Tag: dialogue

Hi storytellers! After focusing in on dialogue on Day 16, now we’re going to zoom in even tighter, on just one side of a conversation. Here’s your daily prompt.

Day 18 Prompt: “Write a story today in which the reader only hears one side of the conversation. This could be a telephone conversation, a text conversation, a series of social media updates, a series of letters, whatever.”

Julie at StoryADay gives a couple of good examples: the old Bob Newhart “telephone” comedy routines, and Neil Gaiman’s story “Orange,” which unfolds as answers to a series of police interrogation questions that are not a part of the story. For further inspiration, simply look around. Instead of giving that rude guy speaking loudly into a cell phone on your morning commute the evil eye, you just might grab a notebook and thank him.

We are charging past the StoryADay halfway point and full steam ahead writers! I hope you had fun writing a list story yesterday. “My Day in Band Names,” is a loose accounting of my day, told through band names I thought of as I went about my day. Not exactly fiction, but a technique I could use equally to describe a fictional character’s day.

Today’s prompt asks us to exercise two important skills: (1) revealing a story through conversation and (2) giving each speaker a unique and recognizable voice. Try experimenting with characters whose voices are unlike your own.

Day 16 Prompt: “Write a Story completely in dialogue.” The reader should be able to keep the speakers straight without dialogue attributions (e.g., “he said,” “she said,” “they exclaimed”).