Writing dialogue is always difficult, especially for someone who more prefers introspective writing like me. There’s the problem of making it sound like everyday speech (made more difficult when you’re writing something set in a different time period), and then there’s the problem of keeping individual characters’ voices distinct and interesting.
That said, I’ve completed one conversation (!) for a novel that I’m thinking of turning into an eventual graduate thesis. I would say I’d make it my IS, but it requires a LOT of research, and I don’t think I can finish it in one school year. If you’re wondering, the conversation is about the concept of an outsider within society–who decides who is outside and who is inside and why. It also touches on class and race in 1919, the year my novel is set in.
On top of that, I’ve written a couple random essays (I don’t know what else to call them) that are really more like a stream of thoughts from my head on various subjects. I don’t know what I’ll do with them, or even if I’ll ever use them in my future writings, but it always feels good to get these things out on paper (or rather, on Microsoft Word) so they aren’t cluttering up my brain.
I haven’t really set a word count goal, because once it’s out there, I would feel pressured to meet it, and I know I never would. I don’t want to disappoint myself–or anybody else who might be reading this.