Writing Challenge

Write a dialogue about a topic you feel strongly about, an issue or situation about which you know you are ‘right.’

This conversation could be contemporary (although that could lead you down a spiky rabbit hole these days…), but even better is to create a conversation, real or imagined, relating to a past event. A dialogue about something that you saw differently from the other person in question.

Write 1-2 pages of this conversation without worrying too much about the ‘quality’ of the writing. Just create a rapid back-and-forth, an ‘I said, s/he said’ exchange.

Take a moment and jot it down now. Don’t go on until you’ve written the conversation.

OK – is that dialogue written and sitting in front of you? – now rewrite the entire conversation from the other person’s perspective. You are shifting into their character and seeing the entire conversation from their point of view. Remember: they think they’re right.

(Did you bristle? If so, you’re on the right track.)

This isn’t a peace-keeping exercise, but rather it is the honing of an essential ability. For when we write about other people, we must be able not only to see them as characters in our stories, but to embody, inhabit and speak as them. It is the only way we can create authentic, multidimensional characters.

Creating a dialogue or scene that is nuanced and complex will always be more interesting than a simple right/wrong scenario.

It will also be more true.