WRITING OBSTACLE
Write a difficult conversation between two characters without using any dialogue tags.
Dialogue tags describe the speech - 'he whispered', 'she murmered', 'they said' etc. Removing these indicators will encourage you to make the dialogue speak for itself, instead of relying on tags to describe and clarify the intent behind the words.
No
“No.”
“What could you mean by no?”
“I won’t.”
“But you should, anybody would say yes.”
“Not me.”
“She isn’t a stranger.”
“I would do it for a stranger.”
“What do you mean? How could you do it for a stranger and not family?”
“Because this isn’t indifference, it’s hate.”
“What do you mean? Who could hate their sister?”
“Anybody with my sister would.”
“It’s your job to protect her.”
“Since when? I didn’t decide to have her, and if I _was _in charge of the decisions, that plug would have been pulled years ago.”
“How could you say that?!”
“She can barely speak, her mind doesn’t function right. She’s not a human, she’s just an animal in pain. And mom- it’s time to put her down.”
“How could you?! I mean _honestly, _I’d do all of this for you. I can’t do something for one daughter and not the other.”
“But she’s dead! Your child was practically stillborn! If that was me, I’d _want _to be out of my misery, and not bring my family down with me.”
“She’s not bringing us down, it’s just blood and you’re the only one in the family with the right type.”
“_No. _It’s not just blood, it’s money. When’s the last time we had a real meal? When’s the last time I didn’t go straight from school to the hospital? And it isn’t just blood, it’s my kidney, it’s my bone marrow. And my answer is no.”
“She’ll die.”
“She’s hardly alive, you’ve been mourning these last four years trying to recover what could have been. You’ve been hurting her more than you’ve been helping, you’ve been hurting yourself. You’ve been hurting _me.”_
__
_“_So, no?”
“No.”