>>> Item number 40275 from WRITERS LOG9411A --- (45 records) ----- <<<
Date:         Sun, 6 Nov 1994 11:43:25 EST
Reply-To:     WRITERS <WRITERS@NDSUVM1.BITNET>
Sender:       WRITERS <WRITERS@NDSUVM1.BITNET>
From:         "wasted bits and..." <mbarker@MIT.EDU>
Subject:      EXERCISE:  Dialogue 101

    "So, Billy, you're in trouble?"
    "Yeah, and..."
    "Why don't you tell me all about it?"
    "I, uh, well..."
    "Did it all start that night when you stole the car?"

er, uh, yes, you too can write stilted, awkward dialogue!

[I think I can, I think I can...]

so, let's practice!

1.  pick two (or more) characters.

2.  pick a scene--a background for the conversation.  we want a little
more than talking heads, so decide where they are talking.  In a
coffeeshop over tea and cakes?  squatting in the alley waiting for the
aliens to find the last two real humans?

3.  pick a point of view.  most likely, we (the readers) are hovering
near one person or in their head (limited third person or first person I
believe are the correct terms).

4.  and one of the other people (the other person in a dialogue) has a
problem (information, question, whatever) that they want to bring up,
but they are having trouble opening up.  (pick your crisis:  losing job,
death, marriage, illness, accident, leaving home, graduation,
retirement, changing jobs, changing homes, murder, rape, kidnap,
brainwashing, blasphemy, "little Jane's soul has been stolen by a
demon," or...)

5.  write it.  don't forget that these people are talking to each
other--NOT to us as readers.  they aren't likely to tell each other
about background, although it may be implied by what they do talk about.

[I DID!]

write soon!
tink