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Writing
Dialogue by Shon Bacon
One of the most important tools you need in your arsenal as a writer is DIALOGUE. With great dialogue, a story can have depth; with weak dialogue, a story can fall flat. Dialogue
should do more than present TALKING HEADS.
Dialogue that is rich and integral to a story does several
things; some include: --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, too. --It
can establish the tone or mood. If
you're writing a comedic piece, at least one of your characters is
probably wise-ass, joke-cracking person, always with the witty comeback. --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 story 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, backstory. --It
can develop a conflict, or it can add to one that already exists.
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. Take the time to think visually about the scene that your
characters are in. What do
the "silent" characters do as another is talking?
Is the talker gesturing with her hands, pacing the room, rolling
her shoulders to release the tension that's building inside her? 2.
He said/She said. Many
writers will attempt to go beyond "said" and use words like
articulated, screamed, yelled, sighed, interjected.
No one is going to think you have no talent if you only use
"said". Here are
a few other "tagline" tidbits:
change up where you put your tagline (you don't have to place the
tagline JUST at the end of a piece of dialogue).
If you have two characters talking, initiate their dialogue with
a tagline and then drop the taglines.
The reader will know who is speaking. 3.
Characters' Conversation vs. Real-life Conversation.
Many writers suggest that you should go listen to how people talk
to each other. I, when I
have the time, like to go to my fave cafe 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 don't necessarily want them to
sound like "real people talk."
What does that mean? Well,
real people stutter and pause and um and ah and oh.
To many, these are considered unnecessary and can look
unprofessional when someone reads your manuscript.
In a story, there is a purpose, a point, 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! 4.
Despite number 3, it is still a good idea to study how people
talk because you can determine how YOUR characters will talk.
Will an auto mechanic and a high-maintenance partner in a law
firm talk the same? Probably
not. Depending on who your characters, you will create their
voices, which should be distinct and separate from the voices of your
other characters. 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'"? That
you can't have your Italian character get angry and go off on her mate
in her own language? 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. Now, this comment might get a lot of people talking...well,
good. Some say that 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 supply
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; however, if your narrator is not
part of that "slang/profanity" culture, then you should use
standard English in your works. 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. These
are just starter suggestions in your quest to write great dialogue.
There are several books on the subject that you can check out.
The important things to remember 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. One
way that I study fictional elements is by going back and reading stories
that I love. The
Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, Sugar
by Bernice McFadden, Drinking
Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer, and The
Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon are just some of the
books I read and reread in order to find great dialogue.
Great writers not only have to be...well...great writers, but
they also need to be great readers and be able to articulate what they
think works and doesn't work on fiction and why. And
once they can articulate these things in other's works, they can better
see what works and doesn't work in their own writing.
Here's a short piece of dialogue from my story La Dona Rising.
It takes place right after Ladona is shot during her family's
thanksgiving festivities: “It
wasn’t a dream,” she [Ladona] whispered toward her shoulder. “No,”
Santana said. “It
wasn’t.” She
eyed the silver walls, which held a few of her framed collages that she
created in graduate school to celebrate her favorite writers and their
works: Sylvia Plath, Toni
Morrison, and Virginia Woolf. Shakespeare,
Anne Sexton, Rita Dove, and others graced the walls of her study. “Yes,
you’re home, Doña,” Santana said, patting her hand. Ladoña
winced from a pain that burned in her shoulder and sparked down her arm
and across her chest. “I
gave you something a little while ago for the pain.
It should be kicking in soon.” “You?”
Ladoña asked. Santana
leaned forward and whispered, “We couldn’t risk the questions from
the hospital, so I took care of you.” There's
a couple of things that this small section does; there's MOVEMENT in the
dialogue exchange. Ladona's
wincing from the pain and eyeing her walls; Santana is leaning forward.
Remember, your characters are more than likely MOVING.
The dialogue is fairly short:
this is a tense scene and tense scenes usually don't call for
paragraph-length dialogue exchanges.
Taglines are all over the place:
in the middle of a character's exchange, at the end.
It reveals information without using the dialogue to tell
everything: When Santana
says, "We couldn't risk the questions from the hospital, so I took
care of you," the reader's eyebrow should go up as he/she realizes
this family isn't the normal, "typical" family.
The thought is proven correct directly after this exchange when
exposition comes in (in the thoughts of Ladona) to illustrate why it's
OBVIOUS her family wouldn't report this incident to the appropriate
authorities.
WHAT BOOKS HAVE YOU READ THAT HAD GREAT DIALOGUE? GO BACK AND SKIM THROUGH YOUR LATEST PROJECT, CHECKING OUT THE DIALOGUE--WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT YOUR WRITING OF DIALOGUE? DO YOU NEED TO WORK ON IT? DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE THAT "DOWN," ALREADY IN YOUR WRITER'S TOOLBOX?
If you have ANY questions about dialogue or other aspects of writing, feel free to e-mail me at chickoflit@hotmail.com!
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