Park Dialogues

Test your creative skills with this fun workout.

I've always been very curious - OK, let's call it nosey - about people: what they have to say and why they say it. From a very small age I got used to 'listening in' to adult conversations. This was quite an easy thing to do as I tended to be glued to my mum who, I think, must have simply forgotten I was there and so carried on talking about grown-up things.

I like to think this is why I gravitated towards being a writer: I like people and want to know what they think about all manner of things. As a journalist my job is to ask a few questions and then listen, interrupting only to steer my interviewees towards more interesting or relevant (to the feature) topics. As an author, I love writing scenes of dialogue - putting words into my characters' mouths in a way that sounds authentic but is sometimes, I hope, unexpected or funny.

Whenever I teach dialogue workshops, I do the exercises myself alongside my clients. It doesn't matter how often I do this; the point for me is to come up with something completely different each time. I might set myself an extra task to do with tone, making a conversation funny, poignant, romantic, etc.

Another way I practise dialogue writing is by jotting down snippets of conversations as I'm walking my dogs. As the girls (Dottie and Pippa) trot beside me, I take note of the first thing I hear from each cluster of people we pass. I don't linger or attempt to eavesdrop. I simply make a note of the first complete sentence I hear as I walk by. And then when I get home, I try to weave these sentences into a conversation, sticking to the order in which I heard them. The point of this exercise is that the conversation I write, between two people, has to seem natural. I can't just go off on tangents. It sounds silly but try it and see. I think it's a great dialogue workout.

If you don't posses an incorrigible curiosity, have a go at these exercises: Each group of sentences needs to be reworked into an interesting and authentic sounding conversation between two people. The aim is to keep these lines in the order that I've written them, and then write the bits in between - the parts (short or long) of dialogue that take these two people from A to B to C and so on.

1: Conversations from my local Dog Park:

A: It's because we've got chicken.

B: And then she got paralytic at a wedding.

C: It's always the girls, always the girls.

D: Did you bring any money?

E: Oh my god, look at Nicky.

2: Conversations from Kew Gardens (see Pagoda pic above):

A: It's one thing after another.

B: Those roses put mine to shame.

C: He's got a bus pass so there's no excuse.

D: No, we need to go home now.

E: It's marvelous, don't you think?

3: Conversations from a tube journey:

A: I'm not babysitting him anymore.

B: What time are you home?

C: I said, "Forget it. You look so stupid".

D: No way! Are you crazy?

E: She has too much homework this week.