I attended a new (for me) writers group a few months ago, and one of the things we did was an exercise focused on not-using dialogue tags. The idea was simple: your characters (a nun and a drunk) should be identifiable by what they say and how they say it, without you tagging their dialogue. I just found my text buried in Evernote, and thought I’d toss it up here. What do you think? Did I pass?

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Who’s there?
Ugh, not so loud, will ya?
Who are you?
Sorry sister. Musta passed out. You should be proud. This might be the most comfortable dumpster I’ve ever slept in.
Saints, another one.
Another one what?
I told mother superior when that bar opened a block away we needed a lock on that fence.
And keep all this comfy trash to yourselves? Where’s your Christian charity? Not like you’re using it.
Please leave.
And go where? Ooo a chicken leg. How do you throw away a perfectly good chicken leg like this?
Please leave!
Fine. I’m going. God bless, sister.

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Thanks for reading,

{RDj}