Finished this latest Matt Scudder novel last night. I like Block a lot. He keeps you interested from page to page, there don't seem to be a whole lot of wasted words. Yet there is plenty of story and backstory and such to make for a well rounded plot and novel.

I was noticing, in his dialogue, that a lot of characters are starting to talk like a lot of the other characters. I don't know if this is laziness or just Block's way. It's not bad; I enjoy "listening" to them talk. They seem to put unique spins on discussions. The only trouble is, a lot of the spins seem similar from character to character, if that makes any sense. But they could be in a Bernie Rhodenbarr novel, or a Keller novel, or a Scudder novel. They just have a similar quality about them.

This is something I struggled with in my own writing. It was pointed out to me that many of my characters talk like the other characters. Probably this is because this is how I "hear" the dialogue in my own head. And because, after all, I am the one "saying" this stuff. It's hard to give them their own inflections, their own tones. Slang and poor wording only go so far. I worked on it and I like it better now, but it's probably not perfect. But I can't "hear" the problem now. Maybe someone else can.

Have a great weekend, if anyone's reading this...