The Lotus Eaters Forum EX#16: He Said, She Said

One of the games we played at Comedy City was called Pick-A-Play. Two people from the audience would pick a book of a drama or comedy, and point to a random page to choose the first line for one of the three people on stage. That person could then say only their lines from that book. Another person had a different play and read lines of another character. The challenge was for the third person on stage to incorporate what they said into the scene they acted, 'justifying' what was said to make some sense of it. The scene they acted was improvised, usually starting in a location someone in the audience suggested. For a writing exercise take two plays, either in book form or any you can find online, and choose the lines of one character for a new character you will create in your work. Choose one other character from another play and use their lines for another character you create. Your challenge is to try to incorporate those lines, really concentrating on the situation which brings them together.

It is best to use short lines, so Shakespeare is probably not the way to go. Which also points out that modern language works better. Don't feel you have to use many lines, it may be just two from each character. Forget the context of those plays you take the lines from; come up with something new. If the two character's lines don't seem to link at all, remember that one of the great ways to show conflict is to have two people speaking of different matters, not responding to the other's.

This, obviously, tends towards prose more than poetry as it could lead to a lengthy work. But it is also a good challenge to any poet to write dialogue.