A Quick Question!

[clear-sarcasm.livejournal.com]

Hi everyone,

I believe this is my first time posting here.

I just had a question for anyone who may be able to assist me.

I'm currently working on a novel (fiction - thriller). The opening chapter is to begin with a 911 call being placed by a woman in distress. The novel is written in third-person perspective, past tense. So, how would the conversation take place?

Every time I try to play it out, I think of news segments or scripts in which it is written something like this:

Dispatch: 911, what's your emergency?
Caller: Someone's been shot.
Dispatch: Who's been shot? Where are you calling from?
...etc.

This, obviously, won't work in my novel...so...what are my options?

Any and all advice, criticism and/or opinions are welcomed and appreciated.

Thanks!

Comments

[misstumbledown.livejournal.com]

I can't see how that wouldn't work just like any other dialogue, unless by "third person" you mean that you're out of your character's head and the narrator can't hear the other end of the conversation. In that case, I think that the readers don't have to hear the dispatch and the woman's part of the conversation is enough for them to gather what's going on.

Also, if you want to know what a 911 call looks like, call them from a payphone and pretend that someone's been shot. That's what I did, but I'm not from the US and I think that prank calls like those are illegal, so, er... you might as well stick with what you have ^^

[xtricks.livejournal.com]

YEah. This is illegal and, more importantly, wrong. 911 dispatchers are there to save lives, not amuse you.