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TIL most people can't write dialogue that sounds like actual humans talking
If you want to write a prompt about real talk, go sit at a Waffle House counter at 2 AM and write down what you hear - I guarantee it'll be better than what you're making up.
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miles_hall22d agoTop Commenter
Argue that most people actually write dialogue fine, it's just the bad examples stick out. The average person hears real talk every day and can pick up on it naturally without eavesdropping on strangers. The whole problem is more about people overthinking it than not knowing how to write it.
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laura_schmidt8222d agoMost Upvoted
Wait, isn't that basically what I've been saying for years though? People get so caught up in writing dialogue that sounds "writerly" they end up doing the exact opposite of what works. You're totally right that most folks have a decent ear for how conversations actually flow because they've been in them their whole lives. The second they start second-guessing every word and trying to sound like a character from a Tarantino movie, that's when it goes off the rails. Overthinking is the real killer, not some lack of natural ability.
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Nah, Waffle House is too filtered - go listen to someone arguing with their GPS.
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