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Dynamic Dialogue Good dialogue is more than snappy sentences and clever responses. Spoken words by themselves don’t connect us with the mood of a conversation, don’t demonstrate the emotional undercurrent of human interaction, and don’t illustrate the subtle nuance of spoken give and take. Many writers have difficulty with dialogue because they don’t know how to make it dynamic, how to tap that stream of emotion racing beneath the words. But it’s not as hard as it sounds. In his blockbuster book, The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing, agent and author Evan Marshall illustrates the perfect device for creating dynamic dialogue—the FAD device. Many writers clutter their dialogue with telling adverbs, or they confuse the chronology of dialogue events, having an emotional reaction occur after a spoken response. "Why won’t you listen to me?" Barry shouted. "I’m telling you there are vampires in the woods." "Don’t be ridiculous," Anna answered angrily. Barry couldn’t have really seen a vampire. Those were creatures of myth, not reality. Here, Anna is having an inner debate about Barry’s veracity, a perfectly normal and understandable reaction. But the response sounds flat, somehow shallow. That’s because she’s thinking only after she’s already spoken. This method doesn’t let the reader participate in the emotional process that accompanies conversation. It’s not dynamic. In reality, we engage emotionally as we listen to other people speak. We’re thinking while they’re talking, deciding whether we believe them, thinking about how their words affect us, preparing our response. Unfortunately, we can’t show that process occurring in one character as the other character speaks. As writers, we often make the mistake of letting our responder answer and then we explain what she’s thinking, sometimes relying on an adverb to set the emotional tone. The result is flat, unconvincing dialogue. But we can avoid adverbs and give dialogue its natural emotional depth by having our respondent think before she speaks. This is the Feeling part of FAD. "Why won’t you listen to me?" Barry shouted. "I’m telling you there are vampires in the woods." He had to be mistaken. Vampires were creatures of myth, not reality. Here, I’ve substituted thought for feeling, but you might choose a combination of both. Terror clutched Anna’s heart. He had to be mistaken. Vampires were creatures of myth, not reality. Now you’ve shown Anna’s thoughts and feelings. You no longer have to rely on that telling adverb, and since you’ve already identified the thinker, you’ve eliminated the need for a dialogue tag. But you’re not finished yet. Emotions are powerful motivators. They act on us subconsciously and the urges they produce are potent and uncontrollable. They make us act. We throw our hands in the air or lick our dry lips. We gasp for breath or swallow convulsively. We tap our fingers or pace. Unless your character has unreasonable control, and a believable reason for having such control, she’s going to react physically in a way that mirrors her emotional turmoil. This is the Action part of FAD. Terror clutched Anna’s heart. He had to be mistaken. Vampires were creatures of myth, not reality. She pulled her collar tight around her neck. Now you’ve set the stage for Dialogue, the last step of FAD. The reader knows and understands what your character is feeling, and you’ve supplied an action that supports the feeling. Terror clutched Anna’s heart. He had to be mistaken. Vampires were creatures of myth, not reality. She pulled her collar tight around her neck. "Don’t be ridiculous." In a dynamic dialogue sequence like this, the reader follows each step of the process and understands exactly what’s happening. He or she participates in the unspoken emotion that occurs beneath the surface. The writer need no longer rely on telling adverbs. The FAD device will teach you to think about chronology, inner thought and psychological reaction. It will allow you to reveal the elusive emotional underpinning that supports compelling dialog. Use it often and your characters will never sound shallow again. Evan Marshall’s book, The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing: A 16-step program guaranteed to take you from idea to completed manuscript, is published by Writer’s Digest Books and is widely available from both retail and on-line sources. Kate lives in Kansas City, Missouri. She co-moderates the on-line critique group, WriteCraft, at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/writecraft/.
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