The Writer’s Speech

I’ve been thinking a lot about writing dialogue. As so often happens, I get inspiration from what some would call “high” and some would call “low” sources. I recently saw the movie “The King’s Speech." The stuttering king brought aberrant speech patterns front and center for me.

Then there was that video of a dramatic reading of a breakup letter I posted last time, the so-called lower end of the entertainment spectrum. (I say “so called” because I don’t believe in high or low, good or bad, intellectual or dumb…I think those descriptors are subjective, but anyway.) I studied that break up letter with great gusto because it clearly demonstrates that how we humans speak is not how we write…usually.

And that is true especially when we are angry or otherwise passionate; we often don’t make sense when we talk. Or yell. :-) But when we write a letter, even a furious one, we are expected to compose complete and logical sentences. That’s what writing is...a way to go over our words, smooth, and edit our communication.

That break up letter was one of the funniest things I’ve ever read, but I don’t think it would make good fictional dialogue. Neither would too many scenes of the king stumbling over his words. Being real is very important. But being too real is tedious, boring, and perhaps TMI, even if that’s the way people really act and speak. Fiction is supposed to transportive.

Writing dialogue is fiction, and thus part of that equation.