Story Telling Crash Course - Session Fourteen: Using Dialogs

When you work in coffee shops, you get to hear a lot of interesting stuff. For instance, the other day, I was sitting next to two suits, probably in their lunch break. One of them was actually an acquaintance, a media guy I knew for some time. We briefly talked when he entered the coffee shop, sharing life stories and future plans and then, when his meeting arrived, they sat at another table.

-- So, when do you think we can move forward? asked the first.
-- Well, it depends, answered the second, the one that I knew.
-- Let's try to build some estimates here, ok? insisted the first. Give me something I can work with.
-- Hmm, so, maybe if we can have the first stage ready in 3 months, I can look at a 6 months window until everything is ok.
-- So what do we need to make sure we have the first stage ready in 3 months? insisted the first.

My friend sipped a bit of coffee, looked over the window and then answered:

-- First of all, we need to have access to resources. And then, we make sure we don't hit some unexpected obstacles. The market moves quite fast. And third, we need to keep every thing at the same level of confidentiality. Nothing goes out. We need to make sure our plans are not public. This could heavily affect the price.

The first one sipped in turn and, after a short pause, replied.

-- Ok, so what do you need from me?

At this point a group entered in the coffee shop and, as they were quite loud, I didn't hear anything more.

What you read above is, obviously, an imaginary conversation (to be honest, I imagined this conversation taking place not between those two guys - which were for real, by the way, I actually met that friend - but between @ned and @dan). Although it's not real, it's a conversation that could actually happen. Or at least that's the feeling you get when you read it.

Dialogs are quirky. You need to have enough pause between them so the reader still remembers who is who. You also need to create some context. Add moves, poses, images that are helping the reader to create a picture of the whole scene in their minds. And you also have to make sure there is coherence between the two (or more characters) that you are "listening".

Assignment: write an imaginary dialogue you hear on the beach. It doesn't have to be real, or funny, or in any other way than readable, plausible, something that will make me feel like I'm right there. Please tag the post with challenge30 and story so I can find it. Alternatively, leaving a comment here with a link to your piece will also help.

I will personally review all the assignments and I will award the one that I like the most with 1 SBD.

Links to previous sessions:

I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.