Duh-Duh-Dialogue
A writing exercise to explore the effects of sound (rather than exploring sound effects)
Compare ‘the hole is made’ and ‘the pit is dug’ – which space ‘feels’ bigger to you?
The first sentence (‘The hole is made’) mostly features long vowels; the second (‘The pit is dug’), short ones.
The exercise below is one of several relating to sound from the book I’m currently working on, The Art and Craft of Writing, a companion volume to my forthcoming book on story structure, The Unknown Storyteller: or What makes story ‘story’?
The exercise focuses on sounds and sound-painting in English and is designed to help develop and build on this writing skill. It focuses specifically on vowel sounds.
Duh-Duh-Dialogue
Think of two characters, and give them names.
One character should have a name which features long vowel sounds (e.g., Mandy); the other, short vowel sounds (e.g., Tim).
Write a conversation between them.
It works best if the character with the long vowel sounds in their name speaks using short vowel sounds and vice versa. That way, the characters can address each other by name. The conversation should leads to a disagreement then turns into a heated argument and has an unusual or surprise ending.
Example
Mandy: Man! It’s nuts not to.
Tim: I don’t know. I—
M: Come on, Tim. Haven’t you dreamt of it? Of becoming a hot shot?
T: Maybe ... I saw life rather strangely years ago. Now ... I’m kinda more tranquil. You go – be hot. Get shot.
M: Are you mad?! It’s nuts not to do it. Nuts! All you need do’s get it across. Simple.
T: Over borders. Past guards ... who shoot first, ask questions later.
Whoa! Move your knife away from my throat, Mandy.
M: Zip it. Not a lot of options left. Got to get to Paris at six.
Get in the van! Git!
Try using this approach in your submission to this month’s writing competition. If you do, your entry will need to both link to this month’s theme: ‘SOUND’, and to Carol’s illustration.
Entries need to be in by midnight GMT on Sunday 25th March 2022. Only 15 days to go.
If you simply choose to engage with it as a writing exercise, I hope you’ll share your work with others - it’s all about trying things out and adding to your toolkit as a writer.
I look forward to seeing what you come up with.
All the best -
Leon
PS For details of the competition, click here.