4 keys to Great Dialogue

Obviously, I cannot teach people to write great dialogue in a single plot, but, like my other posts, can give you a few things to think about as you write your latest scene today.

Many authors love writing dialogue. In fact, I am betting this is one of the biggest reasons that so many authors love writing in first person. Essentially this is straight-up dialogue with your main character talking to the reader. However, although many love writing dialogue, there are far too many stories where I see the dialogue adding absolutely nothing to the story. What authors have to remember is that dialogue is not simply characters talking. It is an integral part of the entire story.

When it comes to dialogue, we have to remember 5 basic facts:

1. What we hear has to be believable
2. The dialogue needs to add to character development
3. It should advance the plot
4. It should add a layer of backstory and depth
5. It should assist with heightening the conflict and tension

Let's look at each.

BELIEVABLITY - This is a big one with me, as many of you should already know. The words we hear from the characters have to not only be authentic, but also fit with who the character really is. To accomplish this, an author really has to take the time to know who the character is as a person. We are talking a full understanding of their goals, motivations and conflicts. The authenticity comes from really writing about characters you understand.

I will say, this is one of the reasons why I have passed on so many YA and New Adult projects. Unless you are someone who is of that age, or someone who works and lives with someone who is that age, you simply don't get it. The jargon, word choice, and phrasing is something you simply cannot make up.

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT - What the characters say (or don't say and only reveal in their introspection) should tell us a lot about the characters. This cannot simply be reserved for narration or dialogue tags, and certainly, adjectives and adverbs will not fix the problem. What do the characters say when they are in stressed situations? How do they react when they are happy? In simple terms, when the characters talk, we should learn something about them each and every time. They should not just be asking for a cup of coffee at the local Starbucks.

PLOT ADVANCEMENT - This is really a wasted area for so many authors. They tend to reserve the plot advancement to only the narration. Instead, let the dialogue of the characters advance the story. Move us toward a goal. Keep the story moving. When they say something, it should be setting up the next scene or an impending conflict that they don't see yet. Again, don't move the story along only with the narration, and then, when you get to the scene you want, have everything come to a screeching halt so your characters can sit around and talk.

DEPTH - This is connected in many ways with the character development and the plot advancement. When we start to see characters saying one thing publicly, and then turning around and saying something different in their introspection, we can see some depth of development. When the characters are given a chance to talk for more than a single sentence, we learn a lot more about their surroundings and their world. We just have to give them a chance to talk.

CONFLICT - Again, don't rely on the narration here. If you really want to build the conflict between two characters, put them in a room together and let them start talking to each other. I promise, you will get the fireworks you were looking for. Too often, I see authors only build the conflict when the characters are away from each other. This is such a shame because that tension could have been so much stronger if we heard how they really felt about each other.

The point of all of this is pretty basic. Make the dialogue work for you in the story. This is not, as I pointed out in the beginning, just the time when the characters talk.

Does Your Dialogue Match Your Character?

Dialogue is one of those things that can either make or break a book. Unfortunately, I see far too many projects where the dialogue just doesn't work with the book or the story. There is a huge disconnect between the characters, the plot and the scene.

I think one thing that many writers seem to forget is that dialogue is more than just the characters talking. Dialogue has a powerful role in the success of your story. It is used not just for passing on information to the reader, but also used for pacing, introspection and conveying emotions to the reader. When we have weak dialogue, we often end up making comments of the author telling and not showing.

Let's look at each of these elements of dialogue in your story through the scene a small scene For example, in Bronwyn Scott's story, HOW TO RUIN A REPUTATION.

"Maybe I can help. I can look over the books with you if Alex can't Who knows, there might be something I remember."

"You have too many other activities right now. I don't want to bother you." He was slipping away from her again. Genevra could feel it. The vulnerability of a moment earlier was vanishing."

I'm your wife. You can let me help. I want to help," she protested.

I'll manage it, Genevra," Ashe snapped making clear the conversation was finished.


In this case, we really see how she was able to keep the pace and the tension going in this scene. The dialogue is really the motivating force here. If you think about it, when people are arguing, there isn't going to be much room for narration and introspection.

Along the same lines, in these short lines, we can truly see that these characters are in for a rough time for the next couple of pages. Why? This dialogue tells us she is reaching out to him in the best way she can think about at this time and he is simply not going to open up.

Now, Bronwyn could have inserted narration into this scene with a lot of introspection as to what Genevra is thinking. She could have added in longer lines coming from Ashe explaining why he isn't interested in talking right now, but this would not only slow down the story, it would throw her into the "telling vs. showing" situation and all of the tension would be lost.

