Shoutout to the writing professor who told me my dialogue was 'too real'

My college creative writing prof said my characters talked too much like actual people, with all the ums and interruptions. Turns out he was right, I spent 3 years unlearning that habit after I submitted a story to a lit mag and got rejected for having 'unpolished banter'. Has anyone else gotten advice that sounded good at first but actually messed up their style?

2 comments

2 Comments

maxp684d ago

Respect the prof. Real talk is boring on the page. Polish wins readers.

palmer.ryan2d ago

So @maxp68 is saying we should all write like we're polishing a car instead of driving it through mud? I guess my rough drafts full of run-on sentences and half-baked ideas arent winning any beauty contests. But hey, if polished means deleting all the sarcastic tangents that make me laugh, maybe boring on the page is the price of looking smart. What's the point of sounding professional if nobody recognizes themselves in the words?