Another writing assignment: 2 characters, 3 pages of dialogue only (no “he said, she said”) the goal is to be able to create distinguishable characters from only quotes not just descriptions
“Close the door behind you, Annabelle”
“Sorry sir, it’s just the coffee got in my way and then I have all these files I have to go through and mark up and all these clients to bill and I just-“
“I just want you to close the door . . . I don’t have a problem with anything else. Except . . . did you get my coffee?”
“Oh yeah! Well, I got to Starbucks and I was trying to decide which type of coffee to get you, but I couldn’t remember if you liked hot or cold on Tuesdays, so I got both, but then I was leaving and this guy with a mastiff . . . I think it was a mastiff, it could have been a Great Dane-“
“The coffee?”
“Yeah well that guy with the big dog wasn’t looking where he was going and he ran into me and I spilled both of the coffees on his dog and the dog got really mad and almost bit me and then the man acted as if it was all my fault, as if I’m some kind of absent-minded person or something like that!”
“And that’s why there’s no coffee?”
“No, but I have some of mine if you want it?”
“No thank you,”
“Why not? I’m not sick or anything and I’m definitely not contagious.”
“I’d rather not take that risk . . . Just in case.”
“Oh! Oh!”
“What happened now, oh most unfortunate of secretaries?”
“I spilled coffee all over these papers!”
“That is a problem.”
“I can’t understand why these kinds of things keep happening to me lately!”
“Oh trust me, it hasn’t started recently . . . Annabelle?”
“Yes Silver?”
“Why is there a bulldog drooling all over my window?”
“That’s not a bulldog! It’s a mastiff . . . I already told you that.”
“It is a bulldog Annabelle, but my real question is what it’s doing here.”
“Well it’s the dog I spilled the coffee on and I thought that if you really wanted some coffee than you could just get it off of him.”
“Annabelle, I don’t think even the most caffeine deprived person would stoop low enough as to scrap coffee off of a bulldog’s-“
“Mastiffs-“
“dog’s . . . back.”
“Oh, well fine then, don’t.”
“How did you even get it here?”
“The owner said he didn’t like it . . . something about possibly having rabies? I don’t really remember. Anyway he said I could have it if I wanted.”
“So it’s your dog now?”
“Well no, not exactly . . . “
“Not exactly?”
“Well, what I mean is, it’s your birthday right?”
“No.”
“Anniversary?”
“I’m not married.”
“It’s got to be something today! Maybe it’s the dogs birthday, would you want to turn away a dog on his own birthday?”
“I don’t want a dog.”
“Neither do I, and guess where that leaves us?”
“With you putting the dog back out on the street.”
“But, but . . . then he might get hurt!”
“Lord willing.”
“How can you even say that! He’s such a cute little puppy!”
“Really? Because just a minute ago he was a vicious, biting mastiff.”
“Well people change Silver! Have a little faith in the human race.”
“He’s not a human! I don’t care if he’s suddenly turned into a puppy . . . but there’s no way he’s becoming a human.”
“Ha! So he is a puppy!”
“Fine, he’s a puppy, but I still don’t want him.”
“But he could live here!”
“In Silver Bullet’s Private Investigators office? I don’t think so.”
“But he’d add so much to your job offer!”
“Oh yeah, ‘Rabid dog’ just screams costumers.”
“No, but he could be a bloodhound!”
“You can’t make a dog into whatever breed you want it to be Annabelle!”
“Well he has a nose doesn’t he? He might as well use it!”
“Look, if you want him that bad he can stay. But he’ll live in here, I’m not taking him home.”
“Fine. Come and see the puppy Silver, he’s so cute!”
“He’s a slobbering, overweight, smushed-nose dog. How cute can that possibly be?”
“Come and apologize!”
“Fine, I’ll say hi but you need to clean my window.”
“Well we don’t have any window cleaner. See I was going to get some at the store but then I ran into this man who works there who has a parrot, and he said he actually had bought all the window cleaner for himself because his parent likes to smash nuts against the windows but if you want to I can go back and see if he can give me some?”
“No thanks, I’ll just deal with the window . . . the last thing we need around here is a parrot.”