I love House. (And I’m not talking about HGTV — this is a show about a doctor that has just about the best dialogue on the planet). I love House because he (and the other characters, like Wilson) say things that make me howl, stop the Tivo and beat the sofa in hilarity. Clearly, the writers of House have let their characters off their leashes, allowing them to say all sorts of crazy things, and create sparks that are delicious for the reader. Fighting words, I call them. And that is my super secret Susie hint to writing great dialogue. What are Fighting Words? Interruptions: “Hey Susie, we don’t have enough days –” “Can’t you see I’m in the middle of a post here, Rachel?” Name-calling – “Maybe you don’t […]
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Yes, I’m talking to myself
“I think she’s off one of her days,” Rachel said just above a whisper to the MBT audience. Yeah, Susie could hear her, but really, did Rachel have to point out that she was losing her mind? “So today is Thursday, and I might have thought yesterday was Tuesday, which makes me wonder what I was doing on Monday, but that just means that I’ll post my hint to great dialogue on FRIDAY, and our excerpts on Saturday, or Monday, so just calm down, Florida Girl.” ***** We’re going to be dissecting that ever so riveting dialogue today and tomorrow in MBT… And then, because yes, I might be losing my mind and thinking that this week has 8 days, when it doesn’t, we’ll do our dialogue house calls on […]
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“I want to talk to you.” “Hi, Maggy. How are you?” “Don’t ‘how are you’ me! I can’t believe that you came back to take away Cole’s land.” Okay, I admit it. Dialogue is my favorite part in the book. I just love to hear people get into arguments, dodge questions, tell it like it is, and most of all, give each other the what for. Sometimes (and this is the schizophrenic writer side of me) I will even talk out loud as I’m writing dialogue, just to get the inflection. (Besides, I can say anything to myself and not get into trouble!) But what is the secret to sizzling dialogue? What’s the difference between writing conversations that zing or mind-numbing dialogue that causes a book to end face down […]
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