Dialogue writing help needed

[hawaiigirl]

I am working on an autobiography will social reform messages involved. I need to do some dialogue not straight narrative and i have never written dialogue before if anyone has guidance in this it would be greatly appreciated.

[Bufty]

Hi Hawaiigirl. You may find this thread interesting.

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38730

If it's an autobiography you presumably know the dialogue concerned. Is it the layout that you are unsure of? That's obvious from any book.

Is it tag and tag placement? Use them sparingly and to either identify the speaker, or help reveal the manner in which the dialogue is spoken by indicating the acompanying facial or body language.

Keep the dialogue in reasonably short bursts, trying to deal with one element at a time as opposed to giving a speech, and put whatever phrase you wish the next speaker to respond to (the stimulus) at the end of the current speaker's dialogue. The next speaker opens with the 'response' to that 'stimulus'.

And keep in mind that most folk react to any given stimulus by feeling, thinking, acting, then talking - no matter how fast the response. Use any one or more (or none) of these four reactions in a tag but the ones you do use work best in that specific sequence. Bearing that in mind, put the tag where it works best, be it the beginning, middle or end, but if there's more than two people make sure the reader knows who is speaking earlier rather than later.

Here endeth the rough lesson, and good luck. :Soapbox: And please accept my apologies if I've misunderstood your difficulty or mistakenly told you info that you already know. And most of the above is as I recall it from reading, including books by Jack M Bickham - Scene and Structure, and Writing and Selling Your Novel, both of which I found helpful. Whether they are relevant to your situation, I'm not sure.


I am working on an autobiography will social reform messages involved. I need to do some dialogue not straight narrative and i have never written dialogue before if anyone has guidance in this it would be greatly appreciated.

[stevejohnson]

Avoid the "He said...", "She said..." syndrome. Use your thesaurus for alternate words. And use names about every third or fourth line...

"What's your name?" Julie asked.
"Ralph Stanton," he replied.
"Oh!" she exclaimed. "You're not THE Ralph Stanton, are you?"
"No. That was my grandfather," Ralph answered. "He's the one that burned down the brothel..."

Just a short example of how to write dialogue. It may not be the best example, but it'll give you an idea how to go about it.

[Cat Scratch]

Hi Hawaiigirl,

Consider attending the Bamboo Ridge Writer's Conference in October. I'm actually presenting a workshop on dialogue at the conference, and you may pick up other vaulable information while you're there. There's a very supportive writing community on the island, so you should check them out.

http://www.bambooridge.com/

[katiemac]

Avoid the "He said...", "She said..." syndrome. Use your thesaurus for alternate words. And use names about every third or fourth line...

"What's your name?" Julie asked.
"Ralph Stanton," he replied.
"Oh!" she exclaimed. "You're not THE Ralph Stanton, are you?"
"No. That was my grandfather," Ralph answered. "He's the one that burned down the brothel..."

Just a short example of how to write dialogue. It may not be the best example, but it'll give you an idea how to go about it.

Actually, I don't find the "said" syndrome to be a syndrome at all. In fact, it's much less distracting than reading alternate words all the time. If the dialogue is good and it works, then you won't need all those clarifying tags--the syntax and the situation should let the reader know that she's surprised, upset, whatever. "Said" is invisible--and that's a good thing in writing dialogue. It only subtly reminds the reader who's speaking so they can stay on track. Sometimes you don't even need them.

"What's your name?"
"Ralph Stanton."
Julia dropped her fork on the plate. "Not the Ralph Stanton?"
"No." Ralph laughed. "That was my grandfather. He's the one..."

For the most part, let it work naturally and don't force anything. For rewrites, there's a great book that's been plugged on this site many a time--Self-Editing for Fiction Writers--that has an entire chapter on diaogue and its tags. A good read.

[Patricia Lieb]

The thing is, if you listen to your characters you won't have to drum up dialogue. It will just naturally come. Think: What is your character doing? Now, what is he/she saying. The character isn't just standing there wondering what to say. Can't you hear him? Get into his head, his mind, and write what he is saying.

[Bufty]

Hmmmm.

"Go on, Bufty. Do it. You know you want to."

"I do not. Get thee behind me!"

"Yes, you do."

"I don't! Go away."