HI,
I put together the following for one of the MA tasks and thought I'd post it here.
The task was to take pieces of conversation that I'd overheard and spin an idea for a scene out of them. Sadly some brilliant pieces of dialogue don't make the cut (including something to do with Gimpy Pigeon - which is a totem that's come up in conversations about Werewolf the Forsaken, an RPG I'm planning stuff for at the moment).
These aren't necessarily the most exciting lines of dialogue, some of them are pretty mundane, but they seem to work. Some of the scenes are pretty much thumbnail sketches but I think all of them make sense. I do find that I want to write most of the stories here though...
Quote – “Are you able to give us just five minutes?”
Scene – A job interview, the candidate has just been caught out in a pretty heinous lie. The panel have just twigged and one of them has called a halt to the proceedings. The candidate told a lie because he thought it sounded impressive, and is desperate to get the job.
Quote – “They’ve got agendas these doctors; they’d kill us all if they could”
Scene – a paranoid schizophrenic who’s escaped an asylum talking to the person who’s found her (a man who picked up – she’s hitching). She’s gabbling to him, relieved to have somebody to talk to but what’s coming out is a flow of speech that doesn’t really make sense – even though she’s trying to hide her true nature, it keeps peeking through.
Quote – “She will stop it, she will stop it; she will stop it”
Scene – The speaker is an autistic child who has encountered something that he finds wrong and is attempting to control his environment (it’s a meal time, another of the diners; his younger sister is throwing her food around).
Quote – “Shift’s a killer”
Scene – A group of ice cutters returning to their hab (its science fiction) following a long shift, cutting ice to be shipped back to Earth. The speaker is an old, grizzled man who’s been working the ice field for a long time. He’s talking to a new member of the team, who was effectively press ganged into the corporation’s services thanks to a debt a relative accrued. The younger man has had a hard shift (nearly dying) and there’s a certain, grim, irony to the old timer’s words.
Quote – “I did and it went like that” (accompanied by a hand going over the top of the head motion)
Scene – Two men talking about their partners in a pub on a Saturday afternoon. The quote is directly related to something to do with shopping for shoes and something that one of the men simply doesn’t understand.
Quote – “I know I’m going to fall down”
Scene – A woman has started to sleepwalk after the death of a close friend (who did fall from a high place, the jury’s out as to whether or not it was suicide). In this scene her boyfriend has found her in the middle of the night, stood on the balcony, part way over it. In her fugue state she says the above.
Quote – “He’s so cute… well she is”
Scene – A transsexual woman makes contact with an old set of friends, trying to reconnect to her old life. They meet up in a bar. The above is a slip of the tongue that one her friends makes, as he adjusts to the new reality.
Quote – “She said it was mega”
Scene – A group of friends waiting to see the next blockbuster movie, queuing around the block. One of their other friends has been to see the film and it’s reported that she really enjoyed it. (this is obviously going to lead to a crushing fight and break up probably before they even get into the cinema).
Quote – “If you want something custom made…”
Scene – This scene finds an ingénue at a high class fashion store (Tiffany’s?) getting a set of clothing. The person in charge casually makes the offer but is in fact far more interested in the protagonist than she lets on, wishing to possess her. (I see this as being set in 1920s New York for some reason, with a fairy tale atmosphere)
Quote – “What about Jim, is he in?”
Scene – A group of men plan a booze cruise over to France. A few of them have met up to talk over the details and they’re asking after another man whose expressed interest but who may not be able to attend.
I put together the following for one of the MA tasks and thought I'd post it here.
The task was to take pieces of conversation that I'd overheard and spin an idea for a scene out of them. Sadly some brilliant pieces of dialogue don't make the cut (including something to do with Gimpy Pigeon - which is a totem that's come up in conversations about Werewolf the Forsaken, an RPG I'm planning stuff for at the moment).
These aren't necessarily the most exciting lines of dialogue, some of them are pretty mundane, but they seem to work. Some of the scenes are pretty much thumbnail sketches but I think all of them make sense. I do find that I want to write most of the stories here though...
Quote – “Are you able to give us just five minutes?”
Scene – A job interview, the candidate has just been caught out in a pretty heinous lie. The panel have just twigged and one of them has called a halt to the proceedings. The candidate told a lie because he thought it sounded impressive, and is desperate to get the job.
Quote – “They’ve got agendas these doctors; they’d kill us all if they could”
Scene – a paranoid schizophrenic who’s escaped an asylum talking to the person who’s found her (a man who picked up – she’s hitching). She’s gabbling to him, relieved to have somebody to talk to but what’s coming out is a flow of speech that doesn’t really make sense – even though she’s trying to hide her true nature, it keeps peeking through.
Quote – “She will stop it, she will stop it; she will stop it”
Scene – The speaker is an autistic child who has encountered something that he finds wrong and is attempting to control his environment (it’s a meal time, another of the diners; his younger sister is throwing her food around).
Quote – “Shift’s a killer”
Scene – A group of ice cutters returning to their hab (its science fiction) following a long shift, cutting ice to be shipped back to Earth. The speaker is an old, grizzled man who’s been working the ice field for a long time. He’s talking to a new member of the team, who was effectively press ganged into the corporation’s services thanks to a debt a relative accrued. The younger man has had a hard shift (nearly dying) and there’s a certain, grim, irony to the old timer’s words.
Quote – “I did and it went like that” (accompanied by a hand going over the top of the head motion)
Scene – Two men talking about their partners in a pub on a Saturday afternoon. The quote is directly related to something to do with shopping for shoes and something that one of the men simply doesn’t understand.
Quote – “I know I’m going to fall down”
Scene – A woman has started to sleepwalk after the death of a close friend (who did fall from a high place, the jury’s out as to whether or not it was suicide). In this scene her boyfriend has found her in the middle of the night, stood on the balcony, part way over it. In her fugue state she says the above.
Quote – “He’s so cute… well she is”
Scene – A transsexual woman makes contact with an old set of friends, trying to reconnect to her old life. They meet up in a bar. The above is a slip of the tongue that one her friends makes, as he adjusts to the new reality.
Quote – “She said it was mega”
Scene – A group of friends waiting to see the next blockbuster movie, queuing around the block. One of their other friends has been to see the film and it’s reported that she really enjoyed it. (this is obviously going to lead to a crushing fight and break up probably before they even get into the cinema).
Quote – “If you want something custom made…”
Scene – This scene finds an ingénue at a high class fashion store (Tiffany’s?) getting a set of clothing. The person in charge casually makes the offer but is in fact far more interested in the protagonist than she lets on, wishing to possess her. (I see this as being set in 1920s New York for some reason, with a fairy tale atmosphere)
Quote – “What about Jim, is he in?”
Scene – A group of men plan a booze cruise over to France. A few of them have met up to talk over the details and they’re asking after another man whose expressed interest but who may not be able to attend.
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