Humina humina humina ... ladies and gentlemen, the winner and still champeen: Erika, Queen of Dialogue!

Aw, shucks...and unlike Joss, that doesn't make me want to write silent. As long as I'm not coming off like some one-liner machine, that is. Honestly, I thought I was off, a little.(Uh, in a different way than usual, yes?)

See, if it was nothing but dialogue, it wouldn't hold me at all. Pure conversation doesn't do it for me.

But you aren't writing pure dialogue. It's dialogue that triggers inner dialogue and self-appraisement. That's what makes it punch so hard, so often.

Wow, I am so honored. But I feel that I know them, as Giardello says, I know what toothpaste they use. If I can ever get to that with my characters, without them being Thinly!Disguised Me, look out...

I think too many writers fall into the Nick-and-Nora thing: dialogue must sparkle, be witty, amuse.

Well, yes. But it also has to illuminate the character and lead to action/reaction/introspection. Because otherwise? It's like overhearing someone else's cellphone conversation.

I do, too, sometimes, I think. Crave the sparkle. The perfect word...it's been hard not creating whole scenes for the purpose of one line, but I hope I've learned otherwise. Fontana is a woman-hating sonofabitch, but he is a dialogue-writing woman-hating SOB...the toughest thing to learn about Homicide dialogue? How to say something without saying *everything* Those writers are brilliant at this(and also playing with words, I watched one last night that had a funny bit about the word "expunged", or that "davino" thing from season 1) I've really had to work at that, because left to my own devices? Two modes. Brush you off with a quip, a la Munchkin. Or spill my guts, like Timmy. People that don't exactly do either are harder for me to write.

People that don't exactly do either are harder for me to write.

But none of the people just talk to each other. The action that makes them credible and recognisable isn't limited to what they say. There are times when less dialogue is more, because the action, the look on a character's face, the way s/he moves or touches another character, what presses the buttons, all that? Tells you more about the character than twenty lines of dialogue.

Oh, yeah, definitely...which is what I was going for with that whole "vampires don't blow their noses...Munch has a tissue" thing.(I don't mention that for you to say "Yes, that was brilliant" because it could've completely failed...I'm not a good judge, I just want you to know I get where you're coming from."Jeez, "Where you're coming from..." I'm determined to make myself a Boomer by hook or by crook. )Note to self: Call somebody under forty this weekend, ok? Thx. (Ok, that's a little far in the other direction...)

Huh. Obviously I'm not getting a call from Erika any time soon.

Don't be offended...I don't give good phone. And I was kidding anyway, about hipping my speech up...I think I may have an old soul after all, although not in that DalaiLama,Shirley Maclaine, CrystalsBitch kind of way that people mean such things. But mom was a hippie who watched Don Cornelius. Then I picked up a little cop talk, some Yiddish, and some pop culture references...then I went to college and learned some lit crit and a tiny, tiny bit of women's studies and philosophy. And Elmore Leonard. And now I'm a Buffista AIFG. Except I talk funny, yo. And I don't always know what's gonna pop out. And people say that you can be influenced by your entertainment, huh? Although, personally, give me a personal break, Mr. Goebbels, Ok, babe?