Shoes...Walk a Mile

 

Character-Driven Dialogue

Walk a Mile

Every year I have ever taught narrative writing, dialogue is the biggest challenge for students. Wholeheartedly I blame the conversations and classroom practices that occur around narrative writing: the purpose of students writing and telling stories; authentic audiences; and the opportunities they have to be creative. While I can't fix all of these problems all of the time, I can help students write better dialogue through the characters that they create.

First: I give direct instruction. About 10 minutes to address the basics of dialogue are all that are needed. I focus on what happens AFTER the quotation marks. Tags with action, drama, characterization are what we focus on. I show them examples of flat tags and dynamic tags. Then we go out into the hallway.

This year, I took 36 pairs of shoes and hung them in the hallway outside my classroom. Each pair of shoes had questions to the side about "what do they smell like, sound like, look like?" and "what kind of place do they live?" - about a dozen questions to get them thinking.

Students go out into the hallway and take a picture of one pair of shoes. Then they come back into the classroom and write about that character - as much as they can in a flash draft. Just write. 10 minutes - keep that pen moving across the page. "Does it have to be a story? Can it be bullet points?" 

Yes. Just keep that pen moving.

After they've written, I have them pick a partner. Using the character they've created, I ask them to pick a scenario together from a list on the board (someone got arrested, bullied, pregnant, love triangle, etc.). They then have to write dialogue (a true conversation that drives action, plot, builds character) with both of their characters. Back and forth, two colors of ink, both writing on the same page - these are my asks. Brilliant writing, intense conversations, and wild ideas start to fly. 

Students are able to put the theory directly into practice. Conversations about voice, tone, diction all occur naturally because students are writing about characters they care about. Even just after ten minutes of writing, arguments occur because students care so passionately about the characters they have created they are already finding compromising hard in their shared writing.