Friday, July 1, 2011

It Already has Onions on it Moron

“It already has onions on it moron.” I overheard the cafeteria worker say this to the man at the counter.


“Excuse me?” The man apparently wanted to make sure he heard her right.

“The sandwich comes with onions. Would you like me to put more on it?”

Whew, she always seemed like such a nice lady and I was glad to hear she didn’t really call him a moron. I did have to laugh, though.

I love listening to conversation. I try not to be snoopy and obnoxious but people say the funniest things.

As a writer dialogue is an important part of a novel. It has to be authentic. That’s where my studying the things people say comes in handy. When people read my stories I want my characters to ring true and be something my reader can relate to.

Sometimes when I write dialogue I write too formal. It sounds stilted and people on the whole don’t talk like that. Sometimes you have to break the rules to make it work. So I keep listening to the way people talk to give me insight into good dialogue.

3 comments:

  1. Haha! Great blog! And thanks for finding mine btw... :)

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  2. Thanks Matt! I've been loving your blog. I appreciate your honesty and transparency.

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  3. HA HAHA!!!!!
    Gotta love live conversation!!
    Even funny when 2 people think they are talking about the same thing and are actually at polar opposites of the conversation. Or at least I've heard rumors about that. ;-)

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