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Met a retired librarian at a park bench who changed my whole approach to dialogue
I was stuck on a chapter in Cincinnati last fall and this older lady named Ruth just sat down and started talking. She told me to stop writing dialogue like people in movies talk, and instead write down what actual strangers say at bus stops or grocery lines. Her example was a guy who said 'the rain's got no manners today' instead of just saying it was raining. I've been keeping a little notebook of real overheard lines ever since. Anyone else pick up writing tricks from random strangers like that?
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matthewp5221d ago
That Ruth lady gets it.
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mason_ward21d ago
Oh man, Ruth definitely nailed it. I just hope she doesn't get dragged into the usual Twitter mob for speaking her mind - seems like anytime someone says something that actually makes sense these days, people lose their minds over it. She probably woke up this morning just trying to grab a coffee and now she's trending for having a normal take.
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