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Took a creative writing workshop last month and one guy just said 'your dialogue sounds like a robot reading a manual'
That comment made me rewrite every conversation scene by reading them out loud before I type them, and now I'm actually getting comments about my characters sounding real, has anyone else had a single piece of feedback that totally changed your process?
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susan6491mo ago
That kind of feedback can actually mess you up if you lean into it too hard. Reading everything out loud makes your dialogue too clean and deliberate, like a TV script where nobody trips over their words or talks in circles. Real people say "um" and trail off and interrupt themselves. Your workshop guy just had a personal preference. If you apply that one rule to everything, you'll end up with characters who all sound the same - smooth and polished, no rough edges.
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noahmartin1mo agoTop Commenter
Yeah, I read something similar from a playwright once. She said real speech is full of half-finished sentences and people jumping on each other's words. Makes sense why some workshop advice can flatten everything out. Have you tried recording actual conversations and transcribing them? It's wild how messy people really talk.
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amy9741mo ago
Huh, so like when's the line between "natural sounding" and just "sloppy writing"? I feel like there's gotta be a sweet spot right?
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