3

"I'm just not sure I'm that good at writing dialogue," the girl said, her chair hard and uncomfortable. She shifted around unconsciously as she sat with her head in her hands.
The older lady barely moved. "What makes you feel like that?" she said. To be honest, that was mostly what she had said for the last 20 minutes. Counselling did not seem like a difficult job.
The girl shrugged. "I don't know, is this how people really talk? I doubt myself a lot. And god, how do you make a character witty if you're not witty yourself?"
"What makes you think you're not witty?"
The girl stared at the plasticky coffee table in front of her. Talking about things would be easier if they provided coffee. "People sometimes laugh at what I say but I'm not sure that's the same thing as being witty. And it's usually situational, I'm responding to what's already been said. When I'm the one who said the last thing...it's harder to bounce off things,"
The older woman nodded slowly. "Like me for example?"
The girl agreed vociferously. "Like you! I mean, no offence, you seem really nice, but you're just asking questions so that I discuss my feelings. You're not even a fleshed out character, you're just there to get me talking,"
The counsellor put a pen to her lips. "The problem is that this is what counsellors do. Ultimately I was written to offer you a way of putting your feelings about writing dialogue down in a dialogue form. It's hardly fair to then accuse me of not being a fleshed out character when my character was chosen as someone who usually listens and encourages the other person to talk,"
The girl looked bashful, it was the longest sentence the counsellor had spoken. Her tone had been even throughout but she still felt admonished. "Sorry, I hadn't thought about it that way. I'm sure if this was an exercise about description I'd know a lot more about you,"
The counsellor nodded. "Or about personalisation. Ultimately I'd say you just need to really listen to the way people talk. In the same way that you've been analysing what you read for style, really listen to what people say and the rhythm of a conversation. Anyway, now you're going to be late for work,"
"You're right," the younger girl responded. "I may come back for another session, I think this actually really helped,"