In case you may not catch that reference, here is a gif straight from 1991 for context.
Except for the bumps in ep 3, the dialog iteration was the most similar in an Agile First Draft method and how I’d written before. Unlike plot, dialog has always come naturally.
I didn’t intentionally cultivate the ability to write dialog. I read a lot of scripts both growing up and when I worked in film and tv. But I think, honestly, a good portion of the skill came from watching tv. You develop an ear for words that create action and responses, the way characters volley words, the way they react verbally to catalysts.
I also developed a sense for how different stories have different tone and flavor to their common language. Chicago PD and Castle are both cop shows. They might have the same scene where they figure out who the culprit is. But each would sound totally different in how the characters interact.
I’ve also practiced writing scenes between characters because I knew where they were emotionally and what they said even when I had no concept of the plot around the scenes.
I discovered that the dialog iteration of an Agile First Draft was freeing. I gave myself permission to just enjoy writing the dialog. To let the words volley. To play with how the characters interacted.
I didn’t expect how much of the iteration would be replacing text.
While I find Sol Stein pretentious, I cited him in my thesis because he makes an accurate observation. In Stein on Writing he says that most writers overwrite their first drafts. Therefore the process of editing is largely cutting out words.
Which means cutting out work; eradicating what could be hours of effort to write those words. While Stein finds this to be “perfectly normal,” who wants to waste time and effort only to throw away their work?
With an Agile First Draft, the writer starts with a focused draft then consistently adds words. Effort is put toward building a story with efficiency and intention, not cutting it down. So I found myself hyper-aware that I was removing almost all the words from my plot iteration as I wrote the dialog.
But I don’t think it’s the same thing (and invite discussion to that end).
While I was technically removing words with the delete key (and backspace because I work on a PC!) I wasn’t losing anything. I replaced 26 words:
Talon won’t commit a crime. Finley levels that up by telling him about the Rosen Vortex. She wants to make sure all the plans are destroyed.
with 102 words of how the scene plays out:
"They've offered to keep quiet if she gets the plans from [ ]."
"You mean steal." Talon
"We destroyed those. How would they know?"
"One of the engineers talked." Garrick
"And we knew it was only a matter of time before they rebuilt." Finley
“Wait. How does committing a second crime absolve her of the first?” Talon.
“There's things you don't understand also."
"Like what?"
Eoin sighed. " I died from the Rosen Vortex [corp] was trying to create."
"What?!"
"Finley destroyed their plans."
"We discredited the engineers on the project and took their funding. But I knew they'd start rebuilding them."
So even though I “removed” the majority of what I’d written I pretty much tripled my word count. I mean, technically math says I doubled it but almost all the words now are new so creative people understand the argument for tripling word count.
And it feels different, I think, to replace text with the something more substantive, something that adds depth and richness to the story.
That scene will start to make sense with the next iteration where I add dialog tags and connect emotions and motivation to the volley of words.
