ihavetowrite347

[ihavetowrite347]

Tw: mentions of depression, alluding to self harm, and slight neglect

There is a room

That room is dark

That room reeks

Of not just mold and illness

Of not just dust and unkemptness

It reeks of an empty dull sadness

A lump in a bed only faintly rises and falls with each regretful breath

That room is cold

That room is isolated

That room reeks

Ice grows in the corner when it gets too cold

No one goes in that room

That room reeks

Of coldness not winter delight

Of weakness not hope

Of fear

Fear of what’s within that room

Mold floods over the rims of a cup forgotten

Tears flood over the face of that lump

A desire for change floods through in the middle of the night

And that desire is crushed by the blade under the cup

Who can save a soul that’s already ready to rest

Even if they could, no one would

One is far across the ocean

One is absorbed in its own struggle

One is too young to understand

And one who should doesn’t

There is a room

That room is disgusting

That mold is disturbing

That ice is cold

And that lump is weak

That lump is lazy

That lump is disgusting

That lump is disturbing

That lump is cold

That lump is sick

That lump should die

That lump wants to die

That lump has tried to die

And it wasn’t noticed

Because no one tried to notice

No one wanted to go near that room

Even the one who should

Because that room reeks

And so does he

[ihavetowrite347]

✏️ Writing Dialogue That Sounds Like Real People, Not Theater Kids on Red Bull

(a crash course in vibes, verbal economy, and making your characters shut up already)

Okay. We need to talk about dialogue. Specifically: why everyone in your draft sounds like they’re in a high school improv group doing a dramatic reading of Riverdale fanfiction.

Before you panic, this is normal. Early dialogue is almost always too much. Too polished. Too "scripted." So if yours feels off? You’re not failing. You’re just doing Draft Zero Dialogue, and it’s time to revise it like a boss.

Here’s how to fix it.

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🎭 STEP ONE: DETOX THEATER ENERGY I say this with love: your characters are not all quippy geniuses. They do not need to deliver emotional monologues at every plot beat. They can just say things. Weird, half-finished, awkward things.

Real people:

interrupt each other

trail off mid-thought

dodge questions

contradict themselves

repeat stuff

change the subject randomly

Let your characters sound messy. Not every line needs to sparkle. In fact, the more effort you put into making dialogue ✨perfect✨, the more fake it sounds. Cut 30% of your clever lines and see what happens.

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🎤 STEP TWO: GIVE EACH CHARACTER A VERBAL FINGERPRINT The fastest way to make dialogue feel alive? Make everyone speak differently. Think rhythm, grammar, vocabulary, tone.

Some dials you can twist:

Long-winded vs. clipped

Formal vs. casual

Emojis of speech: sarcasm, filler words, expletives, slang

Sentence structure: do they talk in fragments? Run-ons? Spirals?

Emotion control: are they blunt, diplomatic, avoidant, performative?

Here’s a shortcut: imagine what your character sounds like over text. Are they the “lol okay” type or the “okie dokie artichokie 🌈✨” one? Now translate that into speech.

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🧠 STEP THREE: FUNCTION > FILLER Every line of dialogue should do something. Reveal something. Move something. Change something.

Ask:

Does this line push the plot forward?

Does it show character motivation/conflict/dynamic?

Does it create tension, add context, or raise a question?

If it’s just noise? It’s dead air. Cut it. Replace it with a glance. A gesture. A silence that says more.

TIP: look at a dialogue scene and remove every third line. Does the scene still work? Probably better.

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💥 STEP FOUR: REACTIVITY IS THE GOLD STANDARD Characters don’t talk into a void. They respond. And how they respond = the real juice.

Don’t just write back-and-forth ping pong. Write conflict, dodge, misunderstanding. If one character says something vulnerable, the other might joke. Or ignore it. Or say something cruel. That’s tension.

Dialogue is not just information exchange. It’s emotional strategy.

Try this exercise: A says something revealing. B lies. A notices, but pretends they don’t. B changes the subject. Now you’ve got a real scene.

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🔍 STEP FIVE: PAY ATTENTION TO POWER Every convo has a power dynamic, even if it’s tiny. Who’s steering? Who’s withholding? Who’s deflecting, chasing, challenging?

Power can shift line to line. That shift = tension. And tension = narrative fuel.

Write conversations like chess matches, not ping pong.

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✂️ STEP SIX: SCISSORS ARE YOUR BEST FRIEND The best dialogue is often the second draft. Or third. Or fourth. First drafts are just you figuring out what everyone wants to say. Later drafts figure out what they actually would say.

Things to cut:

Greetings/closings ("Hi!" "Bye!"--skip it unless it serves tone)

Exposition disguised as chat

Obvious thoughts spoken aloud

Explaining jokes

Repeating what we already know

Readers are smart. Let them fill in blanks.

