How Eavesdropping Can Improve Your Writing
by Edie Melson @EdieMelson I read somewhere once that good dialogue is a conversation with the boring parts taken out. I completely agree. Just record and transcribe a normal conversation and you�ll see that it isn�t all that interesting to read without a lot of judicious editing. But even armed with that knowledge, how do we as writers, determine what�s boring and what�s not? That�s a skill that takes practice. I believe good dialogue is more like music than anything else. We start with the rules, learning the craft and the technique. But to become masters we must develop an ear, a sense if you will, of what translates well to the page and what does not. Today I�m addressing how to develop an ear for dialogue. The foundation for that lies in eavesdropping. Although we rarely reproduce something we hear word-for-word. There is a natural cadence to dialogue that comes only by listening. We must learn to edit dialogue down to its essence without loosing that rhythm. Too...