Dialogue Seminar (Part 2)

Today's muse:
I attended a workshop on Saturday given by Ruth E. Walker

The seminar was called Your Character's Voice: Effective Dialogue in Fiction and Memoir. One of our assignments was to create a dialogue between two people stuck in an elevator together.


* * *


Between Floors

"Great!" June squinted to see in the shadows not quite lit by the the emergency lighting.

"Hmph." A deep grunt came from across the elevator.

"Can you reach the call box?" she asked.

"Nope."

"Press some buttons, then," she suggested.

"Can't."

"What do you mean you can't? Are you hurt?"

"No."

June sighed. "Well, I'm sure someone will come get us soon." She strained to see through the darkness. Who was that?

"Do you live in the building?" she asked. She was sure she knew everyone.

"No."

"Visiting, then."

"Nope."

She slumped against the wall. Well, if he was going to be a jerk...

"Sooooo..." her voice took on a sing-song note. "What do you do?"

No response.

"I'm a secretary," she offered, desperate to slice the tension, unable to wait in silence.

Again, no response.

"Do you live around here?"

"No."

"Look," she said, annoyed now with his one-syllable answers. "We're probably going to be here a while. We might as well get to know each other."

"Fine." He snapped out the word.

"I'm June," she said.

He thrust out his hand and as she stepped forward to shake it, the knife he held plunged into her stomach.

"Nice to meet you," she heard him say as her vision greyed. "They call me..."