Blind Dialogue Exercise 01

Below is a blind dialogue exercise I did. The goal here is to write three characters in a scene with just dialogue, no actions or dialogue tags, to practice writing distinct character voices.

Character 1 is Hannah.

Character 2 is Alice.

Character 3 is Coraline.

“Do you know how hard it is to get those in this day and age?”

“Spare me the details. If you cared about it so much, then it wouldn’t have found itself in my way.”

”‘If you cared about it so much.’ You’re lucky I care about you this much.”

“Oh, yes, please enlighten me yet again how your love for me swells larger than the sun though you choose to portray me as a blundering invalid whenever the opportunity presents itself; even then, you have a knack for creating those opportunities.”

“My money’s on the witch.”

“Your money can shove it.”

“Her money is free to do as it pleases; do not fault it for choosing victory.”

“Do you even hear what you’re saying?”

“Unlike you, I do not speak just to listen to myself. This is a useful technique called ‘responding’ that you should look into trying.”

“You break into my house, crash my party—”

“Hosting one person is not a party.”

”—insult me, then use up the rest of my favourite tea leaves.”

“She’s doing a better job than you at entertaining.”

“Ah, so now you’ve turned my own friends against me, have you?”

“I have done no such thing; do not fault her for choosing victory.”

”…”

“Speechless, are we? What are you even doing here, my friend?”

“She has the best tea leaves, right? Four agonizing hours of listening to her talk is a small price to pay.”

“Yet you choose to reinvent the juice box rather than nudge humanity towards cultivating even greater tea?”

“Let girls have fun.”

“Your type of ‘fun’ tends result in regime changes and catastrophic, world ending events.”

“No one ever died, did they?”

“Sigh. To this day, your methods elude me. Crashing a planet into its star? Upsetting the balance of power and collapsing multiple world powers by flirting with the most powerful men in the world? Diving in a black hole and merging the sub universe with our own? Somehow, not a single casualty.”

“Tell that to my tea leaves.”

“Oh, dear me, how could I ever forget the forsaken tea leaves? Shall we converge a meeting of the gods to decide each of us will personally work to avenge their loss?”

“Nah, I think we should all head back in time and steal an entire plantation’s worth of plants just for you.”

“You’ve lost your speaking privileges.”

“I barely said anything! Help, I’m being oppressed! Witch of the ancients, I call upon you to protect me from this foul monster!”

“You dare summon me, the bringer of death, protector of sin, thief of wives, witch of calamity? What could a mere mortal such as yourself offer to someone as great and awful as myself?”

“Tea leaves!”

“Hey, stop rummaging through my cabinets!”

“You raise your voice at your honoured guests?”

“She gave up her honour the second she struck a bargain with you.”

“Harsh.”

“Oh, shit, your shelf fell off the wall! All I did was stand on it!”

“You’re kidding me. Can she touch anything without breaking it?”

“Property damage is her most favourite of hobbies, after all.”

“Stop smiling. You look like you’re enjoying this.”

“As someone debatably wise once said, ‘let girls have fun.’”