Dialogue Archives - Alex Van Dromme

If you’ve ever dabbled in writing, especially in fiction, you might have heard someone say “Said is dead” before.

Now, in case you haven’t, all you have to know is that it refers to dialogue attribution. Think of something like the following:

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“What time is the store closing?” said Bob.
“Normally around 8 pm,” said the bartender, pouring Bob’s seventh whiskey of the evening, “although, sometimes they stay open past 10 pm for special occasions.”
“That’s just perfect,” said Bob. “knowing my luck there’ll be some random special occasion just today, for no apparent reason whatsoever, forcing me to remain here in this god-forsaken town of a dump and wait until the store’s all empty.”
“But, you know,” Bob said, “if it wasn’t for you here, I might have had to wait all that time entirely sober. So I’m sure glad you’re still here, buddy.”
“Thanks.” said the bartender.

===

You may (or may not) have noticed all the abundance of “said” used in the above text. Truth is, that’s how writing has almost always been done. And it worked.

In fact, most people don’t even notice the amount of times “said” is being written. So nothing to worry about, right?

Except, because people can’t stand doing the same thing over and over again, especially from a writing perspective where it becomes painstakingly obvious, they have to reinvent the wheel and switch it up all the time.

That might lead to something like this:

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“What time is the store closing?” Bob cried out.
“Normally around 8 pm,” groaned the bartender, pouring Bob’s seventh whiskey of the evening, “although, sometimes they stay open past 11 pm for special occasions.”
“That’s just perfect,” bellowed Bob. “knowing my luck there’ll be some random special occasion just today, for no apparent reason whatsoever, forcing me to remain here in this god-forsaken town of a dump and wait until the store’s all empty.”
“But, you know,” Bob smirked drunkenly, “if it wasn’t for you here, I might have had to wait all that time entirely sober. So I’m sure glad you’re still here, buddy.”
“Thanks.” groaned the bartender again.

===

Hopefully you realize how terrible this is.

Yet, I can guarantee you, this happens… A LOT. Especially with new self-published authors who think they’re the second coming of Shakespeare.

How many times have you heard someone “smirk drunkenly”?

Now, that’s not to say the first text with all the saids scattered in it couldn’t be improved (it can). But by using attribution such as “he replied”, “he added”, “he asked”, “he explained”.

But anyway, enough about that—you probably didn’t sign up to this list to get lectured about dialogue attribution.

The point I’m trying to make is that people will gladly choose an objectively worse option over a better and long-established one, simply because they crave something new.

And so it goes when people decide to put all their trust in social media and say some absurd lines such as, “email is dead”.

It’s not.

It never was. And it likely never will be.

So until then, I highly suggest you practice and hone your email writing skills for the entire medium is a longstanding and objectively better, safer, and even more forgiving, option.

And on that note, check out Email Valhalla right here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla/

I’m a big movie guy.

Well, I’m a big a lot of stuff guy. But for the sake of today’s email, it’s movies.

(Stick with me for a moment, it’ll all make sense in a second why I’m talking about movies)

One of my (and almost everyone else’s) favorite movie franchises is Pirates of the Caribbean. There’s a lot of good (and bad) to be said about it. Many of which has already been said by other people I won’t bother you with today.

But I want to talk about something else.

Something not many people often talk about.

And that’s the quotability of the dialogue.

See, we all know famous lines of movies that get quoted a lot. Think of lines such as “I am your father”, “I’ll be back”, or You shall not pass”.

All great lines and great scenes.

But Pirates has it’s own unique trick to create this quotable dialogue.

You might remember quotes such as “Why is the rum gone?”, “This is the day you will always remember as the day you almost caught Captain Jack Sparrow”, and many more.

And there’s a huge difference here.

While some scenes were definitely great, most of them weren’t. They’re just average scenes with average dialogue.

So why are they so quotable?

Because the characters themselves often quote others or repeat their own dialogue. And they use the same lines in multiple settings, under multiple different conditions, often with different outcomes and with different emotions to them.

Simply said.

Pirates uses a lot of repetition to make you remember certain lines of dialogue, almost making a game out of it.

This makes the dialogue immediately quotable because, well, the movie shows you how quotable it is.

So getting back to what this has to do with you.

If you want people to pick up a certain habit, if you want them to do something, if you want them to remember something, then show them how to do it, when/where they can do it, and most importantly, repeat yourself often.

I dive deeper into this topic in Product Creation Made Easy where I show you how you can create your products in such a way that ensures people will take action and actually do the stuff you tell them to do, remember the stuff you teach them, and even repeat what you said to others—at which point they’re basically doing your marketing for you.

If you want to learn more about that, then check out Product Creation Made Easy here: https://alexvandromme.com/pcme