creative writing Resources for students in Mr. DeCubellis' Creative Writing 157

Advanced practice due Thursday

0. Read the information on this link: http://creative-writing-course.thecraftywriter.com/writing-dialogue/

1. Bring your writer’s notebook to a public place such as the mall, the food court, etc. and discreetly (thanks, Scott ) listen in on a conversation between or among two or three people who have speech patterns different from yours. (You may have to rely on stereotypes at first to narrow things down and to be unobtrusive.)

2.  Spend between three and five minutes writing down the way the words are spoken, the cadences, unique phrases, use of language– anything that brings to light the differences in the speech patterns from your own.

3. Imagine a context as if these were characters in a story and fictionalize some dialog in a natural way that captures the feel you noted above and provides exposition to the story’s conflict.  Subtle use of punctuation here and there goes a long way.  (Your goal here is merely to practice by writing about a half-page to a page worth of exposition to a short story you may or may not ever complete.  You should, of course, experiment with narration from different points of view to accompany the dialog. Remember, less dialog is often more!)

4. Repeat this process twice more for completely different speakers with completely different speech patterns.  Be sure to vary your narrator and point of view with each one and to keep the focus on immersing your I.R. into the world of talk you create.

5.  Write a brief reflection comparing how your written dialog is similar to and differs from the real thing.  What aspects of dialog did you fictionalize? Why? What aspects of dialog did you keep the same?  Which of the three is the most immersive and natural sounding?  How do you know?