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That time a retiree at a library writing group told me my dialogue sounded like a police report
She said it after I read a scene set in a coffee shop and my characters were just trading factual statements about the weather, and now every time I write a conversation I hear her voice in my head asking if real people actually talk like that, so has anyone else had a random critique from a stranger that totally reshaped how you approach a specific part of your writing?
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karen_west592d ago
Man I think that lady did you a favor without even meaning to, because so many people don't realize how much we talk around stuff instead of just saying it straight. We'll talk about the weather or traffic or some random thing but really we're checking if the other person's in a good mood or if they're hiding something or if they're about to leave. My whole life I've noticed how people dance around the real conversation and that police report style dialogue you mentioned it's actually pretty common in how we talk on the surface but not what's underneath. Once you start listening to how actual humans avoid saying what they mean, it changes how you write everything not just the talking parts.
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