Dialogue by Shonell Bacon

Becoming a Lifelong Learner of the Craft of Writing

By author, editor, educator Shon Bacon aka ChickLitGurrl™

Dialogue

There are a lot of important tools needed to develop a good story.  One of the most important tools you need as a writer is DIALOGUE. With great dialogue, a story can have depth; with weak dialogue, a story can fall flat.

Why is dialogue important?

–It can reveal character and motivation. We don’t learn about characters simply by what they do, or the exposition that is written; we can learn about them through what they say and just as important, how they say it, too.

–It can establish the tone or mood.

–It can foreshadow. Have you ever read a book and after reading a conversation think, “Oh no, something’s about to happen?” That’s the writer’s ability to integrate foreshadowing into dialogue.

–It can provide exposition and backstory…and you want to use this judiciously. Nothing will bore a reader faster than you using dialogue to tell your main character’s entire life story. That being said, dialogue is a tool in which you can “quickly” give some additional information, such as backstory so that you won’t end up with long, tedious passages of exposition.

–It can develop a conflict and move a plot forward.

To become a great dialogue writer, there are several things for you to keep in mind; here are a few:

1. Walking and Talking. Avoid having pages upon pages of dialogue with your characters being mere talking heads. Just like in real life, when people talk, they are often moving or looking a certain way. Readers want to visualize your story; when all they get is straight dialogue with no break for exposition or visualization, the read might become boring.

2. Characters’ Conversation vs. Real-life Conversation. When I have the time, I like to go to my fave café and sit and write and just listen to everything around me. Listen to how people talk, what they talk about, how they interact with one another. You want your characters to sound real; however, you do want to be mindful of those empty fillers – the pauses, the um, ah, and oh that we in real life use.  In a story, there is a purpose, and with dialogue – as with any other fictional element – the goal is to write it in the most concise way to accomplish the goal and get the reader reading.

3. Who Is Your Character?  Will an auto mechanic and a high-maintenance partner in a law firm talk the same? Probably not. Who your characters are will dictate how you create their voices.

4. Everyday Convo. Be mindful of dialogue that sounds too real.  In real life, we meet up with friends, and we start conversations with hello, how are you, how is the family, and what’s been going on lately.  We typically end those conversations with goodbyes, hugs, and well wishes.  Incorporating dialogue does not mean you must start from the beginning of a conversation and develop it through to the end.  Everything you develop for your story must connect to its purpose, its point, so when you develop a conversation, you need to decide what part of the conversation is vital to your story and write it.

5. Oy, Chica, Pa. Though you do want your characters to sound as real as possible, you do not want to rely on stereotypes to get your point across. Your character should be authentic and real-to-life. A person from the rural South would obviously sound different than a Yankee from Boston, and you would want to reflect that; however, you would want to avoid the hackneyed, clichéd terms of a type of person; don’t pigeonhole your characters. Now, does this mean your Southern character can’t say “fixin’”? Obviously, the answer to that is no. It really is a fine line. I think a good question to ask yourself is “Must my character say these exact words?” If you feel in your gut that there is no other way to state something, then go for what you know.

6. F*ck you, motherf*cker. Some say it is best to avoid using a lot of profanity and slang in stories. Slang dates a work, and profanity may “convey” toughness, anger, but it can also be used as a crutch to avoid supplying great dialogue and action to convey the toughness and anger. Some writers believe that using slang in your dialogue is fine; it illustrates how the characters talk. Once again, I say understand your character, BE your character. What does he or she HAVE to say in order to get his/her point across and to move the story along? Figure that out and write it.  One thing I’ve seen recently is authors using symbols to spell out profanity, whether in narration or in dialogue.  For example, they might write, I hated that motherf&cker with a passion.  Or, That son of a b#tch screwed me over.  My opinion on this?  If you can’t commit yourself to the word, do not use it, PERIOD.  Narrators do not narrate in ampersands and number signs, and characters do not speak in asterisks and dollar signs.

7. He Said/She Said. Many writers will attempt to go beyond “said” and use words like articulated, screamed, yelled, sighed, and interjected. You won’t be deemed a poor excuse of a writer if you use “said” more.  Besides, ultimately, you want your dialogue to be strong enough to carry its own weight and not have to depend on a tagline.  Besides, sometimes the words used in a tagline, such as sighed, moaned, groaned, pointed, are words that cannot be performed in speech.  We don’t sigh words.  We don’t point words.  If a character has a long stretch of dialogue, don’t wait until the end to drop a tagline. Place one in the middle of the dialogue so the reader doesn’t have to wait until a long passage to see who’s speaking. If you have two characters talking, initiate their dialogue with taglines and then drop the taglines. The reader will know who is speaking.

The important things to remember about writing dialogue are 1) your dialogue should have a point and do more than simply present talking heads and 2) your dialogue should sound real and authentic to your characters and the situations to which they find themselves talking.

I’ve given you a lot of food for thought; however, there is MUCH more that can be said about dialogue in both its development and formatting stages.  If you have any questions, definitely leave a comment.  If I got the answer, you will, too.

Thanks for checking me out @ The Write Life for You.  Next month, I’ll be talking about Words (overwriting, wordiness, commonly confused words, and usage).

ChickLitGurrl ~ signing out

Shon

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