Keeping track of the speaker/subject in written conversation


This question may be a bit broad/vague but any advice would be much
appreciated.

I'm struggling to follow the implied topic in the book I'm reading. The book
is mostly just a conversation between lots of people with very little
supporting narrative e.g.

> 「 」  
>  「 」  
>  「 」  
>  まる子はあきれたように言った。  
>  「 」

Sometimes the 言った seems to refer to the previous quote, and sometimes to the
following quote, and so on.

Because I've only been learning for a year it can take me a while to figure
what the sentence is saying, let alone who said it or who they said it about.

Beginner books tell me that the topic of conversation stays the same until
someone asserts a new topic with は. That seems to be very far from the truth
in reality.

Are there any obvious tricks I'm missing that help me keep track of who is
speaking and who they are speaking about?




> Are there any obvious tricks I'm missing that help me keep track of who is
> speaking and who they are speaking about? Thanks.

・Pronouns  
This one's pretty obvious. What pronouns do each character tend to refer to
themselves with? What pronouns do they tend to use to refer to certain other
characters?

・Gender indicators  
Besides pronouns, there may be other indicators of gender. Declarative
statements ending in の, female sentence ending particles (わよ、わね), etc.

・Speech style  
Some characters speak roughly, some speak like upper-class gentlemen, some
speak like young children, etc.

・[[役割語]{やくわりご}](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BD%B9%E5%89%B2%E8%AA%9E)  
This is the above taken to the extreme. Japanese has certain speech styles
reserved for 'the wise old man', 'the country bumpkin', etc.

・[キャラ[語尾]{ごび}](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BD%B9%E5%89%B2%E8%AA%9E#.E3.82.AD.E3.83.A3.E3.83.A9.E8.AA.9E.E5.B0.BE)  
Related to the above again, but some characters have stupid things they like
to tack on the end of their sentences. Naruto's 「～だってばよ」, the cat like style
of some catty characters (～ですにゃあ), Moogles' (～クポ), etc.

・Relative status  
Characters will often differ in social status. You might be able to tell which
character is speaking to or about which other character through use of keigo
and other politeness indicators.

* * *

edit:

「このコーヒーなんか変！」  
「おいしいだろ？ちょっとウイスキーを入れてみたんだ。アイリッシュコーヒーっていうのさ」  
「えー！お酒入ってるってこと？？」  
「あなた！お酒はダメでしょ！○○ちゃんはまだ未成年だから」  
「そうだな、悪い…」

I just made up a random convo with no context, but you can tell it goes A, B,
A, C, B — A being the daughter, B being the father, and C being the
mother/wife — from the style of speech and how they refer to each other.




> Are there any obvious tricks I'm missing that help me keep track of who is
> speaking and who they are speaking about? Thanks.

・Pronouns  
This one's pretty obvious. What pronouns do each character tend to refer to
themselves with? What pronouns do they tend to use to refer to certain other
characters?

・Gender indicators  
Besides pronouns, there may be other indicators of gender. Declarative
statements ending in の, female sentence ending particles (わよ、わね), etc.

・Speech style  
Some characters speak roughly, some speak like upper-class gentlemen, some
speak like young children, etc.

・[[役割語]{やくわりご}](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BD%B9%E5%89%B2%E8%AA%9E)  
This is the above taken to the extreme. Japanese has certain speech styles
reserved for 'the wise old man', 'the country bumpkin', etc.

・[キャラ[語尾]{ごび}](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BD%B9%E5%89%B2%E8%AA%9E#.E3.82.AD.E3.83.A3.E3.83.A9.E8.AA.9E.E5.B0.BE)  
Related to the above again, but some characters have stupid things they like
to tack on the end of their sentences. Naruto's 「～だってばよ」, the cat like style
of some catty characters (～ですにゃあ), Moogles' (～クポ), etc.

・Relative status  
Characters will often differ in social status. You might be able to tell which
character is speaking to or about which other character through use of keigo
and other politeness indicators.

* * *

edit:

「このコーヒーなんか変！」  
「おいしいだろ？ちょっとウイスキーを入れてみたんだ。アイリッシュコーヒーっていうのさ」  
「えー！お酒入ってるってこと？？」  
「あなた！お酒はダメでしょ！○○ちゃんはまだ未成年だから」  
「そうだな、悪い…」

I just made up a random convo with no context, but you can tell it goes A, B,
A, C, B — A being the daughter, B being the father, and C being the
mother/wife — from the style of speech and how they refer to each other.