I started out this post also asking the question of whether or not dialogue matched your characters? It is crucial for you to know exactly who your characters are, what type of people they are, and most importantly, what would they say or do in these situations. For the above small scene, this dialogue truly matches the characters. Ashe is a take charge type of guy and is someone who really doesn't like to let his emotions show. Genevra is someone who is very giving and caring. She is concerned by what people think and do.

What happens to far too many authors is that they make the characters say things that they, as the author, would say, but not necessarily what fits with the actual character or the situation. They are so focused on getting their plot told that they forget to think about the characters.

So, go back and check that dialogue of yours. How are you using it?

The Pro's and Con's of Dialect In Writing

A lot of famous authors from Mark Twain to Alice Walker have used dialect in their writing. As readers we have all experienced reading dialect and seen both the power it has to suck you into the world of the characters, while at the same time, really becoming an obstacle to our understanding of the story. Yes, bringing in an authentic language and voice to the story adds to the realism of world you are creating on the page, but it might be working to your disadvantage.

If you think about the first time you read Shakespeare, you will understand what I mean. For most new readers of his plays, it took two or three acts before our heads to get a grasp of the language. By then, we might have become so lost and confused, it really didn't matter because our brains turned off. For people who travel, you too might have experienced just this same thing. when you end up in a country that might speak a different dialect of English, it seemed as if you might be really listening to a different language entirely.

I see many new authors really mess this one up a lot. In their attempt to create a truly authentic picture of their world, they fill the book with dialect that, for many, would take a dictionary to understand what the characters are saying. There are good intentions here, but the problem is that the fluency of the story, the rhythm and cadence that makes for an easy read is stopped dead in its tracks with the language.

So, what is the solution? Does an author eliminate all of the language and dialect? You can, or you can simply reduce it throughout the book. Use it sparingly and you should be fine. I think some great examples of this are the authors of historical fiction, especially those that write in a time period with a unique voice, or a country with that strong dialect. Scottish authors use the "doona's" sparingly. Medieval authors back off of the "thee's" and the "thous". If you think of the movie, Hunt for Red October, you get the idea. People often laughed at Sean Connery's character. Isn't it interesting that this Russian submarine captain speaks amazing English with a British accent? He had to, or the odds are the movie goers would have no idea what he was saying.

Play with it a little. See what you can find on this when you read this week.

ABC's of Writing - (D)ialogue: It's More Than Just Talking

More often than not, I end up passing on projects from authors because the story really lacks depth. This is depth of character as well as plot development. When I read the initial premise, or I heard the story idea through a pitch session, the over-all story sounded great! But then, when it became time to really get into the story and see how things played out, the story fell flat. The story and the writing was 2-dimensional.

For many of these writers, the easiest solution would have been to examine the dialogue in the story. Dialogue provides so much more to the story and frankly, I think many authors simply miss out on the power of this great tool. I should also note we really see this when authors are using 1st person narrative and, in the end, the entire story is dialogue.

As the title of this blog states, dialogue is much more than just characters talking to one another. As humans, we can discover so much about a person by truly listening to what people tell us and by what they don't tell us. We can learn how our people react to situations by truly examining what they say in a time of crisis, happiness or sadness.

Now, don't get me wrong. We can still use dialogue as a "plot device" to just get the characters from one point to the next in the story, or for unloading some information on the reader. But to truly be successful with your writing, take the time to examine so many other opportunities dialogue can provide for you.

Dialogue can adjust the pacing of your story. More dialogue and snappier dialogue speeds things up. More narration slows the pace down.

Dialogue can provide introsection. Yes, we can get introspection through the narration that surrounds the dialogue, but we can also use it through our dialogue tags.

"You are an amazing writing," Scott lied. 7 words and there is a lot going on with this line.

Dialogue shows us the value systems our characters work with. If given multiple things to talk about, what comes up first in the conversation? This tells us a lot.

I actually use this last one when authors pitch to me. One of my requirements is that I don't want writers to read pitches to me. What I have often found is that the written text has been so crafted and so wordsmithed, that the real storyline is being covered up by words the author believes we WANT to hear. When I have writers just tell me their story, what they think, and what their mind believes to be the most important elements of the story or concept will immediately move to the front of the conversation.

If you want a good practice at understanding dialogue, go back and start to examine how other authors use it in their own text. I think you will be surprised to find there is indeed much more than a lot of talking.

Scott

Dialogue - It's Not Just Talking

I often find that one of the main reasons I reject stories is the lack of depth in a project. In other words, the author has really skimmed the surface with the real character development. In most cases, when I say this to an author, they add more sub-plots and story elements which does nothing more, in the long run, than increase the word count. In reality, the easiest solution is sitting right in front of their face - Dialogue.

Too often, many authors miss the real value of dialogue in a story. For most, the only purpose is to have the characters have a conversation with one another. Now granted, dialogue is a discussion, but what the readers can gain from the use of effective dialogue is huge.

