How Not to Bore Your
Readers: Write Better Dialogue!
By Helene Vance
Bad dialogue can kill your novel. How good is your dialogue? Improve your
dialogue writing skills today and your readers will thank you.
Some writers believe that dialogue is all about the characters-- what they say,
how they say it, and what they're doing as they speak. If you're one of these
writers, you are almost correct. Yes, dialogue is about your characters. But
more importantly, dialogue is the voice of your entire story.
Let's look at it this way. You're losing huge readership potential if you only
use dialogue to make your characters speak during scenes. A brilliant plot may
be worthless without good dialogue. This applies to all fiction
pieces, including novels and short stories.
Writing and Speaking: The Purpose of Dialogue
"What are you doing here? You're supposed to be at work," said Sandy.
What is going on here? You might follow up with some narration that describes
Sandy's state. Maybe she's upset that this person is not working, or perhaps she
is happy or surprised.
"What are you going here?" said Sandy, frowning slightly. "You're supposed to be
at work."
A smile spread across Sandy's face. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to
be at work."
Sandy's eyes grew wide. "What are you doing here?" she said, choking on her iced
tea. "You're supposed to be at work."
Without narration, we know how Sally feels in each of the above three scenarios.
In each case, the dialogue serves the purpose of making the character speak,
informing the reader as to what is going on, and the feeling and emotions
involved in the situation.
Most writers know the strength of good dialogue, but it's easy to forget in the
heat of a powerful plot. Remember, too much narration is boring. Instead of
pages and pages of narration describing what's going on, make your characters
act it out instead. When narrating, you have to lay everything out on the
table-- what happened, how it happened, what the characters are thinking, and
how the characters feel. Use the perfect blend of dialogue and narration to
create an effective story.
Don't Tell Them-- Let Your Characters Speak
You might feel compelled to describe scenery and image through narration. You
can certainly do so, but don't go over the top. Painting pictures with words is
a true art, but going on for ten pages describing images will have your readers
yawning. You can incorporate narration and dialogue to paint the image you had
in mind.
There's a huge difference between you telling the story through narration and
the characters telling the story through dialogue and thoughts. When your
characters are interacting, the story is always more interesting. How many times
have you told a funny incident to your friends and they didn't find it funny?
Many times, you just have to be there to get the joke. It's the same for your
story. Let your characters act it out. Even in narration, always include your
characters' thoughts and emotions.
Who Said It?
"I apologize I could not hear a thing. She closed the door and I was unable to
hear their conversation."
Just imagine an average 10-year-old American boy saying the above phrase. It
hardly fits at all! Our 10-year-old Johnny would say it more like this:
"Sorry, didn't hear anything. She closed the door... I don't know what they were
saying."
Just as with age, a macho man would never use the words mauve, cashmere, baby
blue, or bunny rabbit. Gender matters in speech. Determine whether your
characters are male or female, then decide whether they will be masculine male,
feminine female, or vice versa. Perhaps you have a masculine female character to
portray her life with a father and five brothers. You decide, but make sure the
character's speech fits the part.
Your characters' way of speaking should fit their age, sex, class, level of
intelligence, and location. Use regional slang for your character who grew up in
the mean streets of New York. If your character was born and raised in England,
perhaps words like "loo" and "lift" naturally belong in her vocabulary. Your
character's education is also important. For someone who has no formal
education, grammar and vocabulary may not be perfect. Whatever situation your
characters are in, their way of speaking should be a natural fit.
As a word of caution, use regional slang wisely. It should work well with the
time period your story is set in. And it has to be used correctly, in the right
context, or your book may not please certain readers. It might pay to study or
even visit the area where your story will take place, if it exists. Research
everything about your character to see how he or she should speak.
Play it by Ear-- Read your dialogue out loud!
After your dialogue is written, read it all out loud. You'll see that saying it
and writing it will produce a different effect. What sounds good on paper might
not sound so great when said out loud.
Watch out for awkward dialogue. If it doesn't sound right, you don't want to use
it in your book unless it happens to fit your character. A tape recorder may
help you in the process. Record each piece of dialogue you aren't sure about and
listen to it a few times. When you finally find the right words, record and
listen to the end result. In any given scene, make sure the dialogue flows well
together.
Take note that you might end up changing your dialogue two, three, or 100 times.
It's that kind of attention to detail that matters to your publisher. All in
all, your dialogue should sound great. Your readers will love and appreciate it.
Helene
Vance is a freelance writer and the editor-in-chief of WriteSpot.org, an online
community for writers. Her writing gigs include copywriting, ad creation,
content management, and technical writing. In her spare time, she tinkers about
with WriteSpot.org, eats Lean Pockets, writes short stories, and works toward
completing her fantasy novel. You can visit Helene's website at
http://writespot.org.
