• The high status person attempting to lower the speaker's status.
4. Draw a number out of the hat. This number is the size of the status increment that Character B should try to achieve. For example, if you draw a number ten, Character B should attempt to raise or lower his status by a very, very, very, very large amount. If you draw a number one, Character B will raise or lower his status by only a miniscule amount.
5. Draw another number out of the hat. Rewrite the first line to reflect this new status gap.
6. Repeat step 5 until you have used all the numbers.
7. Arrange all the lines on a spectrum from one to ten. Are there any gaps? Between existing lines, could you add new lines with shades of status difference? If so, write them.
8. Could you add more? Could you write status gaps in increments of eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen? If so, write them.
9. Repeat this exercise regularly as an ongoing writer's workout.
SCARLETT: Sir, you are no gentleman.
RHETT: And you, Miss, are no lady.
—Gone with the Wind (1939)
LESSON SIX:
Building Dialogue
T
hink about the people around you. Who are the high status players? Who are the people who, in every line of every conversation, try to take positions of superiority and prominence? Who are the low status players? Who are the people who, in every line of every conversation, try to take positions of subordination and deference?
In dialogue, status isn't just a role, it's an agenda. Many people are able to adjust that agenda to suit the needs of the moment. (We'll talk about those people in later chapters.) For now, we're going to focus on inflexible status players. These are people who work to maintain their preferred status role throughout an entire conversation. No matter how appropriate or inappropriate it is, inflexible low status players will always keep themselves low. They will quickly spiral down to absurd depths to maintain the lower status role. Inflexible high status players will always keep themselves high. They will quickly escalate their conversation to absurd heights to maintain the higher status role.
Let's experiment with how this plays out in a conversation.
LESSON 6: SCRIPT ANALYSIS EXERCISE
In this exercise, the group will go on a scavenger hunt. Randomly assign each member one of the following:
• A scene between two relentlessly high status players
• A scene between two relentlessly low status players
• A scene between a relentlessly high status player and a relentlessly low status player
Once each member has her assignment, she must find a scene from an existing play or screenplay that matches the description she was given. (She can use the Appendix for suggestions or she can find material on her own.) She should look for a one- to three-page, one- to three-minute dialogue scene between only two people. She can either bring in pages from the script or clips from the film or TV show.
For Discussion:
Have each member of the group present the script pages or video clips.
1. Have the group guess the status relationship between the two characters.
2. Did the group guess correctly? If so, what in the script made the status relationship clear? If not, what in the script made the status relationship confusing?
3. Look at all the scenes between two relentlessly high status players. What do they all have in common? How do they differ?
4. Look at all the scenes between the two relentlessly low status players. What do they all have in common? How do they differ?
5. Look at all the scenes between the relentlessly high status players and the relentlessly low status players. What do they all have in common? How do they differ?
LESSON 6: BEGINNER EXERCISE
1. Write a two- or three-page dialogue between two characters. In the dialogue, the characters should discuss one of the following topics:
• The weather
• A famous book, movie, or TV show
• A sports team or a particular sporting event
2. Before you start writing, randomly assign each character one of the status preferences below:
• Very low status
• Low status
• High status
• Very high status
3. As you write the dialogue, make sure each character does everything he can to maintain his preferred status level throughout the conversation. A high status person will, in every line, try to place his status slightly higher than the person who just spoke. A very high status person will, in every line, try to place his status much higher than the person who just spoke. A low status person will always go slightly lower than the person who just spoke; a very low status person will always go much lower.
For Discussion:
Read the dialogues aloud to the group.
1. Have the group guess which status role each character was playing.
2. Was there any point at which a character broke out of her preferred role? For example, if the character was assigned high status, did she ever break into low status? Did she ever jump into very high status? If so, when did it happen? Why did it happen? What drove the character to break out of her preferred status role?
3. Identify the techniques that each character used to maintain her status role. When did she raise or lower her own status? When did she raise or lower the other person's status?
4. Discuss the status gaps between the characters in the dialogues. Which status gaps created the most realistic dialogue? Which status gaps created the least realistic dialogue? Which status gaps made the characters seem reasonable? Which status gaps made the characters seem crazy, neurotic, or funny?
LESSON 6: INTERMEDIATE AND ADVANCED EXERCISE
In this exercise, you will write a three- to five-page dialogue between three characters.
1. In the dialogue, the characters should discuss one of the following topics:
• The weather
• A famous book, movie, or TV show
• A sports team or a particular sporting event
2. Before you begin, draw the following diagram:
3. Now, randomly assign each character a preferred status role in relation to each of the other characters. It will look something like this:
4. Write the scene. Have each character maintain, throughout the dialogue, his preferred status role in relation to each of the other characters. In the above example, Character A will, throughout the conversation, try to keep himself very high status relative to Character B. At the same time, Character A will, throughout the conversation, try to keep himself very low status relative to Character C.
For Discussion:
Read the dialogues out loud.
1. After listening to a dialogue, have the group try to re-create the starting diagram. What status role did each character try to take on with each of the other characters?
2. Was there any point at which a character broke out of her preferred role in relation to another character? For example, if the character was assigned high status, did she ever break into low status? Did she ever jump into very high status? If so, when did it happen? Why did it happen? What drove the character to break out of her preferred status role?
