Name: 【TED-Ed】Three anti-social skills to improve your writing - Nadia Kalman
Uploaded: 2021-11-02T21:01:30.000Z
Duration: 3 min 45 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Dialogue gives a story color, makes it exciting and moves it forward.

Adverbs of degree

Romeo: O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?

Juliet: What satisfaction canst thou have tonight?

Romeo: The exchange of thy love's faithful vows for mine.

So what goes into writing effective dialogue?

Well, there are social skills: making friends, solving conflicts, being pleasant and polite.

Instead, we'll be working on -- let's call them "anti-social skills."

If you're a writer, you may already have a few of these.

If you're riding a bus and hear an interesting conversation, you could write it all down.

Of course, when you write fiction, you're not describing real people, you're making up characters.

But sometimes the words you overhear can give you ideas.

Maybe it's two kids in a class, and the boy thinks the girl pushed him.

Maybe it's a couple, but one of them is a vampire, and the woman vampire saw the man flirting with a zombie.

Maybe the characters are a teenager and his mother, and they're supposed to be vegetarians, but the mother saw him eating a burger.

So let's say you've decided on some characters.

What are they like? Where are they from? What music do they listen to?

If you're on a bus, think about what they might be doing if they were there too.

Would they talk on the phone, listen to music, draw pictures, sleep?

An older person might speak differently than a younger person.

Someone from the south might speak differently than someone from the north.

Once you know your characters, you can figure out how they talk.

At this stage, it's helpful to use anti-social skill number three:

When you speak your character's words, you can hear whether they sound natural, and fix them if necessary.

Remember, most people are usually pretty informal when they speak.

They use simple language and contractions.

So, "Do not attempt to lie to me" sounds more natural as "Don't try to lie to me."

People tend to speak in short bursts, not lengthy speeches.

Ask yourself: do I really need that adverb?

For instance, "'Your money or your life,' she said threateningly."

Here, "threateningly" is redundant, so you can get rid of it.

But if the words and the actions don't match, an adverb can be helpful.

"'Your money or your life,' she said lovingly."

First, eavesdrop. Next, pretend imaginary people are real.

Finally, mutter to yourself, and write it all down.

This is fictional dialogue, or "How to Hear Voices in Your Head."

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【TED-Ed】Three anti-social skills to improve your writing - Nadia Kalman

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pretend

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