Talk the Talk. Penny Penniston
difference?
3. What verbal habits or tics do you notice in the speaker's pattern of speech? For example: Is this a person who uses a particular phrase over and over? Is this a person who speaks in clipped, precise sentences? Is this a person who rambles from topic to topic without ever completing a thought? Is this a person who can never come up with the word he's looking for?
4. What tones do you hear in the speaker's dialogue? Has the question provoked an emotional response such as anger, passion, or enthusiasm? How does the speaker seem to feel about what he is saying?
5. Have members of the group try to describe the speaker based on what they hear in the interview. What do you imagine that this person is like? Where do you think he lives? Where does he work? Who are his friends? What does he do in his free time?
LESSON 1: INTERMEDIATE AND ADVANCED EXERCISE
The following three paragraphs are from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain. The book is a memoir of his years working as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River. In this excerpt, Twain reflects on how his growing expertise of the river eventually killed his romance with it.
Now when I had mastered the language of this water and had come to know every trifling feature that bordered the great river as familiarly as I knew the letters of the alphabet, I had made a valuable acquisition. But I had lost something, too. I had lost something which could never be restored to me while I lived. All the grace, the beauty, the poetry had gone out of the majestic river! I still keep in mind a certain wonderful sunset which I witnessed when steamboating was new to me…. I stood like one bewitched. I drank it in, in a speechless rapture. The world was new to me, and I had never seen anything like this at home.
But as I have said, a day came when I began to cease from noting the glories and the charms which the moon and the sun and the twilight wrought upon the river's face… Then, if that sunset scene had been repeated, I should have looked upon it without rapture, and should have commented upon it, inwardly, after this fashion: This sun means that we are going to have wind tomorrow; that floating log means that the river is rising, small thanks to it; that slanting mark on the water refers to a bluff reef which is going to kill somebody's steamboat one of these nights, if it keeps on stretching out like that…
No, the romance and the beauty were all gone from the river. All the value any feature of it had for me now was the amount of usefulness it could furnish toward compassing the safe piloting of a steamboat. Since those days, I have pitied doctors from my heart. What does the lovely flush in a beauty's cheek mean to a doctor but a “break” that ripples above some deadly disease. Are not all her visible charms sown thick with what are to him the signs and symbols of hidden decay? Does he ever see her beauty at all, or doesn't he simply view her professionally, and comment upon her unwholesome condition all to himself? And doesn't he sometimes wonder whether he has gained most or lost most by learning his trade?
The prose is beautifully written. But imagine if Twain did not have the luxury of sitting down at a typewriter and carefully composing his thoughts over several drafts. Imagine instead that Twain told this story out loud, in the moment, to someone standing in the room with him. Rewrite this excerpt as that monologue.
For Discussion:
Have someone in the group read the original essay out loud and then read her monologue version of it.
1. How did the monologue version differ from the prose version?
2. After all the monologues have been read, compare and contrast the choices made by the monologue authors. In what ways were all the monologues the same? What were the differences?
3. Have each writer discuss the process of adapting the essay. What was the thought process that went into the choices by the writer? In what ways did the writer decide to stay faithful to the original text? In what ways did the writer feel free to diverge from the original text? How and why did the writer make those decisions?
4. Were there any aspects of the original piece that were particularly difficult to capture in monologue form? If so, why?
LESSON 1: SOLO EXERCISE
Pick an excerpt from any piece of prose (e.g., an essay, newspaper article, or novel). Rewrite that excerpt as a monologue. The challenge is to stay as faithful as possible to the original tone, style, and content of the piece, but to re-create it as something spoken instead of read.
Now, rewrite that monologue. In the rewrite, keep the words of the monologue exactly the same, but change the punctuation. How much can you alter the tone and meaning of the monologue simply by changing the punctuation?
As an ongoing workout, experiment with different source material. What kinds of prose are easy to adapt into monologues? What kinds are not? As you get better at adapting, challenge yourself by picking difficult selections.
TOMMY: What do you mean, I'm funny?… You mean the way I talk? What?… Funny how? I mean, what's funny about it?
—Goodfellas (1990)
LESSON TWO:
Imitating a Voice
Who are the voices in your head? Who are the people with speech so familiar to you that you can hear them talking when you close your eyes? In your life, who talks so distinctively and with such clarity of personality that you could imitate his rants, raves, sputterings, mumblings, or musings on any topic? Is it your crazy Aunt Tillie? Is it your rambling college professor? Is it your overly earnest ex-boyfriend?
You don't have to limit yourself to people you know personally. Consider the familiar and distinctive speech patterns of actors such as Jack Nicholson or television characters such as Tony Soprano or Homer Simpson. Consider other public figures. I've listened to the same local radio station for the past fifteen years. The patter of the morning DJ is as familiar to me as my morning shower.
Often, art students are given the assignment to copy an existing painting. The act of imitating another piece of art forces the artist to go beyond her typical choices and expand her repertoire. She must learn to use the heavy brush strokes of Van Gogh or the tiny meticulous dabs of Seurat. She will experiment with Rothko's layers of colors or Picasso's disjointed perspectives. Each of these exercises expands her skill set — a skill set that she can draw on in her future work.
By listening to the voices around us, and then attempting to imitate them on the page, we writers get a similar benefit. By tuning in to other people's distinctive patterns of speech, we hone our own ear for dialogue. By recreating those patterns on the page, we force ourselves to understand the nuances of those voices and we stretch our dialogue-writing technique into new territory.
LESSON 2: SCRIPT ANALYSIS EXERCISE
NOTE: In this exercise, beginning and intermediate writers should analyze published work by established writers. See the Appendix for a list of suggestions. Advanced writers have the option of bringing in their own work for analysis.
Have the entire group see the same play, watch the same film, or read the same script. (See the Appendix for a list of suggestions.)
For Discussion:
1. Describe the speaking style for each character.
2. How did those styles differ from each other? How were they the same?
3. Which characters had the most memorable or unique voices? What made the voices memorable or unique?
4. Imagine you were writing an original scene for each character. As a writer, what would you do in the dialogue to capture each character's voice?
LESSON 2: BEGINNER EXERCISE
1. By yourself or with a group, come up with a list of famous voices. They might be actors, public figures, or famous