We need to talk. It’s good to talk. You should open up more. I have something to say. Do you have something to say? Have you got something on your mind? Do you want to talk about it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Really?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the last one of us gets home we turn the key in the lock and say ‘I’m locking the effers out!’ and the other one of us will say something like ‘Good!’<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We aren’t sociopaths; there is ample evidence to contradict that. But we both get a little… reticent (someone who doesn’t like to talk).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We just reach a certain point in our day when we don’t want the social construct of talking to someone outside of our inner circle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’m the same when I go to the stables. I don’t want to get into big conversations about what kind of a week you may or may not have had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’m sure you’re a lovely person and that, but I’m at the stables to get my boy in, groom, tack up, ride his furry little bottom off, untack, groom him, and put him to bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And at home, at the end of a long and hectic day, we have the same sense of inner purpose. It’s all about switching off, moving away from the dictates of the working day, into a softer, more comfortable, closer-fitting, envelope of calm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A bit like your favourite pair of pyjamas. Well no, not like *your* favourite pyjamas, obv. That would be wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyway, you’re probably asking yourself where I’m going with this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Simples. It’s about speech. Or dialogue, to be more precise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’m working on The Difficult Second Novel and I have fallen in to a pit of dialogue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Personal statements. Writing dialogue, is difficult. Writing *good* dialogue is impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But if your characters don’t interact, then you lose a vital leg in your storytelling. And your plot falls over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’ve just written 555 words of near-total dialogue and it was not a good experience. It will take much editing to get it down to the level of sharpness that will make it fit with the rest of the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It has taken about two hours to produce 555 words that I don’t like much. That’s why I don’t like dialogue. That’s why it isn’t good to talk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bob Hoskins had it wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n