WRITING DIALOGUE

by Janis Flores

Creating good dialogue is one of the hardest things –and most important—about writing. Dialogue can tell us more about characters in a few words than a page of narration because it illustrates how characters think, act, and relate to other characters or events by the way they speak, or what they say.

Dialogue is used to disseminate information—but not information like: “Hi. How are you?” “Fine. And you?” “Ok.” “Good.” The reader is yawning before s/he even gets to the word “fine.”

One of the ways to help write good dialogue is to type out all the narration for information about a scene, an event in the book, or what's happened recently in a character's life. THEN go back and change it all to dialogue. You'll be surprised at the difference this makes, not only to the pace of the story, but to identify which character is speaking.

Another test is to write a page or two of untagged or unidentified dialogue—then determine which character is saying what. If you've been successful in your characterization, you'll be able to tell who's speaking by what they say, and how they say it.

Dialogue also helps to establish a sense of time and place. In historicals, for instance, the pacing is different than contemporary novels. The language is more formal, without the use of contractions and partial sentences that distinguishes contemporary novels.

Dialogue can set the mood or tone. For example, characters who interrupt each other, who disagree, or who speak in quick, harsh words, means one thing. The same characters carefully listening to each other, speaking in softer words, can mean another.

Dialogue can and often should be used as an opening hook. For example, the opening sentence for my historical family saga, HIGH DOMINION, is: "Good heavens, Olivia! Isn't that Kate?"

These two simple sentences imply a touch of scandal and excitement. We don’t know yet who the characters are, but there are at least two: one who is scandalized, the other who is… what? Cringing? Curious? Angry? Resigned? Ideally, the reader is interested enough to find out what Kate is doing to cause such a reaction.

NOT NECESSARILY DIALOGUE, BUT A FEW THINGS TO AVOID NEVERTHELESS:

Stay away from physical contortions. You can’t laugh a word, or snort a word. You can’t hiss a word unless it has an ‘”s” in it, and then it’s better to use “she hissed” after a phrase that’s gone before.

A different example for physical contortions. “His eyes followed her across the room.” How did they do that? Did they fall out of his head and roll after her? It should be his ‘glance’ , or his ‘gaze’ followed her…

Another problem is the overuse of adjectives and adverbs. For example: “She whispered softly.” Softly isn’t necessary; when someone whispers, it’s soft.

This isn’t exactly dialogue, but suggestive of it. “He shrugged his shoulders.” What else do you “shrug” than shoulders?

And finally (a bugaboo of mine): “She nodded her head.” Same question as above. What else do you nod, other than your head?

Meanwhile, here are a few links you might find useful:
My website and Facebook page. You're welcome to pop in any time.

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Terra and Jake meet when she returns to Coeur du Vin. They don’t know that they are both searching for rescue, until it becomes clear that someone wants to stop her from saving Coeur du Vin, someone with… murder in mind.

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And now, I’ll quietly say goodbye.
~Jan(is) Flores