Let's Talk: Writing Believable Dialogue
As a playwright, I enjoy reading realistic, believable dialogue in novels and short fiction. But nothing slams my brain to a screeching halt on the page as dialogue that sounds like a deaf English professor who mistook elocution with electrocution. (I don't know what that means, but it sounded good in my head.)
Not every writer has an ear. Well...I think most writers have an ear--two, in fact--but what I meant was that we don't all hear realistic dialogue. Look at those last two sentences. I could put quotes around them and, if you read them aloud, you'd believe it as dialogue. There was a rhythm, beats, fractured sentences--just how we speak. We don't speak in complete sentences with our thoughts streaming like James Joyce's prose. Well, some people do, but I avoid them by never joining any club or organization with the word "literary" in it.
So hear are seven sirloin tips on how to write believable dialogue:
1. Read Everything. I concentrate on what works when I read other writers' dialogue. And what doesn't work. When was the character so believable that I forgot I was reading? And how did it add to my mental picture and internal ear for the character? When was I so distracted by weak, bland or stilted dialogue that I stopped reading and went to Baskin Robbins for Mocha Almond Fudge ice cream? I pay attention to why things work or don't work.
2. Listen to People Talk. Developing an ear for natural speech means I have to pay attention to the people around me and how they speak. How do they express themselves? Some talk in run-on sentences. Some talk in short, fragment sentences. Some use a whole lot of, like, slang shit. Well-educated individuals who envisage their thoughts in flavorful words might express themselves with more formality. Listening to language--the way people talk--is like listening to music. The rhythm, pace and construction of jazz, with its thematic "head" and spontaneous tentacles of improvisation, is blessedly different from the harmonic grandeur and symphonic elaborations of the concerto. So goes dialogue, my friend. Just try not to sing along.
3. Real Speech is Not Boring Speech. Only in real life can real speech be boring. In dialogue, I use only essential dialogue. If I write like a transcription of a conversation, yes, it would sure be real. But dialogue must read like real speech. I take out all those extra words and phrases that act as filler between the characters. I write the dialogue to convey the information, character and storyline...then I go back, read it aloud, and take out anything that doesn't contribute to the plot.
4. Use Action to Break Up Dialogue. Long stretches of dialogue on the page is easier for the reader to accept when it's layered with description and action. By inserting action, the reader won't stray from remembering that these characters are flesh and blood human beings. Unless I have a talking dog or something...and then it's okay, because talking dogs don't exist. (I'm losing it.) Physical details embellish the dialogue, giving the reader something to see and hear in his mind's eye and ear.
5. Unfold Important Facts. I use dialogue to feed the reader important facts. But I don't make it a food fight by throwing those facts in his face like a Boston cream pie. I keep it subtle, okay? As soon as the reader figures out that my character said something just to pass along something important to the reader, Warning! Warning! Disengage! Disengage! Whoosh! That's what happens: the reader dives for cover to avoid the pie in the face and forgets about the story and remembers he's sitting on the john reading words. I don't tell the reader everything all at once. I have to trust my reader to remember details and then add to them later with more. I prefer to build a six-layer cake for the reader and save the pies in the face for hacks.
6. Keep Dialogue Tags Simple. If I want the reader to concentrate on my magnificent dialogue, I use "he said" and "she said." I can come up with a whole lot of great synonyms for "said," but that talent I try leaving in my Roget's Thesaurus. Occasionally, to break up the repetitiveness of "said," or to be more specifically descriptive, I'll use another tag, like "called," "screamed," or "uttered." But nothing says it best like "said."
7. Punctuate it Right! The rules for punctuation can be confusing. But if I don't punctuate it correctly, I can confuse the reader, too. (Read my piece "Inside/Outside" on using quotes from 12/26/09.)
Just as dialogue works better for me when I break it up with action, page after page of paragraphs of prose is easier to read when I use dialogue. And, more importantly, it dramatizes my characters' thoughts, instincts, idiosyncratic traits and fills the page with very human tension.
So. Let's talk.
