Recently, a writing friend mentioned that my speech patterns tend to rub off on her whenever we’re together. I kept thinking about that comment because it reminded me that I was not on my home turf. I was at my MFA residency, where I was one of a handful of non-white students in the writing program, a circumstance that does not reflect my life outside of graduate school. In my San Diego, mostly Asian, mostly Latine spaces, I talk how I talk, and that’s just how everybody talks.

In my truest form, I can speak slangy in that chronically online millennial way. I also curse. Not like a sailor but more like a server at a wedding. But only if I’m comfortable around you. How vulgar I get is a pretty decent gauge of our closeness as friends. My word choice also reflects traces of my upbringing. If you ever get to hear me address you like biitch—it’s all love. But if it’s just ‘bitch’ then we have a problem.

Speech reveals so much. It carries with it connotations of status, emotion, identity, and culture. Linguistic register is the term for how language adapts according to the speaker’s context. Factors like formality, location, topic, relationship, purpose, and audience can all slice one message a million different ways. This week, let’s take some blah dialogue and see how applying the idea of register changes things.

Now go write,
Jamie

📝 This week’s writing prompt

Take the following exchange and imagine a context that changes the register of the dialogue. Expand it. Play with colloquialisms, body language, and interjections. See if you can clue us in on any relationship dynamics, emotional states, and subtexts. 

A: So, where do you think we should take Wanda to lunch?
B: Definitely somewhere upscale. You know how she is.
A: She hated that French Bistro last time. The steak frites were not crispy enough apparently.
B. You'd better think of something. She arrives in less than an hour.

Reply to this email to submit your writing. Share by Saturday evening and see what everyone else wrote for the same prompt.

Last week’s submissions: Living your creative truth

Did you submit last week? If so, check out the other submissions 👀

See all submissions

✨ Writing inspo of the week

"Nothing teaches you as much about writing dialogue as listening to it." — Judy Blume