As I've gotten older, I seem to find that writing dialog has become easier for me. I don't know whether it's the fact that over time I've been part of more conversations, as well as heard more on television and in movies. Or perhaps I've developed an "ear," like one does for music. Of course, I can't discount the fact that I've become pretty good at "holding" dialog in my head. If I'm doing something mundane like the dishes, and come up with a descriptive passage, I pretty much need to stop and write it down, lest I lose it; dialog, in contrast, I can file away and transfer it from my RAM to the PC later.
Case in point...
The other day I was working on the follow-up to Nightmares. I won't talk too much about it yet. Let me just say that I think this book really has some "bite" to it. I was thinking of a conversation that my protagonist, Tommy, would be having with the female lead, Laura.
When I had some spare time, I opened the doc-in-progress. In 30 minutes, I knocked out 750 words. 750 words! Do the math: that's 1,500 words per hour. Though I know I realistically couldn't keep up that pace--if you'll excuse a little flight of fancy--that would be 12,000 words in an eight-hour day. So I could write a 70,000-word YA novel in about a week.
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