We’ve been so lucky to have Geoff Herbach–author of Stupid Fast and the upcoming Nothing Special–join us these past few weeks with his brilliant, hilarious writing exercises. He’s helped us use more concrete phrases and fewer vague terms, bring flat characters into relief, and play with timing to give our writing more dimension.

This week, he reveals that he spends a lot of time hiding out around the Minnesota State University Campus (where he teaches creative writing) listening in on other people’s conversations. Creepy? Sure. But effective!

Check out Geoff’s video below, and give his writing exercise a shot. If you tag your challenge response with HerbachWriting4, Geoff might just stop by your profile and offer you some feedback! Or maybe he’s already hiding outside your house, watching you write your response, analyzing your dialogue as you talk to your dad about what’s for dinner. Who knows?

For this exercise, Geoff asks you to create a scene using some cracked dialogue–the kind of weird, not-quite-complete language we use in real life. Use the dialogue to bring the central conflict of the story to light. Having trouble thinking of a conflict? Here’s a scene idea from Geoff:

Write a brief dialogue between a mom and her 18-year-old kid (male or female) where child reveals he/she got married.

Have fun! And don’t forget to tag your responses with HerbachWriting4.