"Go to a busy public place, like a coffee shop. Bring along your notebook or computer. Your job is to..."

“Go to a busy public place, like a coffee shop. Bring along your notebook or computer. Your job is to observe people’s interactions with each other and take notes. If you can, transcribe any conversations you hear.

 

Later, think about how people interacted. What power or relationship dynamics were at play? How did that affect the way people talked to each other? Who interrupted whom? Did people change the way they spoke depending on who they were addressing? Use what you’ve learned when crafting dialogue and character interactions.”

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Alexandra Duncan is an author and librarian. Her YA sci-fi novels, Salvage and Sound, are available from Greenwillow Books, as is her forthcoming eco-thriller, Blight. She loves learning new things, especially anything that lets her get her hands dirty: pie-baking, leatherworking, gardening, drawing, and rolling sushi. She lives with her husband and two monstrous, furry cats in the mountains of Western North Carolina.

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