby was, or why she even did it.

My son's 14th birthday is only a few weeks away, but he didn't even get to live long enough to celebrate his 1st birthday, I don't even know why. And I can't wait to regain my ability to walk again, because regaining my ability to walk, means gaining the ability to go outside and start looking for my son's murderer myself instead of sitting at home trapped in a wheelchair waiting for the police and FBI to to find her. So, writing isn't a big priority for me anymore. I only write now, as a way to exercise my hands, in between relearning to walk.

Never let a disability stop you. Plenty of writers, artists, athletes, do not let either blindness, speech impediments, or limited mobility hold then back from perusing their careers.

Do you know who these two woman who crippled me and murdered my baby, at Southern Maine Community College at 10PM on November 14, 2013, are, and what their connection to the backhoe that drove over my house is? If you have any information, please give it to FBI Agent Andy Drewer at 207–774–9322 of the Portland, Maine FBI office.

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All the writing prompts found here on my website, are also available in printed paperback editions, on Amazon.

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