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Melbourne
Romance Writers Guild
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Have you
ever wondered why sometimes an email offends you? Is it that the writer
used capitals and it looked like they were shouting at you? Is it that
they responded to your lovingly crafted page inquiry with a two line
rebuttal? Did the language used baffle you with its jargon? Or
can you remember a time when you struggled to make yourself understood
over the telephone. Did the other person talk too fast? Too slow? Were
you trying to talk to someone who had a limited grasp of the language
you were using, was the other person’s accent too thick to be easily
understood or did they use words that you simply didn’t know? Increasingly
we live in a world where communication is becoming more instant and more
impersonal - We dash off an email, leave a message, send an sms and what
do we really achieve in the way of conversation? Not much really, if
truth be known. As
writers, we know that our characters need to communicate with each other
to impart information which is vital to the plot in our stories. We also
scrutinise our dialogue text for the hated repetitions of (he said, she
said) and try to find innovative ways to have our characters talk to
each other believably. What
we may or may not know however is that a staggering eighty percent
of conversation is non verbal. This is why we generally find
those people who can use their voice to convey many shades of meaning
through pace and tone (singers, public speakers, radio announcers,
telemarketers – the good ones) to be rather unique and well paid. The
rest of us generally use the universal language to communicate the bulk
of their meaning when talking. What is this language? Body language of course.
Writers,
unlike the radio announcers and singers of this world, do not have to
rely on the measly twenty percent of communication to get their meaning
across vocally. They have the full meaty one hundred percent of
communication tools at their disposal. To
expand your palette in the art of writing conversation, I suggest the
following exercise:
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