What exactly is dialogue? It is simply a conversation between two or more characters. Nothing fancy, just a conversation. But the mere mention or thought of dialogue scares a lot of writers who will do just about anything to avoid it. The fear of writing dialogue must be conquered.
dialogue bubbles, www.writersdock.com
We practice dialogue every time we speak to someone. We hear dialogue in every conversation we listen to, whether it is an actual conversation between people or between characters in a television show or movie. What makes it so scary?
Maybe we are afraid that the conversation between our characters will not seem to be real, that it will obviously be made up. Well, it is created – by you, the writer. The characters are yours. You are their god. You decide their actions as well as the words that come out of their mouths. Whatever comes out of their mouths will be natural to them because you are the one who decides how they will speak.
water cooler conversation, www.dreamstime.com
When you listen to an actual conversation between people, you may notice that there are a lot of “ahs” and “ums” thrown into it. Do you really want to read dialogue filled with all those hesitations? It is bad enough to listen to, but it is even worse to read.
So you, the author, need to carefully select the words spoken by your characters that mimic real speech. Their conversation should be quick and clean, no sentences or thoughts left unfinished (unless that is a trait of your character or part of the story). If only real people spoke as well as most fictional characters.
But can’t a story be written without dialogue? The purpose of dialogue is much the same as the purpose of description. Through the words spoken by your characters, vital facts are revealed, not only about other characters, but also about events, about the way things look or appear, about things that have happened, about things that are planned. Take dialogue out of a story and you will end up telling what happens instead of showing.
conversation, pixshark.com
Dialogue brings you closer to the characters and action, it helps you to experience and take part in the story. Absence of dialogue has to be made up for by the writer in other ways, such as long and lengthy descriptions. These tend to be rather flat and boring and are a poor substitute for dialogue.
Besides revealing thing about the character, dialogue also moves the story forward and delivers some excitement to it. Every time your character opens his mouth, make sure something of importance comes out of it – not just chit-chat to pass the time and increase your word count.
How do you deal with regional dialect when writing dialogue? Bob, Son of Battle, written by Alfred Ollivant, is a great book, but it is rather frustrating to read. The Scottish dialect is written so thick and heavy throughout that you need to stop and figure out just what is being said. Some of the dialogue is easy to figure out, some not so easy.
If your character has a heavy Scottish accent or a heavy Russian accent or any other type of hard-to-read accent, just write that he speaks with whatever accent he happens to have. Throw in a few regional phrases or words once in a while. That is more than enough to get the point across, but not so much that your reader will put the book down in frustration.
cartoon woman and businessman having a conversation, vecto.rs
When writing dialogue remember to make sure it is always clear who is speaking. And don’t forget to start a new paragraph when the speaker changes.
“Who’s pounding on our door at this ungodly hour?” Marilyn mumbled.
“I’ll see who it is,” her husband said as he threw back the covers.
If your character pauses between words, here is an example of how you could write it – “This stew is . . . horrible.”
A good way to practice writing dialogue is to eavesdrop when you are out shopping. Listen, in an unobtrusive manner, to what people are saying to each other, what they are talking about. Jot down some notes, go home, and write it down as it would appear in a book or story. You could even make a story surrounding the dialogue.
As a writer, you cannot shy away from dialogue forever. It is one skill that you must conquer if you ever wish to be published.
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>If your character pauses between words, here is an example of how you could write it – “This stew is . . horrible.”
But an ellipsis has three dots.
Thank you, Amanda. You are right; an ellipsis does have three dots. Somehow, I managed to miss that when I proofed my article, but it is fixed now. 🙂