Can I put these in here? I say.
Carly looks up from her phone and squints. The sun is in her eyes. She puts her hand up, casting a shadow over her face. Oh, she says, ya, go for it.
Cool, thanks, I say, dropping my phone and keys and wallet into her beach bag. It’s a big bag. There’s plenty of room. My things plop down next to a book. I pick it up and study the cover:
Normal People by Sally Rooney, I announce.
Carly looks up again. Ya, she says.
Any good? I say, flipping through the pages. There’s a bookmark inside. I stop on it and scan the page.
Ya, she says, it’s interesting, I guess, different, she says. She wrote another book, too: Conversations With Friends. Heard of it?
No.
It’s good.
I close Normal People and look at the cover again. It’s green and blue. I’ve never read Sally Rooney, I say.
Carly doesn’t say anything. She’s running her fingers through the sand now. I find the first page and sit down and start reading. Carly goes back to her phone. I read for a few minutes.
She doesn’t use quotation marks? I say.
Carly looks up. Like, you mean for dialogue?
Yeh, I say. She doesn’t use quotation marks to show people talking?
Oh, Carly said. Ya, no.
Ever? I say, flipping through the pages.
I don’t think so, no.
I stop on a page with dialogue tags — he said; she said — but no quotation marks. That’s unusual, I say.
Ya?
Yeh, I say.
Unusual, yes, but not unheard of in literature. James Joyce didn’t always use quotation marks. Neither did Samuel Beckett. Neither did E.L. Doctorow, who said quotation marks aren’t necessary if the writer knows what she’s doing. (Because if done well, The Reader can tell when it’s dialogue.)
Ya she’s breaking the writing rules or whatever, Carly says.
But then there it is, her work, published and accepted and celebrated: Normal People is a categorical success. It won the British Book Award and the Costa Book Award and was named the An Post Novel of the Year. And Hulu made it into a series.
Sally Rooney wrote Normal People how she wanted to write it. And it made her famous.
Yeh but “writing rules” is an oxymoron, I say.
LEARN TO PERSUADE
✅ Join thousands of email subscribers
✅ Less than 0.4% of readers unsubscribe
✅ Never miss a Micro-Article or -Interview
✅ Get instant email access to VGC's founder
✅ Be first in line to get new, free Micro-Courses
Hey there, thanks for reading. :)
If you want more “micro” content, feel free to explore 100s of articles, interviews, courses, and series — all free.
Enjoy!
Eddie Shleyner
VeryGoodCopy, founder
P.S. If you like VGC, you’ll love VGC Plus. Instantly unlock every post right here.
DRAYTON BIRD
Global Creative Director @ Ogilvy & Mather
BEN SETTLE
Email Marketing Master
KIM KRAUSE SCHWALM
A-List Direct Response Copywriter
RYAN BONNICI
Forbes 26th Most Influential CMO
SCOTT DIKKERS
Founding Editor @ The Onion 🧅
LISA PIERSON
Partner @ CopyHackers Agency
JUSTIN WELSH
SaaS Advisor & Writer
GODARD ABEL
CEO @ G2.com
DAVID GARFINKEL
A-List Direct Response Copywriter
JORGE SELVA
Director of Growth @ Help Scout
ADAM GOYETTE
Chief Marketing Officer @ Help Scout
TYLER J. KOENIG
Conversion Copywriter
TOMMY WALKER
Editor-in-Chief @ Shopify Plus & CXL
JASON VANA
Founder @ SHFT Marketing
JUSTIN BLACKMAN
Founder @ Pretty Fly Copy
CAMILLE TRENT
Managing Editor @ MarketerHire
NIKHIL NARAYANAN
Creative Director @ Ogilvy & Mather
EDEN BIDANI
Copywriter @ Greenlight Copy
MARK KILENS
VP of Content @ Drift