Write on Wednesday- Dialogue Detective

Write On Wednesdays Exercise 2 - *Detective Dialogue: For this exercise you need to be a little bit sneaky. And brave. You need to be around at least 2 other people (or a small child who will happily chat to himself and/or imaginary friends). Write down a conversation/ dialogue exchange as you hear it. Feel free to write down things that accompany the dialogue (E.G. gestures, interruptions, accents) but don't worry about this too much. It is more important to capture the way words are used in natural speech. Try not to let anyone know what you are doing. It might alter the natural flow of their words (it could also be a tad embarrassing for you!). If you can get out to a park, cafe or shop like Naughty Mumma, then this is a wonderful chance to get some new writing ideas and get some practise in dialogue writing. If you can't get out (and I know this is a reality for some of us) you can copy down the dialogue between your partner and your child. Or the conversation between two of your children or even one side of your partner's phone conversation. If you are really stuck, turn on the TV and copy down the dialogue between a couple of TV characters.

I have been quite slack on this task.  I have  written two conversations here. 

This first was from a TV show.  I couldn't keep up with the dialogue.  I cannot type that fast.  I tried about 10 different conversations and this was the one where I managed to actually get the most written down.  It’s between a father and a son which is then interrupted by one of the boy’s friends.

“The photos are pretty hot.”

“What photos?”

“The photos on Girls gone wild. The ones Shane has on his phone.”

Door knock

“Hello. Mr …” He is quickly cut off.

“Hey, where did you get those photos of that girl?”

“Everyone at school has them. They are everywhere.  They went viral.”

 

 

This second one probably doesn’t actually meet the goal of this exercise as I am one of the participants. So I figured that I cheated on this task.  The conversation is actually between me and Boy Child.  I liked it bounced around between the topics..

“Katie says that there’s a year between college and university. So I can be doing what I want by the time I’m 26.”

“You don’t have to have that year off.  It’s called a gap year. ”

“Well there’s a year between Year 12 and University where you can just do whatever you want or earn money.”

“Yes, that’s called a gap year.  Some people have a year off to decide what they actually want to do at Uni.  Or travel. You don’t have to have have that year off though.”

“Oh, okay.  Then I can be doing what I want by 25 then.”

“So you’ll finish Year 12 at 18 and then go to Uni.  You still want to be a Dr then?”

“Yes.”

“What kind of Dr? Neurologist, cardiologist or what?”

“Well not a Dermatologist.”

“You don’t like skin?”

“Well I don’t look after my own very well.”

“Because it”s dry?” He nods “Have you been using that cream?”

“Yes.”

“Regularly?”

“Well I used it twice.”  Pause. “On the same day.  Last week I think.”

 

So there you go. I hope this counts.