3. How did the prescribed status roles guide the writer in creating the dialogue?
4. What interesting or surprising moments came about as a result of the prescribed status roles?
5. How did the prescribed status roles affect the dynamic of the dialogue?
LESSON 6: SOLO EXERCISE
1. Brainstorm a list of at least three topics that have come up in your life in the last week. For example, here's my list:
• Pregnancy
• The presidential election
• Halloween
2. For each item on the list, brainstorm at least three specific issues that have come up around the topics. Here's my example:
• Pregnancy
What to name the baby
Heartburn
Buying maternity clothes
• The presidential election
Not getting work done because I am reading the latest political polls
Early voting
Trying to compose a letter on behalf of my candidate
• Halloween
Going a little overkill on the Halloween decorations
Deciding what candy to buy
Scheduling trick-or-treating
3. Now, pick one of the specific issues from your list. Write a two-person dialogue in which two fictional characters in a fictional setting deal with that same issue. Before you start writing, randomly assign each character one of the status preferences below
• very low status
• low status
• high status
• very high status
As you write the dialogue, make sure each character does everything he can to maintain his preferred status level throughout the conversation.
4. Repeat this exercise regularly as an ongoing writer's workout.
BENJAMIN: Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me. Aren't you?
—The Graduate (1967)
LESSON SEVEN:
Dialogue on Shifting Sands
I
t's not only people who try to give and take status. An environment can give and take status just as effectively as an individual. Think about architecture. What buildings and environments are clearly designed to make you feel small, as if you are in the presence of something larger and more important than yourself? St. Peter's Basilica… the Capitol Building in Washington, DC… a CEO's plush executive office… these are just a few that leap to my mind. Now, what buildings and environments are clearly designed to make you feel grand, as if you are important and significant? The interior of a stretch limousine… your table at a fancy restaurant… the inside of a luxury spa.
Social environments also attempt to manipulate status. Look at any human community: the United Nations, the music industry, a garden club, or even your friends gathered in a coffee shop. You will see that one of the things that each community does is to attempt to define status and status roles. That decision is a collective one based on the group's values and needs. A man who shows off his knowledge of how to grow a prizewinning orchid might be admired by a garden club, but teased in a sports bar. An oil company executive might be the honorary guest at a business dinner, but the subject of protests by an environmentalist group. A suicide bomber is considered a terrorist by one group of people, but a martyr by another.
Even within a particular community, status roles are not immutable. Events can trigger a change in the way a group assigns status. Imagine a gathering of people attending a political fund-raiser. The guest of honor is a candidate for president. He's giving a speech. That candidate is in a very high status position. Everyone is there to listen to him (and perhaps to give him money). Now imagine that one of the guests collapses with chest pain. The candidate has no idea what to do. The guests ask around for a doctor. The doctor in the room steps forward. Now the doctor has the highest status in the room. Everyone expects the doctor to take control of the situation. Until the crisis is over, the room will defer to the doctor's authority. The high status position has switched from the candidate to the doctor as a result of the change of circumstance in the room.
On a smaller scale, this happens even as people jump from topic to topic in conversation. My husband, Jeremy, is a computer programmer who knows nothing about sports. When talking sports, our friends will tease him about his cluelessness (lowering his status); however, if the topic switches to the best way to back up a hard drive, these same people will start asking for Jeremy's opinion (raising his status).
Every day, human beings move from place to place, from community to community, and from moment to moment. This ever-changing landscape demands status deftness. An individual might have an innate preference for playing high status or low status, but everyone must - to some degree — do both. The diversity of human society demands it. From place to place, from community to community, and from moment to moment, we jockey for status position on a constantly shifting playing field.
LESSON 7: SCRIPT ANALYSIS EXERCISE
Select a dialogue scene from a film or television show. (See the Appendix for a list of suggestions.) The scene should contain no more than three people.
For Discussion:
Play the scene with the sound on mute. Without hearing any dialogue, try to answer the following questions:
• Which characters are playing high status and which characters are playing low status? Without the dialogue, how can you tell?
• Do the status roles shift in the scene? If so, when? Without the dialogue, how could you tell that the status roles shifted?
Replay the scene with the volume on.
• How does the dialogue reveal the status roles?
• How do the dialogue shifts match up with the shifts in status?
• Does something happen in the scene to trigger the status shift? If so, what?
• Does the dialogue reflect the shifts in status? If so, how?
LESSON 7: BEGINNER EXERCISE
In this exercise, you will write a two- to three-page dialogue between two characters.
1. Randomly assign each character one of the following status roles:
• very low status
• low status
• high status
• very high status
2. For the first half of the dialogue, each character must maintain his preferred status role. Halfway through the dialogue, find a way to make the characters switch to new status roles. Maintain those new roles through to the end.
For Discussion:
Read the dialogues out loud to the group.
1. What was each character's preferred status role in the first half of the dialogue? Did he consistently maintain that role throughout the first half?
2. What was each character's preferred status role in the second half of the dialogue? Did he consistently maintain that role throughout the second half?
3. What caused the characters to switch to new roles?
4. What was the effect of having the characters switch to new status roles? What new information did it give you about the characters, their situation, and their relationship?
5. How did the switching of the status roles affect the tone of the dialogue? Did big status shifts have a different effect on tone than small status shifts?
LESSON 7: INTERMEDIATE AND ADVANCED EXERCISE
In this exercise, you will write a three- to five-page dialogue between three characters.
1. Before you begin, draw the following diagram:
2. Now, randomly assign each character a preferred status role in relation to each of the other characters. It will look something like this:
3. Now, draw a second diagram with a completely different set of status relationships between the characters. For example:
4. Write the dialogue. In the first half of the scene, each character must maintain the status roles as described in the first diagram. Halfway through the dialogue, find a reason for the characters to switch to the status roles in the second diagram. Have them maintain those roles through to the end.
For Discussion:
Read the dialogues out loud to the group.
1. After listening to a dialogue, have the group try to re-create the starting diagram and the ending diagram.
2. In the first half of the dialogue, did each character consistently maintain his preferred status role in relation to each of the other characters? If there was a break, when did it happen? Why did it happen?
3. In the second half of the dialogue, did each character consistently maintain his new preferred status role in relation to each of the other characters? If there was a break, when did it happen? Why did it happen?
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