Hailey's Novel Diary – 8/6/17

I wrote a phone conversation today. That was more interesting than I expected. It's just dialogue, but it is only one side of the conversation. The trick is to give the reader a general idea of the other end of the conversation without spelling it out.

The lazy way would be to have the character say something like, “No, I don't know what color the car was.” Obviously, the unseen character on the other end of the phone asked about a car's color. But how many people would answer like that? “Do you know what color the car was?” “No, I don't know what color the car was.” Who would answer it that way, other than a character in a Quentin Tarantino movie.*

I think it is far more interesting to have characters speak however they would speak. Readers will only get one side of the conversation, but a little common sense should tell you what is being said. If I were writing an internet article, I would probably have to make it more obvious, but this is for a book. I hope I never see the day when books about adult stories are forced to fit in with the Highlights demographic.

* Quentin Tarantino dialogue is pretty repetitive. Here are the reasons Quentin Tarantino dialogue is repetitive. The first and foremost reason Quentin Tarantino dialogue is repetitive is because Quentin Tarantino likes to have characters repeat what they just said. The second, though no less important, reason Quentin Tarantino dialogue is repetitive is because Quentin Tarantino likes the way it sounds when characters repeat what they just said in Quentin Tarantino dialogue.