Writing Dialog Secrets

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Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed

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When you have finished reading this article, you will have a good idea on how to write believable dialogue and know when you can break the rules.

Using effective dialog is a main part of any story. Good dialog moves the story forward whiles it brings life to the characters. Dialog engages readers while you breathe life into your characters.

This definition comes by way of the Encarta World English Dictionary: “the words spoken by characters in a book… or a section of a work that contains spoken words.

Dialogue has several functions:

? To express through conversations what the reader must know so they can understand the character’s actions, motivations and thoughts.

? To convey character which shows the reader what kind of people make up the story.

Good dialog requires good speech patterns; it gives the reader a sense of time and place, vocabulary, dialect and rhythms of various peoples.

And, finally, it develops conflict.

Writing a good flow of natural conversation = writing effective dialog. Sticking to the rules of grammar will make your character’s speech stilted and dry. Dialogue should flow as easily as conversation between two old women gossiping over a fence.

Follow these simple guidelines.

Spoken words are sometimes incomplete sentences.

The majority of people don’t always use the best of grammar.

Use word patterns that will reveal your character’s region, gender, ethnicity, age, and historical time period.

Give your characters personality and individuality through their dialog.

Write dialog just the same as what you would hear in real life conversations. Writing too much description is distracting for the reader. Avoid overzealousness by keeping dialog simple.

Let’s take a peek at the scene in Gone With the Wind, where Miss Scarlett and Mammy are talking.

Mammy’s tone became wheedling.

“Now, Miss Scarlett, you be good an’ come eat jes’a lil. Miss Carreen an’ Miss Suellen done eat all dey’n.”

When you watch this kind of scene in a movie, it is one thing, but when a reader has to wade through pages of it, it’s altogether another. Try reading “Brer Rabbit” some time!

Very seldom should an author try to write this type of dialect. Reading an Irish brogue is a monster. Keeping your dialog simple makes thankful readers.

While it is true that people talk for hours on end without stopping to admire scenery, it doesn’t work that way in writing stories. Generally speaking, for every three or four paragraphs of dialog, insert a break of scenery or setting.

Use good taste when you speak for your characters. Although people do argue for longs lengths of time in real life, don’t use it in dialog. One thing you can’t rush is learning to writing believable dialog.

If you want to write believable dialog, sit in a restaurant or train station and listen to how people talk. Take notes when possible.

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