Writing Exercise 07: Writing Dialogues

(Note: This is a unit of "Schreibaufgabe.de")

THE CHALLENGE
»Can you give me the salt, please?«
»Okay. Here.«
»Thanks.«
»You're welcome.«

Obviously a dialogue. Maybe two persons are having dinner. One of them needs salt, asks and gets what he/she wants. Quite boring, isn't it? To make a dialogue interesting there had to be a conflict or controversy.

The task is to pep up the dialogue above. Write about half a page and remember: What does each character want? Here's the start:

»Can you give me the salt, please?«
»No!«

MY OUTCOME
When he passed through the door it was not the usual Darling-I'm-home-feeling, it was more like entering a refrigerator. And now, half an hour later, they sat on the dining table and the only thing you could hear was the ticking of the watch and the sound of silver tines on porcelain.
He had to clear his throat before he was able to break the silence.
»Can you give me the salt?«
He still concentrated on the piece of meat in front of him, but when there was no reaction, he looked up, pointed with the knife in his hand in her direction.
»Bee, the salt! Right next to you!«
This time she looked up, frowned.
»Don't call me Bee! I have a name!«, she said with suppressed voice.
Okaaay!, he thought. This was so not right. Usually she liked calling her his honey bee.
»Can you, please, give me the salt, BARBARA?«
Damn it! He didn't want to sound her name like 'bitch'. She gave him a sharp look, gripped the salt ... and salted her own meat! Something she usually never does!
»God damn it! What is wrong with you today?«, he demanded and threw down his cutlery.
»I saw you!« Her voice was cold as ice.
»Saw what?« He tried to be cool.
»Oh, you know exactly, what I mean!«, she snapped.
»No, I don't! And if, I would call myself a mind reader and use this wonderful gift for some other useful purposes.« He so knew, that sarcasm wasn't right in here, but he simply couldn't help. And right, now her fiery temperament got loud.

QUESTION
Thanks, half the page is full! I'm so not good in doing those kind of scenes, neither in real life nor in written worlds. Got any idea how to improve these skills?

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Continue with Exercise 08: A Photo As Inspiration