Writing Dialog

The key to writing good dialog is to make it sound natural, without being anything like real dialog. When most people talk, it often sounds like this:

"Let's get some lunch."
"What?"
"Lunch! Do you want lunch?"
"Uhhhh, okay. What do you feel like?"
"I dunno. What do you feel like?"
"Why don't you chose."
"What?"

In fiction, you want to avoid meaningless exchanges. I don't think that every conversation should further the plot, but even banter should reveal character, give reader clues about the folks talking, the dynamics between them. Is character A fearful and tongue-tied when character B is around? Does character C have a penchant for nasty jokes but tries to dissolve them by saying 'I'm just kidding?' You want every character to have a voice of their own, and this voice should be consistent with their personality. For example, a meek character can have halting, hesitant speech, etc.

I'm sorry of this is more of a description than a how-to. I personally find that if I imagine a character well, their speech patterns become apparent. I rarely do character sketches, but I try to see them well enough to hear their voices.

My teachers always used to tell me to avoid dialougue at all costs which I totally disagree with, ofcourse, becuase without dialougue the whole story would be the same and boring and...hang on....I've just realised the best short story I've written has no dialougue....re thinking...OK
A story, in my opinion, that is spoken in the third person with no dialougue is boring.!

1. People do not talk in complete sentences all the time
2. People do not speak in long sentences, unless they're giving a speech
3. People tend to give and take in conversation and not monopolize
4. People do not tell each other things they already know (as in info dump)
5. People do not say each other's name in conversation every time they speak (even in a 3- or 4-way conversation)
6. People do not always say things (learn to use "silence" effectively)
7. People do not just sit and talk and do nothing else
8. People do not engage in endless chatter -- in fiction, at least. Use dialogue only when it reveals character, presents conflicts, and advances the plot; otherwise, use narration instead
9. People have distinct "voice" in speaking, even when the differences are subtle
10. People interrupt others -- they don't always take turns

RubyRoo said:

My teachers always used to tell me to avoid dialougue at all costs...

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* Gasp *

11. People don't always answer a question directly.

12. People sometimes lie.

13. Some folks are repetitive. This can be used to great comic effect.

14. You can suggest dialect through word choice and rhythm without writing it phonetically.

Listen to your neighbors at the coffee shop or on the bus. Secretly take notes. Eavesdropping can lead to great stories and characters.

After you write some dialogue, find some place private and act it out loud to fine tune it.

Dialog can reveal education, origin, sense of humor, state of mind, sensitivity (or lack thereof), the dynamics of a relationship.... Practice three-way and four-way dialogs. Does your reader always know who's talking?

Read plays, movie scripts. Then go back to novels you love and look closely at how the writer has handled dialog. It doesn't happen in a vaccuum. Setting, gesture, action, and thought can be all intertwined. Watch out for overuse of adverbs (she advised knowingly).

Another pitfall is to use too many tags in an exchange. Typically, tags work best in formulas of three. There are many many exceptions -- I only offer this as an example.

<tag> <dialogue> <tag>
<dialogue> <tag> <dialogue>

Twos work equally well, but it can quickly become confusing if there are too many interrupting a chunk of dialogue in *one* dialogic paragraph.

i.e. Jeff shrugged. "I don't know -- I'm afraid of monkeys," he said, fingering a cigarette. "If they weren't so furry," he continued, "I might like 'em --"

If this terrible example took place in more than one dialogic paragraph, it might not be so freight-trainy:

Jeff shrugged.
"I don't know -- I'm afraid of monkeys," he said, fingering a cigarette. "If they weren't so furry, I might like 'em --"


Just my two cents

Celia Cyanide said:

I am curious...is there a term, similar to info dump, that means, "a scene of dialog stuck in because nothing interesting is happening in the main plot right now?"

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Yes. It's called, "delete this entire chapter/scene."

For addition to Ray's list:
15. Don't start off a line of dialogue with "Look" or "Well" unless you want to use that as a quirk of one of your characters. (This is a personal peeve, so others may disagree)

Darin C. Bradley said:

Jeff shrugged.
"I don't know -- I'm afraid of monkeys," he said, fingering a cigarette. "If they weren't so furry, I might like 'em --"

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Or:
"I don't know. I'm afraid of monkeys." Jeff fingered a cigarette. "If they weren't so furry, I might like them."

This is more compact and includes two little things important for dialogue.
1. Avoid redundancies (e.g. saying Jeff shrugged his shoulders and then have him say "I don't know.")
2. Overuse of em dashes and ellipses. I'm sure most people know that an em dash in conversation is used for a sudden interruption, and an ellipsis is used to show a line of dialogue that tails off, sometimes unfinished.
Sorry to be preachy.

