In a post on Writer Unboxed, David Corbett shares advice on using idioms to spice up your dialogue. “In the never-ending quest for snappy repartee in our fiction, we often overlook the ways in which our own personal exchanges with friends and family members provide us with creative language we can use (i.e., steal) for our stories,” he says.
Unfortunately, many of the phrases we repeat with family and friends are like in-jokes, requiring context the reader doesn’t share. Fortunately, with some creativity, you select expressions that are self-explanatory. “Just as you and others have created these expressions from experience, so too can your characters,” Corbett says. Married couples often have catch phrases they use as conversational shorthand or to refer to a shared memory.
As examples, Corbett shares examples of idioms from his marriage, film, and family.