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🎧 STEP SEVEN: READ IT OUT LOUD (YES, REALLY) If you hate this step: too bad. It works. Read it. Mumbling is fine. Cringe is part of the ritual.

Ask yourself:

Would someone actually say this?

Does this sound like one person speaking, or a puppet show with one hand?

Where does the rhythm trip? Where’s the breath?

If you can’t say it out loud without wincing, the reader won’t make it either. Respect the vibe.

─────── ✦ ───────

🏁 TL;DR: If you want your dialogue to sound like real people, let your characters be real. Messy. Annoying. Human. Let them interrupt and lie and joke badly and say the wrong thing at the worst time.

Cut the improv class energy. Kill the urge to be ✨brilliant✨. And listen to how people talk when they’re scared, tired, pissed off, in love, or trying not to say what they mean.

That’s where the good stuff is.

—rin t. // thewriteadviceforwriters // official advocate of awkward silences and one-word replies

P.S. I made a free mini eBook about the 5 biggest mistakes writers make in the first 10 pages 👀 you can grab it here for FREE:

[ihavetowrite347]

"just write a little every day" ok but what if i write nothing for 3 weeks and then suddenly type like i’m being hunted by god

[ihavetowrite347]

Tw: Suicide, mentions of using medicine for suicide purposes, darker topic

(Idk but like don’t read if it’ll upset you or make you feel worse)

Do people who have committed/attempted suicide regret it?

He did. Then he wished it had worked.

Taking 30+ Benadryl really won’t kill you, he had researched that fact after he tried it

But it does make you feel like everything is moving and nothing is moving.

It made him so tired and unable to move, as if every limb was 10x heavier.

And so he just laid his head down and in that moment, he regretted it. He wished he had the energy to attempt to throw it up, to fix this on his own. He wouldn’t ask for help, no that would be worse than dying at that moment. So he laid there, and prayed.

An atheist with no other hope left but for something to help him.

The next morning he was woken up by his brother. He probably would’ve slept longer on his own. Not one glance to the open journal filled with the letter he left.

He felt weak, and sick, and tired

He didn’t want to be alone, so he closed that notebook and sat in the living room. And no one asked. And no one stopped. And no one wondered why he seemed so dead.

Because he was alive.

The night before he regretted dying, but now that he was alive.

He regretted surviving.

Because deep down he wished someone would’ve noticed

[ihavetowrite347]

If you mess up a social interaction you can say "Failed Experiment" and move on

[ihavetowrite347]

TW: mentions of harmful behavior that could be triggering (Idk I just don’t wanna trigger anyone obviously)

You do it once.

Bad week, Bad day, Bad moment

You don’t know why you didn’t do it before But you did it this time.

You do it twice.

Why not you’ve already got one.

And by the time you realize you’ve got five.

So you roll down that sleeve and pray it doesn’t roll back up.

By the time they’re almost healed, you’ve had another bad enough day.

So you do it once.

And now you can’t stop.

And it gets to a point you don’t even know why you do it anymore.

Maybe for proof your day was bad enough.

Maybe because you think you deserve it.

Or maybe just because you did it once, and there’s no point in stopping now that the scars are already permanent.

[ihavetowrite347]

my fave writing reminder

honestly, this phrase has been on my mind more times than i can count. i've kidnapped it, taken it as a hostage with no ransom money because i need it to live permanently in my head.

[ihavetowrite347]

In the pursuit of happiness.

I find myself uncovering things close but never permanent.

The pursuit is never ending

And happiness is always ending

In the pursuit of happiness

You’ll learn to cope

You’ll learn to suffer

You’ll learn to smile

You’ll learn to hope

You’ll run a mile

You’ll remove that buffer

And be unshielded to life

In the pursuit of happiness

You’ll learn to live

And living is not always about happiness

[ihavetowrite347]

[ihavetowrite347]

Hello, I’m Austin, I have an intense urge to create, but I suck at art and writing, so I do it anyway.

This is to share my writing and maybe some art because I don’t know what to do with myself this summer.

So enjoy I suppose 💔

[ihavetowrite347]

The bench was hot as the sun had spent all day beating down on anything unprotected by shadow.

The fence in front blocks anyone from going over the edge of the roof.

At least, it blocks anyone from falling; it only deters people from jumping.

Not that he would actually jump.

Not now,

probably not ever,

no matter what his mind whispered in the background.

Every conversation,

Every moment alone,

Every day,

Yet he would never actually jump.

Even when he joked about it, people always told him he wouldn’t ever actually do it.

They were probably right.

He wouldn’t jump.

But he would take a handful of pills and pray not to wake up tomorrow.

No

One

Would ever know about the four pages written in his notebook

Left out that night in case he didn’t wake up.

No

One

Would know he has more pills stashed away,

In case

He’s brave enough to try again.

But he would never jump