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Exercise #10: Craft
Posted 7/4/03
Good dialog in a story helps move it along; much as you know when watching a murder mystery that everything is a clue, in writing, good dialog always contains information. It may not be what the character is saying that matters, but how they're saying it. Using dialect, accent, or slang can show a lot about your character. A man who says "ain't" in his conversation likely doesn't have a college degree. (Though he might!)
What people don't always realize is that dialog in writing is actually much different from living speech. For instance, this was something said to me today: "I have a computer problem. The thing, you know, the thing on the top. That bar-thing across the top. It's gone. I can't work without it. Can you come put it back?"
Or my personal favorite, from sometime last year: "My mouse is a salt-shaker! Help!"
It would be hard to convince your audience that your main character sails his own boat around the bay if he tells someone he was "sitting out there, in the front part of the boat." Someone who knows his way around a boat would know the proper wording. (Bow, isn't it? And stern for the back?)
Similarly, we can't add in all the ums and ers and like you knows we hear in everyday speech. Soon our dialog would be too cluttered to make sense!
For this exercise, we're going to write some dialog. Pick a short conversation you overhear or are part of. Record it, write it down, remember it, whatever works for you, but get it as close to verbatim as you can. Then read what you've written. Would you want to see it in a story?
Now, rewrite it for your piece. Take out the inaccuracies, the hesitations, the pointless ramblings. Edit it for your story so that it's coherent and adds information. Post your edited version to the list, and include a short pre-Sub intro about where, when, who, or context if the piece needs it.
You may feel free to post the original conversation at the bottom of your Sub. (Don't add this or the intro in your word count.)
Word limit: 1200
Please use the subject line:
SUB: Exercise #10/yourname
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