When I used to actively do theater, one of the things I did was to spend countless hours looking over the script reading not just what I said to memorize the lines, but to read, the other stuff in the story. I would see what other people said about my character. I would read carefully to see how my character said things to different people in the story. In other words, was there a difference in tone and vocabulary used with the different situations. These small little elements added a huge amount of depth to the character development.

Over the weekend, I worked with one of my authors a new project she was working on. Depth was one of those elements. She found that she had a character that suddenly had nothing major that had to happen in the story. Still, it was time for this characters POV to show up since she had spent a very larger portion on one of the other characters. So we built in a dialogue.

Now I know what you are thinking. "But Scott, you're just having the characters talk." True, but instead of just having the conversation be mindless, this was a chance to insert a bit of that information dump that we try so hard to avoid in the narrations sections. Since this character was new to the surroundings, she had the character bump into someone that has been around for some time. The conversation could now deal with elements of world building, introspection into the other protagonist, as well as some introspection on the characters and his new surroundings. In this short dialogue, we now were starting to understand the GMC of two of the major characters, got a bit more of an understanding of the plot, and did so in a fun way.

Your job during this week is to really look at your use of dialogue. I understand that you probably use all of the elements I talked about here, but look at what you MOSTLY use it for. I think you will be shocked that for many of you, the dialogue you use most of the time is just mindless chatter. It's simply a time for your characters to be together. See if you can make it so much more.

Scott

When Dialogue is nothing but "Blah, Blah, Blah"

Getting your story moving in the first pages is crucial. You have heard us all talking and sometimes screaming about this idea. We also know that starting with a huge narration sometimes is not the best way, but by starting with dialogue we can keep things moving. So far, so good, right? But....

If your dialogue isn't doing anythign to either advance the story, or provide insight into the characters goals, motivations or personalities, then it is really a waste.

What is worse is when a story starts out with dialogue. Beginning a story this way with dialogue is a great way to get the story moving quickly, but if we simply have characters talking, without any real information, you have simply lost your readers. In situations like this, we simply have nothing to attach the characters words to. We don't know who they are. We don't know what they are doing? We know nothing. And now, we have paragraphs of empty words.

When you decide to use dialogue in your story, it is important that you always take the time to stop and think about what you want to achieve in this brief scene. What new piece of information do you want the reader to gain about the characters? What about the plot? Are we moving the story along toward that final conclusion? If you find that it doesn't do much, then this is a good area to do some serious hacking.

This weekend. Go to work on dialogue!

Scott

Dialogue - It's More Than Simply Talking

On many occasions, I find stories that have a real disconnect going on. Needless to say, this is often a huge reason for passing on a project. That disconnect stems from the dialogue and how the author is using it in the story. Time and time again, authors seem to think that dialogue is simply conversation. What they are forgetting is that dialogue has a lot more packed into it than simply a bunch of words. In the end, that disconnect I am seeing could easily be described as almost reading two stories at the same time.

Most of the time, what I end up seeing are characters saying things that, if this were played out in the real world, they would never say. I see characters having words coming out of their mouths that given their personalities, they would never say. In many ways, it is like, Baby Herman. You know the guy, the little darling in Roger Rabbit who happens to be a chain smoking, gambling, foul mouthed baby...

I don't care if you have a great dialogue sequence you put together with great lines, if the characters wouldn't say this stuff, then they shouldn't. And yes, this goes for the internal dialogue they have with themself.

I could go on and on with situations and people, but I think you have the idea. What you need to do right now is to really examine your characters. Not what they say but who they are. Once you get a good grasp on this, then go back and look at what they say. Is this right? While you are it, also look at where and when that would happen. Would that conversation really happen in church? In the board room?

And no excuses for the story being fiction or "fantasy." Your characters have to act and behave like humans for us to believe your story.

Have a great day!

Scott

Make your language believable

As writers of fiction, we often forget that the people we use in the stories should act and behave like real people. This also means that the language they use - the diction, the vocal patterns and the like - need to be believeable for the reader. If not, the reader will struggle through the text, and although the plot for the story may be great, the dialogue will kill the reader.

Too often, I see writers trying to impress the reader with language they believe to be that of the genre they write in. We see this, for example, in medieval's when the characters are using a ton of thee's and thou's. The problem, is that the writer has forgotten that their character is someone maybe with no education. Using words that just don't fit that character become just as bad as running fingers down the chalkboard.

I see the same thing when it comes to grammar. Sure we are taught to write in complete sentences and to not use jargon and contractions, but darn it, our characters may speak in such a fashion. Pay attention to who they are and what they might say.

One great technique to use would be to have someone read it outloud to you. This often will bring out the best (and the worst) in your writing.

Remember, it is the dialogue that keeps our story moving. If it is awkward, you simply bring us to a screeching halt!

Scott