Somebody's sweeeepy

Practicing Dialogue

It was a hazy summer mid-day in New York City. We were on top of our apartment building looking out at the beautiful city. The wind was blowing the loose strands of my up-do hair, while I tried to keep my body from shivering. A thought then occurred to me in that moment, 

"Wouldn't you just love to runaway somewhere?" I asked as I uncrossed my arms. "Somewhere you could just start over?" 

Alyssa looked at me like I had caught her off guard. 

"I don't know... doesn't that scare you?" 

I turned back towards the horizon, staring at the beautiful concrete jungle when Alyssa blurted out abruptly, 

"Lets do it." 

"Do what?" I said confused.

"Runaway somewhere!" 

I started thinking about it, about how I could start over. I really wanted a fresh start. But I couldn't just leave my job and other friends and family behind, I just couldn't. 

"Don't think about it Elena, just..." 

I started to float off into a wonder land. Wondering what would happen or what wouldn't happen if I did or didn't go. 

"...And would be an amazing story to tell our kids one day!" Alyssa finished. 

"Yes." I blurted. 

"Yes?" Alyssa replied. 

"Lets runaway." I said. 

LEGEND: 

DIALOGUE 

NON-VERBAL

Wreck this App: #2

This journal entry asked me to draw fat lines and thin lines. I feel like my drawing skills have gotten even worse since nursery... 

Santa came early this year!

This is my new puppy Lily! We got her on Monday, and she's 8 weeks old. She is an absolute angel. I wish we still had show and tell in grade 12 just so I could bring her in for everyone to see!

Wreck This App: #1

The first entry of my journal told me to use the page as a test screen for my art tools, and it's pretty obvious that I drew I nice summer's day. Duh. 

Hey lil'bud!

Wouldn't you just love to be woken up by this cute little guy? I know I would! 

Thinking About Dialogue: Answers

1.    Talk about the process of eavesdropping: 

                                                i.      Where did you go?

                                               ii.       How long did you listen to conversation?

                                              iii.      Who was it between?

                                              iv.      How did it feel to be recording the conversation? 

1. Danielle, Annika and I walked around downstairs for a bit before making our way upstairs, and sitting in on some kids talking about absolute nonsense by the big window upstairs. I'd say we listened to their conversation for a solid 7 minutes before realizing just how awkward and uncomfortable it was what we were doing. It was between these two random kids, pretty sure they were in grade 11. I honestly felt like a creepy obsessed stalker writing down every word they spoke and every emotion they expressed while talking. It was weird and uncomfortable, but it was also fun and funny!

2.    What insights did you gain about the way people speak?

I noticed how much people use body language while talking. People are so animated while telling a story. This kid was talking about how good the song he was listening too, and when he started singing he would do an action with every word he sang, I thought it was pretty entertaining. I also noticed that neither of them liked looking at each other while one another spoke, I found that a little weird. The guy who was singing, liked to use a lot of sound effects and emphasis when he talked! When he got really excited, his volume would raise and his expression brightened, and when he talked about something not as exciting, his volume came down and his facial expression went down with it.

3.    How can you apply this to your writing?

I feel I could incorporate some sort of sound effects in my writing, and I should definitely write the expression/emotion changes with whatever they're talking about. I could also write about how their volume changes with what they're talking about as well.

4.    How is personality and character revealed through conversation/dialogue?

I believe that the personality and character of someone is revealed in the way they express the story. By that I mean, if they use a lot of hand gestures and big bright eyes, I feel they're a very passionate and loyal person. As aposed to someone who kind of talks in a monotone manner, with no body language whatsoever, I feel these kinds of people don't care about anything because they don't even care about what they're talking about in the moment.

5.    What happens when more than two people participate in a conversation?

I definitely think it's a lot louder than a two person conversation, because everyone's trying to get their story in there someway and somehow. I feel it's also a lot more intense, whether it be a sad intense, or an excited intense. You could be talking about something depressing, and you get everyone's sadness and sorrows all at once and that can be pretty intense to take in. But it can also be a crazy happy conversation and you take in everyone's hyped up ecstatic energy and vibes and that's also intense, in a super awesome way!

6.    What was the most surprising thing you’ve learned about the way people converse?

I think the most surprising thing I learned while "creeping" was that there's not a lot of eye contact. I mean I'm not one to talk to someone and stare them in the eyes the whole time, cause that would be creepy. But there was little-to-none eye contact and that took me by surprise. I was raised to talk to people while looking at them, not at my phone, so I wasn't used to it.

7.    What are the differences and similarities between written and spoken conversations? 

I feel that the way people converse in written dialogue is way different than in spoken dialogue. When authors are writing out a conversation, there's no tone when writing so I feel you don't know how the character is actually feeling, or how the character even said what he/she said. The conversations in real life are also a lot longer because people talk about more than one topic and keep the conversation going, unlike written dialogue which ends when the topic ends. I guess if I had to pick a similarity it would be what they talked about. A lot of conversations that happen in written dialogue, I could totally see people having in real life situations.