Dispatch from The Quest: Emma Millions | Go Into The Story

Last week as we did here on GITS, the Quest writers focused on the subject of Dialogue. Today?s dispatch: Emma Millions talks about getting to know characters:

This week we?ve been having a dialogue about dialogue. Talking about talking. And thinking about talking. It?s something we normally do a lot of without really thinking about it. Although, as a freelance writer who works from home I can sometimes go for long periods without talking, well, without talking to another human being. My cats would probably tell you a different story, a story about a mad woman who regularly talks absolute b*ll*cks to them all day long. Or they would if they could talk.

We talked about ?voice? last week, as in finding our voice as a writer. But this week it?s all about finding the voices of your characters. How do THEY talk? What would THEY say in the situations you?re putting them in? How do you make sure it?s THEM doing the talking and not you talking, in your own voice, for THEM?

I used to listen to people?s conversations on the bus, in the shops, walking down the streets etc, and I still do. It?s a great way to understand how real people talk in real life. And every now and then I would overhear something, some line or expression, that made me laugh or that I thought was profound or just really stuck with me for some reason. And so I would try and squeeze that line into my scripts. Assign it to a character and write dialogue around it, just to fit it in. I usually loved the line so much that even if it took me hours of agonizing to get it into my script, I would sit there until I could find a way to have a character say it. ?It?s authentic dialogue? I would say to myself. ?This is how people really speak, it will make me seem like a clever and observant writer, someone who gets people and how they talk.? But always, always, always, at some point, that line would have to come out. Yes, it might be a great line of authentic dialogue but it didn?t belong to that character. It belonged to the unsuspecting real life person on the bus who I nicked it from.

Your characters need to have their own great lines that come from them. So you have to follow THEM around on the streets, sit near THEM on the bus, skulk around behind THEM at the shops. Scott Myers even suggested going on a date with them. Yes, it all might sound a little bit, er, crazy, to stalk non-existent characters and spend a romantic evening with them in your head but if it works then why not? I mean, I?m talking to you guys right now in my head (and on the page) and we?ve never met. We do it all the time ? imagine scenarios that may or may not ever happen and go through what you might say and what the other person might say and what might happen and what you might do if they ask to come in for coffee. So instead of doing it with real life people do it with your characters. I?m going out with mine tonight. He?s talking me to his favourite gourmet burger bar, he swears it?s amazing, and then he thought maybe we could play some table football. I know, not the most romantic of dates but that?s the kind of guy he is. Now all I?ve got to work out is what am I going to wear??

One way to look at dialogue is inward journey / outward expression. That is the writer goes on a ?journey? into each character, as deep of an immersion as possible, and through that learning process, the character?s voice ? and hopefully dialogue ? emerges. So we need to do whatever we can to know our characters.

Tomorrow: Another dispatch from The Quest.

About Emma: British based writer of ?the funny?. Lover of cats and bad TV. Often found in pyjamas a bit drunk or a bit hungover. Occasionally does burlesque. Twitter @emmamillions.

Source: http://gointothestory.blcklst.com/2012/08/dispatch-from-the-quest-emma-millions-3.html

drop dead gorgeous ticket city bowl 2011 nfl playoff schedule cowboys vs giants ndaa timberwolves weight watchers