Welcome! March 17th, 2016 Friday Do Now Find your seats. Write the date at the top of a new page in your journal. Once the bell rings, begin the freewrite. Prompt: What is the most frightened you have ever been?

Ping Pong vs Descriptive DIalogue Ping-pong dialogue is where the characters shoot dialogue back and forth between each other in quick succession-just like its namesake suggests. For example… "Hi, Mindy," said Kirk. “Hi, Kirk. How was school?" Mindy replied. "Good.”

Ping Pong vs Descriptive Dialogue Descriptive Dialogue includes more of a balance between dialogue and description of the character’s actions. For example: Kirk sighed, dumping his schoolbag next to the table. "Hi, Mindy." Mindy looked up distractedly from where she was painting her fingernails. "Hi, Kirk. How was school?" "Good." He shot back defensively, making a beeline for the refrigerator.

Ping Pong vs Descriptive Dialogue In general, it’s good to aim for a balance between descriptive dialogue and ping-pong dialogue. Descriptive Dialogue is effective because it gives you more opportunity to insert your voice into your story. Between dialogue, you can give the readers more information about the characters, setting, plot, ect. Ping-ping Dialogue, however, also has its uses. Pong-pong dialogue causes the reader to quicken their pace. When something exciting is happening, or you want the reader to feel a little more anxious, ping-pong dialogue can help you achieve that.

Practicing Ping-Pong 1. Create a ping-pong dialogue between two characters. Remember, ping-pong is dialogue using as little description as possible. Just write what the characters are saying. Aim for 10 lines of dialogue for full credit. Remember to properly format your dialogue, however! See the back of the dialogue hand out if you need help. If you’d like to challenge yourself, try to make the dialogue something you mind find in a horror movie. Aim for spooky! 

Practicing Descriptive Dialogue 2. Trade your ping pong dialogue with a partner. For the remainder of class, your job is to turn their ping-pong dialogue into descriptive dialogue. Remember, descriptive dialogue has a balance between dialogue and description (or sometimes even more description than dialogue). What can you add to their character’s dialogue to make the work your own? What actions can you have the characters take to give them more personality? Make sure you add at least ten sentences of description to your partner’s dialogue. More importantly, make sure your dialogue is properly formatted! This is good practice 