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Writing Tips:
Dialogue
I personally find this the most challenging aspect of writing. It is the opportunity when your characters’ voices are tested. The dialogue needs to be convincing, move the story forward and flesh out the character. Dialogue is a break from prose and is a wonderful way for a reader to get to know more about your character rather than being told. The character comes to life on the page through their conversations. For example, rather than tell the reader, ‘Max had a temper’, show his temper through his interaction with another character. |
Randa Abdel-Fattah offers
tips on: Dialogue
Check your characters use words fitting to them – old ladies don’t say, “That’s really wicked!” NEVER make dialogue extend more than eight lines or so, otherwise, you’re writing a play! And keep speeches short – make them lifelike. Read them aloud yourself to see what they sound like. |
Try to distinguish the characters by the way they speak. The kind of words and phrases one character would use might be completely unrealsitic or inappropriate for another. Getting a character's voice right can save you lots of long paragraphs of description. |
I love to eavesdrop! Listening to the way people really speak is very important. I love conversations. You learn about the characters not only from what they say, but from what they DON'T say. When I used to attend creative writing classes, our tutor always said, you should be able to tell from the dialogue who's speaking without having to say, 'said X' or Y said' at the end of the line of dialogue. Age, culture, gender, background, education - all of these will change the way a character expresses himself/herself. |
Avoid too many variations to 'he/she said'. By all means add the occasional 'answered' or 'retorted' or 'murmured' or 'snarled' or whatever. But don't put too many in or the dialogue will sound a bit pretentious. Try to keep dialogue fast-flowing. Often it's good to miss out the 'he/she said' altogether and just have the words spoken, provided that the reader is clear who is speaking. |
I love writing dialogue… I feel like I can really hear the characters talking. Dialogue can explain things so well, and move the story on at the same time. It’s important to develop a good ear for how people actually speak – that’s one of the reasons I like working with young people! I try to keep it lively, realistic and useful |
I use a lot of dialogue. It's a good thing to do. Having a character speak tells the reader a lot about them. |
If you read a lot, you'll know exactly what good dialogue should be like. American authors (like Betsy Byars) are particularly good at dry, funny dialogue which looks very sparse on paper but has a lot of hidden meaning. The only way to get better at writing dialogue is to read loads and practise writing it. |
People think dialogue is hard, but it isn't, it's easy! We're talking all the time! When we aren’t talking, we're being talked to! Dialogue has two important functions - it drives the story along and it tells us something about the person who's talking - it's part of their character. Never waste your dialogue - too much idle chat is tedious to read. Always read it out loud to yourself to test whether it sounds like a real person talking. |
What comes first is very often the most natural way something would have been said. It’s important to prune to the bone, but keep the natural aspect. The hard work goes into the bits that link each speech. The “As he spoke, he prodded the rags at his feet” sort of bits. |
To write cracking dialogue you have to a good ear. Listen to the way people speak, how they go off on tangents, how they pause, hoe they coin sayings or aphorisms, even how they interrupt each other. Written well, dialogue explains a character. Good dialogue is also an antidote to tiresome psycho-babble and purple prose. |
Try it out in your head to make sure it’s as realistic as possible. I am often to be found muttering away to myself – people probably think I’m mad. |
Hear the dialogue before you write it. |
Other people tell me that this is my forte and I do love writing dialogue. Maybe I have a good ear for it. I try to read my work out loud as I write. If the dialogue sounds stilted or formal or longwinded I know it's wrong. People rarely, if ever, make speeches. In conversation it passes back and to a lot and we often interrupt each other. It's usually very informal. When writers get it wrong it's often because it's too perfect. |
……Well, I think I used up most of my dialogue advice on other answers. But I would add that you should always you’re your ear tuned to the conversations of those around you. People you know, or total strangers in queue or on the other side of the hedge—these can be sources of great lines that later grow into great fictional conversations. People often don’t realize how hilarious their phrasing can be. You, as a writer, must realize it for them.. And I never go anywhere without a small pen and pad of paper. It’s in my pocket, it’s by the bed—because you never know when just the right sentence if going to visit your head, and it can leave again just as quickly. Capture it on paper. |
If character creates story, then dialogue creates character. Once I hear my characters speaking they come to life. How does the bully in the lift talk at the beginning and how does his dialogue change as he gets more and more scared? The annoying friend - what kind of things would she say? And the daredevil - trying to be a hero? |
There's not a whole lot to say about dialogue. Listen to the way people talk, make notes of funny or striking phrases. The simple rule with dialogue is that if you can't say it out loud without sounding awkward, don't use it. If you need to, find some time alone, and read what you've written out loud. Say it as the character would say it in that situation, as an actor would. Hardly anybody speaks with perfect grammar or says exactly what they mean to say – nobody speaks without adding the odd 'eh,' or 'em,' or 'y'know'. Perfect diction is for robots, have the characters make mistakes in their speech. Dialogue can make or break your characters. Listen to how people speak and reproduce it. |
Read it to yourself. Does it sound real? If not, change it. |
Sprinkle a little dialogue in your stories but try to keep it snappy. You can use dialogue to replace description and to advance the plot as well as to establish character. Try to make it sound as if real people are speaking. To write good dialogue you will have to develop good listening habits. I advise you to snoop and sneak and eavesdrop. |
My personal bugbear! So many characters are let down by their dialogue! How does your character REALLY speak? Accents? Don't think that you can't have characters speaking in slang for example. Try and read the dialogue back to yourself - does it flow like a real conversation? If it doesn't - rewrite until it does! |
Dialogue is tricky. It has to sound realistic, so listen to how people talk to each other, and think about how your characters would speak. It has to do other things, too, like reveal character, push the plot along, but without this being too obvious. It has to earn its place on the page and you have to be prepared to work and re-work to get it right. |
Fit the characters’ speech to the time and place, but avoid using too many words/slang of the moment. This can date your story quicker than anything else, because trends move on. When I’m writing historical fiction I always try and avoid gadzookery. |
This is vital; dialogue has to be totally believable and appropriate. If you are using a range of characters in your story they will have different tastes, they may be of different age groups, sex, race, personality and therefore you have to give them different voices. Dialogue can help you reveal much of the plot, setting and storyline without boring the reader with long descriptions. Dialogue allows you to create a three dimensional character. |
Write the way people speak, but tidy it up enough to make sure it doesn't irritate your readers. Remember that people interrupt each other in real life. Most people don't say everything they want to in one go. And don’t try to bury huge bits of plot explanation in dialogue. |
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