Difficulty in Dialogue

'It looked like an open hand. There were no more leaves on its branches. It was the only tree that did not have any life to it. Bleak and cold, it seemed to have given up on its life a long time ago, but was too stubborn to leave. That is where the road began.'

Although the story has not progressed as fast as I had hoped I am making steady work of it. It has also been better writing than I had thought my first draft would be. There are numerous places where I know that I am going to almost completely rewrite an entire section (possibly chapter).

I have found that dialogue is the hardest portion most of the time. Making a believable and natural string of dialogue that sounds good and is not choppy is very difficult. Also, trying to convey a characters personality is at times complicated. As I continue to write the story it becomes increasingly easier however. The interactions between some characters has been quite easy, whereas the more complex characters seem difficult, which is not at all unexpected.

The book contains sixteen chapters (initially it was only going to contain fifteen) and each chapter will have a minimum of fifteen pages. I have divided the writing process into four sections, of four chapters each, to help make the process a little smoother. I am nearly finished with the first section. Currently, I am on page five of the fourth chapter.

The first section was the hardest to write. Since I didn't know my characters personally yet it was hard to determine how they would interact with one another or react to a situation. I knew some of their habits, but not the more intimate details. Now that I know more about their interactions I think the next section will go faster. The next section is also where the action picks up and the book starts to become intense.