Listening to Dialogue
Every writer wants to capture the voice or sound of dialogue so your characters will speak in a believable way. Your writer’s journal is the perfect place to practice and hone this skill. The best way you can record real dialogue is to do exactly that. Take your journal and sit where you can hear other people speaking. Record only what grabs your attention. Don’t worry if this makes little sense. By sitting and listening you’re tuning your ear into the sound of the voices, not necessarily what they’re saying.
Sound is really what it’s all about, but this can be difficult to convey in writing. Try to take in the way the voices sound in your ear. Make a note or attempt a description of the pitch or tone the speaker uses. Use this to help your writing. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t happy with your first few goes. Keep writing what you hear. Once you’ve caught the inflection and rhythm of your character’s voices the actual words they say will come a lot easier.
Another trick, if you don’t feel like going outside, is to listen to the dialogue only from a movie, preferably one you’ve never seen before. You can do this with TV programmes, too. Doing this forces you to listen and not rely on the visual cues as you might normally while viewing. I hope this helps you with your journal writing.
Tags: journal_writing, journal_writing_ideas-eavesdropping-listening-to-dialog, journal_writing_promptsRelated Stories
POSTED IN: The Writer's Journal
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