Breaking Up Dialogue

by Mary C. Long

​It's never easy to write dialogue, but once you start it IS easy to get lost in it. In class, kids were broken into small teams and given writing prompts from which needed to write an ALL dialogue back-and-forth between at least two characters (or running internal dialogue) and then discuss what could be improved in the story and why. The goal was to realize context was important, and breaking up the pace of the rapid back and forth with some character thoughts and setting not only advance the story, but keep the reader interested. Some kids took it a step further and revised their pieces, but the back-and-forths were fun to read, as most of the prompts were crazy. ​

​Writing prompts:

• Two vegetables in a garden, hiding from a rabbit - one who has eaten their friends.
• Two friends having a picnic when a tornado hits. They are in the middle of a field, or another planet.
• Two bank robbers arguing over how to divide up the money they just stole, as they drive away.
• Two strangers stuck in an elevator and overhearing rescuers worrying it's about to fall.
• An old shoe talking to a new shoe about life, as they sit in a closet.
• Two ghosts in a haunted house - they don't know each other nor understand why they're there.
• A bee and a flower trying to tell each other about the world - and realizing they see it so differently.

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​Pop over to The Homeschool Times to read some entries, and many other creative writing pieces from our young writers!
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