Dialog with (a) Radish

EDIT: Added the dialog tag cheat sheet.

Sorry, folks, I've been AWOL for a couple months working on lots of cool things. And I'm not returning empty handed. Here's the first in an ongoing series of writing articles I've been preparing for our friends over at Radish. This one covers my basic rules on writing dialog tags. Check it out here.

Here's a cheat sheet for dialog tags. Enjoy!

Why "The Force Awakens" Was a Terrible Star Wars Movie (Continued) -The State of the Galaxy Part 2 *SPOILERS*

Ok, here's the bar fight I promised. If you missed the first part, you may want to read it first.

Anyway, to further illustrate the problem of confusion, I'm going extrapolate two scenarios. As bar fights. Because I love analogies.

Why "The Force Awakens" Was a Terrible Star Wars Movie (Continued) -The State of the Galaxy Part 1 *SPOILERS*

Before I dive into the deep end of setting here, I want to reiterate that I really enjoyed the movie just like the vast majority of fans out there. However, almost everyone that I've talked to about the movie felt that something was off. I've written these posts to illustrate why the new movie didn't "recapture the magic" of the original, why it didn't feel like Star Wars, and to help my fellow storytellers make informed decisions when crafting their own stories.

If you missed my first post about "The Force Awakens" and would like a quick overview, you can find it here.

I swear that I fully intended for this to only be one post. But setting is just so important, and I really really wanted to give you guys a bar fight. So you get this one today and the bar fight on Friday.

Now that that's all out of the way, time to jump into The Setting.

Why "The Force Awakens" Was a Terrible Star Wars Movie *SPOILERS*

Ever since the new Star Wars movie came out, I've been having the same discussion over and over again. Everyone loves the new Star Wars movie, but something is off/missing/wrong/not quite right. As an editor, I spend most of my time figuring out all the things that are off/missing/wrong/not quite right with stories. So if you feel the same way about the new movie, read on to see why. There's a lot here, so I'll give you an overview, and if you want the analysis, just look for my subsequent posts over the next couple weeks.

A Tale of Two Numbers...

...and a definition.

The first number: $6 Billion, that is $6,000,000,000. The amount of money the CRP estimates was spent on the 2012 election campaigns.

The second number: 50 Million, that is 50,000,000. The number of goats that my favorite international charity, Heifer, could have provided to impoverished families with that amount of money.


Why goats? Well, because goats are useful. They provide milk and manure while alive and meat and hide when dead. And they reproduce more goats which provide more milk, manure, meat, and hide.

Time for an emotionally charged picture.

So for the price of 50 million goats for people who simply need food and milk, we have nearly the same government today as yesterday.


Now a definition.

Unconscionable:

1: not guided or controlled by conscience : unscrupulous (Lacking moral principles.)

2 a : excessive, unreasonable

   b : shockingly unfair or unjust
 
This excess of campaign spending is unconscionable in every sense.


So,

To Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney,

You should both be ashamed of yourselves for allowing and participating in this excess.


To My Fellow Citizens,

Don't allow this to continue. In the future, when you see or hear a political ad, turn off the tv, turn off the radio, put down the newspaper. Just walk away. If the ads don't reach people, they will stop paying for them, and just maybe that money will go to someone deserving. And when you go to open your wallet and donate to a politician's campaign, please take a second to consider the goat instead.

Thanks,

S.J. Forester