Dialogue Exercise

Exercise: “Write a scene composed mostly of dialogue with a child talking to a stranger. Your mission is to show the child as heartbreakingly cute.”

“Is that a gun?”
 Z looked down at the child and back at what was definitely a gun.
“No,” he said, putting it away.
The child narrowed her eyes. “Mommy said lying is bad.”
Z blinked. “Erm-”
“And,” she added, “liars are wussies.” She crossed her arms. “Are you a wussy?”
Z scoffed. “No.”
She beamed. “Good! Wussies can’t be in the Princess Club.”
“Wait,” Z said, “I’m in the Princess Club?”
She rolled her eyes. “Duh, you have Princess hair.”
Z patted his golden locks self-consciously. “No.”
Her smile fell. “Yes.”
“Definitely not.”
“But why?” She whined.
“Because if you go around telling people I’m in the Princess Club, they’ll try to kill me,” he said, struck by the ridiculousness of the statement.
Her eyes widened. “Oh.”
He nodded solemnly. “Indeed.”
She leaned forward. “We’ll have to keep it a secret then,” she whispered.
“Fantastic idea.”