Wanting people to be direct and being direct myself has been “rude” all my life, and the current trend is to blame my “rudeness” on “autism.” (Not one of my diagnoses, officially or self, but it’s a handy ableist blanket for some people to throw over “every behavior that’s inconvenient for me.”)
While editing a primer on dialogue, it occurred to me this could instead be attributed to being a lifelong reader.
Well-written dialogue doesn’t go in circles. Well-written dialogue doesn’t include small talk. Well-written dialogue doesn’t let characters hem and haw without somebody telling them to quit bullshitting and get to the point. Well-written dialogue largely bypasses the meaningless, time-wasting mouth noises that somebody decided are real-life “social skills.”
Well-written dialogue is my ideal form of verbal communication.
What a shame it’s “rude.”
With that, I’m off to spend the day with pretend people who are incredibly rude—not because they murder people for a living but because they don’t chitchat, obviously.