on the topic of that complaint about “california dialogue” the gist of which is that characters in fiction shouldn’t blurt out their deepest traumas and troubles to complete strangers in the first interaction like a character trying to lay out their backstory for the audience.
that’s fair.
but on the other hand you would not BELIEVE what people will openly and with their whole chest say in public, in front of any number of strangers, when they’re on the phone with their… sister? bestie? really can’t say, about their childhood traumas or the ways their current boyfriend is doing them wrong or their diagnoses or whatever. so… clearly it’s not that hard to believe? I have heard people relate their troubles in an ongoing stream-of-consciousness laced with what clearly is some kind of therapeutic vocabulary. good on them for getting the help they need i guess, but the point is they will absolutely say it, out loud, in front of total strangers
so I guess my point is: if you, a writer, need a character to lay out their traumas and fears and backstory for the audience’s benefit while another character is listening in, easy. just put them on the phone in a public place!
on the other hand, i do live in california
While I was sitting at the reference desk the other day two girls at a nearby table were having an in-depth convo about their most recent therapy sessions, so alternatively you can make your character a librarian because people will say anything while I’m just sitting there 3ft away lmao
Getting inspired to write is actually really easy! All you need to do is be the busiest you’ve ever been in your entire life and as far away from a computer as humanly possible. Hope this helps 🥰
me: haha oh god this is so bad im making so many unsupported claims and pulling all this analysis out of my ass
my prof in the margins: excellent analysis!
me:
when i was in high school i used to write my papers thinking wow i’m just bullshitting all of this. then like a week before my senior year ended after all the grades were set, i was talking to my english teacher and told him you know i just bullshitted every paper i wrote. he told me that while i may have thought i was just pulling it all out of my ass, i genuinely knew what i was talking about and made well-supported analyses. i only thought i was bullshitting because it didn’t take much effort and it all seemed obvious to me. if you do well on your essays even though you think you’re just making it up as you go, chances are you’re not pulling it out of your ass. you’re just a genuinely talented analyst, even if the analysis that you’re making comes from a subconscious understanding of the material rather than a conscious effort to study it. give yourself some credit.
anything you pull out of your ass had to get there somehow
Anything you pull out of your ass had to get there somehow
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