I decided to combine two of my favorite things, cupcakes and writing, and each Wednesday another cupcake flavor will be compared to an aspect of writing. Well, until I run out of flavors, or inspiration, whichever comes first. Bon appetit!
If you've missed any of the first six Cupcakes and Writing posts in the series, you can find them in the archive here.
Oreo Cookie: Writing "Magical" Dialogue
I remember as a kid watching the commercials for Oreo cookies: a child twisting apart the two ends of a cookie to "unlock the magic." I viewed Oreos as a magical cookie after that, enjoying them dunked milk, swirled into my ice cream, crumbled atop chocolate pudding, mixed in cake frosting, etc.
The thing about Oreos is, it's essentially two separate cookies, bound together by that rich creme filling. It's the filling that's magic, or at least, that's how I interpreted the commercials for a long time.
Now, when I'm writing, I view dialogue as something that has the potential for magic. You have two characters, united by their conversation. And their conversation reveals a lot about the character while simultaneously propelling the story forward. It provides character development, emotion, action, and so much more. See? Magic.
Dialogue is easier for some to write than others. I find it fairly easy, but then I've written a few plays and scripts, which rely heavily on dialogue. But I have had to learn how to make dialogue sound realistic (especially as a YA writer--teen talk is just, you know, so interesting to, like, capture on paper), and I'm working on making sure each character has their own way of talking. In fact, that's kind of fun: giving a character a word or a phrase they use often so that you don't always have to give them speech tags (those pesky he said, she said thingies.)
So anyway, just my two-cents on dialogue, and how it has the potential to "unlock the magic" of your manuscript. Any thoughts on how to make "magical" dialogue? And does anyone else want an Oreo cupcake now? I know I have chocolate cake mix and Oreos in the pantry....
