{"id":12120,"date":"2015-03-03T01:00:27","date_gmt":"2015-03-03T09:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/?p=12120"},"modified":"2015-03-01T14:45:33","modified_gmt":"2015-03-01T22:45:33","slug":"create-dialogue-outside-jackie-blain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/03\/create-dialogue-outside-jackie-blain\/","title":{"rendered":"Create Dialogue\u2026 From the Outside In by Jackie Blain"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Join me as we welcome back columnist\u00a0Jackie Blain as she shares with us \u201cCreate Dialogue\u2026 From the Outside In\u201d\u00a0Enjoy!<\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Who doesn\u2019t have trouble with dialogue, at least some of the time?<\/strong> It seems like some writers are just born with an ear while the rest of us work hard to develop ours. It used to be that we could go to coffee shops and listen to\/make notes about the conversations going on around us, but coffee shops have become the new study hall, and conversations happen via text.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s a writer to do?<\/p>\n

One thing we do know is that the best dialogue grows out of character:<\/strong> the way a person talks is a product of their history, their environment, their work, education, family, etc. So we often resort to writing long biographies of our characters largely out of a desperate need to figure out how they sound.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a good impulse, but even then, we often find our characters in our first drafts all sound alike\u2026 and they all sound like us!<\/p>\n

Actors, of course, have the same problem when they approach a character.<\/strong> Who is this person, and how do they really sound? Many actors start with the bio, then ask \u201cwhat\u2019s happening to this person now and how do I show that?\u201d Inside-out, if you will.<\/p>\n

However, the stage-trained British actors I\u2019ve worked with tell me they\u2019re schooled to work from the outside in. Ian McKellen once said he had no idea how to approach Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings<\/em><\/a> trilogy. After all, we don\u2019t have a lot of wizards walking around so there\u2019s no way to interview one and do research. But when he put on the hat and the beard and picked up the staff\u2026 he had it! Outside-in.<\/p>\n

This exercise works just like that (by the way, have fun with it!):<\/strong><\/p>\n

Part one: Create a character<\/strong><\/p>\n