When I'm wearing my other hat(s), that of mother and housewife, I'm constantly rattling off witty and engaging dialogue for whatever scene I've been working on. There's a natural flow to the conversation and my humor actually makes sense, well, to me anyway. I'm totally feeling like things are clicking . . . and yet, it never fails that as soon as I try to write down my little gems of diction, the words just fly 'write' out my head. Talk about frustration!
I've tried having my voice recorder handy and usually I get a slice of the cleverness, but never the whole pie! Even when I sit down to write, my dialogue feels choppy, or worse, I can't visualize the conversation within the given scene. This is just a recent development, so I'm hoping "this too shall pass", but in the meantime, I'm attempting a new strategy.
Here's the leavening, that with any luck, will raise my flat dialogue:
Before I sit down to write a scene, I'm going to sketch out a quick road map for where I want things to go. When I have a taste for the events to come, I'll draft out the dialogue FIRST. Once the verbiage is down, then I'll go back and "fill-in" the rest of the scene with descriptions, feelings, and movement, etc.
I have NO idea if this plan of attack will work. All I know is I need something to jack-hammer myself out of this dialogue funk I fell into!
What about you? Have you ever resorted to thinking outside the box to conquer a glitch in your writing process? Better still, did it work?! lol
I've tried having my voice recorder handy and usually I get a slice of the cleverness, but never the whole pie! Even when I sit down to write, my dialogue feels choppy, or worse, I can't visualize the conversation within the given scene. This is just a recent development, so I'm hoping "this too shall pass", but in the meantime, I'm attempting a new strategy.
Here's the leavening, that with any luck, will raise my flat dialogue:
Before I sit down to write a scene, I'm going to sketch out a quick road map for where I want things to go. When I have a taste for the events to come, I'll draft out the dialogue FIRST. Once the verbiage is down, then I'll go back and "fill-in" the rest of the scene with descriptions, feelings, and movement, etc.
I have NO idea if this plan of attack will work. All I know is I need something to jack-hammer myself out of this dialogue funk I fell into!
What about you? Have you ever resorted to thinking outside the box to conquer a glitch in your writing process? Better still, did it work?! lol
1 comment:
Hi Sarah!
So how has the new process worked out?
I wish I had a better answer for you--I have kept myself awake nights "writing" in my mind, musing over a scene and having the right hook, the right dialogue--the right everything--only to wake the next morning with a big ol' blank slate.
Stephen King once said you never forget a good idea. I hope he's right LOL.
I have note pads stashed in different areas around the house and try to utilize those when something good pops into my head. If only I could ever find a pen....
Post a Comment