Not every writer has an ear. Well...I think most writers have an ear--two, in fact--but what I meant was that we don't all hear realistic dialogue. Look at those last two sentences. I could put quotes around them and, if you read them aloud, you'd believe it as dialogue. There was a rhythm, beats, fractured sentences--just how we speak. We don't speak in complete sentences with our thoughts streaming like James Joyce's prose. Well, some people do, but I avoid them by never joining any club or organization with the word "literary" in it.
So hear are seven sirloin tips on how to write believable dialogue:
1. Read Everything. I concentrate on what works when I read other writers' dialogue. And what doesn't work. When was the character so believable that I forgot I was reading? And how did it add to my mental picture and internal ear for the character? When was I so distracted by weak, bland or stilted dialogue that I stopped reading and went to Baskin Robbins for Mocha Almond Fudge ice cream? I pay attention to why things work or don't work.
2. Listen to People Talk. Developing an ear for natural speech means I have to pay attention to the people around me and how they speak. How do they express themselves? Some talk in run-on sentences. Some talk in short, fragment sentences. Some use a whole lot of, like, slang shit. Well-educated individuals who envisage their thoughts in flavorful words might express themselves with more formality. Listening to language--the way people talk--is like listening to music. The rhythm, pace and construction of jazz, with its thematic "head" and spontaneous tentacles of improvisation, is blessedly different from the harmonic grandeur and symphonic elaborations of the concerto. So goes dialogue, my friend. Just try not to sing along.
3. Real Speech is Not Boring Speech. Only in real life can real speech be boring. In dialogue, I use only essential dialogue. If I write like a transcription of a conversation, yes, it would sure be real. But dialogue must read like real speech. I take out all those extra words and phrases that act as filler between the characters. I write the dialogue to convey the information, character and storyline...then I go back, read it aloud, and take out anything that doesn't contribute to the plot.
4. Use Action to Break Up Dialogue. Long stretches of dialogue on the page is easier for the reader to accept when it's layered with description and action. By inserting action, the reader won't stray from remembering that these characters are flesh and blood human beings. Unless I have a talking dog or something...and then it's okay, because talking dogs don't exist. (I'm losing it.) Physical details embellish the dialogue, giving the reader something to see and hear in his mind's eye and ear.
5. Unfold Important Facts. I use dialogue to feed the reader important facts. But I don't make it a food fight by throwing those facts in his face like a Boston cream pie. I keep it subtle, okay? As soon as the reader figures out that my character said something just to pass along something important to the reader, Warning! Warning! Disengage! Disengage! Whoosh! That's what happens: the reader dives for cover to avoid the pie in the face and forgets about the story and remembers he's sitting on the john reading words. I don't tell the reader everything all at once. I have to trust my reader to remember details and then add to them later with more. I prefer to build a six-layer cake for the reader and save the pies in the face for hacks.
6. Keep Dialogue Tags Simple. If I want the reader to concentrate on my magnificent dialogue, I use "he said" and "she said." I can come up with a whole lot of great synonyms for "said," but that talent I try leaving in my Roget's Thesaurus. Occasionally, to break up the repetitiveness of "said," or to be more specifically descriptive, I'll use another tag, like "called," "screamed," or "uttered." But nothing says it best like "said."
7. Punctuate it Right! The rules for punctuation can be confusing. But if I don't punctuate it correctly, I can confuse the reader, too. (Read my piece "Inside/Outside" on using quotes from 12/26/09.)
Just as dialogue works better for me when I break it up with action, page after page of paragraphs of prose is easier to read when I use dialogue. And, more importantly, it dramatizes my characters' thoughts, instincts, idiosyncratic traits and fills the page with very human tension.
So. Let's talk.
Good points all. I actually like writing dialogue and find it easier to write than 'the rest.' I think of good dialogue as 'distilled speech,' with all the pap and dross removed.
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Pap and dross. Which pap? The archaic "pap" of Scandanavian origin, which is a teat or nipple? Or the American slang for fees, favors and privileges of public office? And I assume you mean "dross" as the waste matter, rather than it's primary metallurgical definition for refuse or impurity in melted metal (slag). "All the teat and slag removed" sounds really cool, too...kinda dirty..."dirty speech has all the teats and slag removed." Isn't this fun?
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