Hot take: My old way of writing dialogue was like driving with the parking brake on

Used to plan every line before typing. Scripted conversations like a play. Felt stiff. Couldn't figure out why my characters sounded like robots. Then last month I tried something different. Sat at a Denny's in Bakersfield and just wrote down how the waitress talked to the cook. Real interruptions. Half finished sentences. People talking over each other. That's when it clicked. Real dialogue is messy. It's not polished. People don't say exactly what they mean. Now I just let my characters talk. Type whatever comes out. Fix it later. Way more natural. Anyone else have that moment where they realized their writing method was completely backwards?

3 comments

3 Comments

veram9928d ago

My uncle used to build hot rods in his garage and he'd always tell me the worst thing you could do was overthink the carburetor. You just gotta let the engine tell you what it needs, listen to the sputters and backfires. Kinda clicked for me when I was trying to write a scene between two old guys on a porch, realized I was giving them these perfect back-and-forth lines like a sitcom instead of the way my uncle and his buddy would bicker for ten minutes about the best way to season a brisket.

richard_dixon27d ago

Honestly sounds like your uncle was overthinking the brisket too.

sullivan.finley27d ago

Man I wrote a whole short story once where two mechanics were having this deep philosophical conversation about life. Looked back at it later and realized real mechanics just grunt at each other and point at things. Had to rewrite the whole thing. My uncle would have laughed his ass off if he read that first draft.