Talking to myself

July 9, 2013

I’ve always wondered what I look like when I’m writing. As I pace around my apartment, talking through a difficult scene or saying dialogue aloud to see if it sounds right, do I look crazy? Like a madman? Better fit for the loony bin than polite society?

Probably, but then again I do fancy myself a writer. All writers are a little loony, at least if we’re any good.

There’s a lot of value in talking to yourself. Sometimes there’s just no substitute for talking through a problem, even if no one is listening. Trust me – I can’t even begin to tell you the number of times I’ve asked a friend for help with a piece of writing, only to figure out the answer myself in the course of explaining it to them. Now I save them for the really big ones, and just talk to myself.

But if there’s any area where talking to yourself is more valuable, it’s with dialogue. How can spoken dialogue have a chance of sounding natural if you never hear it out loud? Often you’ll instinctively find the right words when you say them aloud and see what rolls off the tongue.

Is all of this a bit crazy? Yes. But so is writing fiction. You might as well go all the way and do it right.