Russ
Istar
In modern writing the trend seems to be towards more natural language rather than what I might term more formal, antiquated or dramatic speech.
My understanding for the reason for this is that one hopes that your reader will identify and empathize with certain characters in your work, and it is easier to do so when the characters speak in a way that immediately impacts or is identifiable to your reader, i.e. more modern. Take a look a young people reading say Shakespeare for an extreme example, they are distanced from the work because of the difficulty of the difference between the way they think and the way he writes. You risk the same thing when you right in too formal or dramatic a fashion.
If connecting with your readers on a emotional level is one of your goals, I suggest it is easier achieved by writing in a way that resonates with your reader, not one that makes them slow down and think about what your character just said, or makes them think he/she has a serious stick up their ass.
I also believe that writing in gestures or movements in your dialogue is very important. Science tells us that a great deal of our communications is done through body language not just our words, and thus pure dialogue without some actions can come across as very unnatural and it can results in failures to communicate many parts of the message.
The place this happens a great deal these days (as pointed out so ably by Svrtnsse above) is on the internet. Where a lack of tone, facial expression and body language leads to many, many misunderstandings.
My understanding for the reason for this is that one hopes that your reader will identify and empathize with certain characters in your work, and it is easier to do so when the characters speak in a way that immediately impacts or is identifiable to your reader, i.e. more modern. Take a look a young people reading say Shakespeare for an extreme example, they are distanced from the work because of the difficulty of the difference between the way they think and the way he writes. You risk the same thing when you right in too formal or dramatic a fashion.
If connecting with your readers on a emotional level is one of your goals, I suggest it is easier achieved by writing in a way that resonates with your reader, not one that makes them slow down and think about what your character just said, or makes them think he/she has a serious stick up their ass.
I also believe that writing in gestures or movements in your dialogue is very important. Science tells us that a great deal of our communications is done through body language not just our words, and thus pure dialogue without some actions can come across as very unnatural and it can results in failures to communicate many parts of the message.
The place this happens a great deal these days (as pointed out so ably by Svrtnsse above) is on the internet. Where a lack of tone, facial expression and body language leads to many, many misunderstandings.