Tuesday 5 October 2010

Writing dialogue

Funny when you have conversations with yourself. I'm working on Erosion now, and it's great, I'm on a roll with chalets collapsing, ground falling away, the shock and devastation.
And then I paused, listening to the characters' words as I was reading them aloud. I imagined I was at the Writers' group and someone said, '....I don't agree with their views.'
And I said, 'Well, they're not you. They don't live in Chorlton, they weren't teachers at universities, they don't quaff wine and go to writers' groups...' and then I started crying.
Someone asked if they were based on people I knew. Not exactly. Definitely not exactly, but they're based on people I've known but only in a hazy estimation (that's not a cop out) and these people with this other way of thinking and living in a world that no longer exists are all dead. And it upset me. And then I realised why these characters have these views. I want the people I knew to be heard. I just want them to be heard. That's all.

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