16. People do not curse incessantly (in fiction), even though in real time they may use the F or the S word every other word all the time.

17. Avoid cliche and stereotypes. Sure, your character might like to say, "Bro.." or "You know what I mean..." or "Get out" or "Doh" or "Honey," etc. all the time, but try not to abuse these "flavors" or "quirks."

18. (this one I'm not sure about, but my editor told me so and I think it makes sense...) There are no semicolons in dialogue.

Uncle Jim has said that often when readers spot a problem with your story, they are quite right in locating the problem, but completely wrong in their diagnosis.

Celia Cyanide said:

No, that wouldn't be what it's called. That would be what you should do with it.
I'm looking for a noun, in case I wanted to ask someone, "Is this scene a [insert term here]?"

If there is not a name for that, someone should make one up.

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Sorry. I was being cheeky, but serious. I would call it a throw-away scene since it doesn't add to the forward movement of the story. Others may call is a filler scene. Some people put them in to slow the pace of the story, but there are other ways to accomplish that.

maestrowork said:

16. People do not curse incessantly (in fiction), even though in real time they may use the F or the S word every other word all the time.

17. Avoid cliche and stereotypes. Sure, your character might like to say, "Bro.." or "You know what I mean..." or "Get out" or "Doh" or "Honey," etc. all the time, but try not to abuse these "flavors" or "quirks."

18. (this one I'm not sure about, but my editor told me so and I think it makes sense...) There are no semicolons in dialogue.

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Add the following, copied from my earlier post:
19. Avoid redundancies (e.g. saying Jeff shrugged his shoulders and then have him say "I don't know.")
20. Do not overuse em dashes and ellipses. An em dash in conversation is used for a sudden interruption, and an ellipsis is used to show a line of dialogue that tails off, sometimes unfinished.


Now, someone should collate Ray's list in a way we can all add to it. It may be useful as a quick reference.

seconded

Dialogue

I'm not sure the how-to books aren't correct in saying dialogue is something you are or are not good at. A tin ear for dialogue is something I'm not sure I've ever seen corrected.

I don't think this means dialogue writing can't be improved, but it is the one part of writing that I don't believe can be taught. Having said that, there are some things I've always tried to keep in mind when writing dialogue.

1. Dialogue sometimes means writing sentences exactly the way real people talk, and sometimes means just mimicking the way real people talk. Some people do speak in complete sentences and complete thoughts. Many people do not clutter up their speech with unnecessary jibber-jabber and sounds. No two real people speak exactly the same, and generalities can get you in trouble.

Because of this, no two characters should have exactly the same speech patterns, either.

2. Never put words into a character's mouth. A good character is who and what he is. A good character is the way he is. When he has something to say, let him say it in his way. When he doesn't have anything to say, let him be silent.

3. Along these same lines, never write a line of dialogue just because it's been two or three or five pages since the last line, and you believe it's time to include more.

4. Dialogue is much more than the words being spoken. Good dialogue is about rhythm and cadence and pauses.

5. Reading dialogue aloud is a good idea, but it won't in any way tell you whether or not the dialogue is good or bad, and can't possibly tell you whether or not the dialogue is needed, or whether it holds true for a specific character.

What reading aloud can tell you is whether or not you can actually speak the dialogue without stumbling, whether or not it rolls off your tongue.

But what rolls off your tongue may tongue-tie a character in another situation or with less confidence, and what makes you tongue-tied may roll easily off the tongue of a character who is confident, educated, charming, and erudite.

So decide based on the character, not on your own reading/speaking ability.

6. Examine why the dialogue is there. What does it do? Contrary to another popular "rule," all dialogue does not have to be there just to move the story forward. If this is all dialogue does, the story isn't going to be terribly realistic. Dialogue is also a very good way to reveal character, and dialogue is also good for verisimilitude.

If a situation arises where a real person would absolutely say something, then the character should say something as well. And he will, if you don't stifle him with rules.

At any rate, dialogue is written with the ear, not with the eye, and not with the mouth. Dialogue can't be written to specific rules because no two characters are the same, and no two stories are the same.

For me, the only real "rule" I try to follow is to let the characters be who they are. Let them write the dialogue.

NeuroFizz said:

Add the following, copied from my earlier post:
19. Avoid redundancies (e.g. saying Jeff shrugged his shoulders and then have him say "I don't know.")
.

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I don't quite agree with this one. Redundancies in speech, maybe, but real people do shrug and say, "I don't know." It's very common. If your character is the type of person who would do this, let him do it. Dialogue isn't about rules, it's about people.

maestrowork said:

18. (this one I'm not sure about, but my editor told me so and I think it makes sense...) There are no semicolons in dialogue.

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Your editor is right.

dialogue

RubyRoo said:

My teachers always used to tell me to avoid dialougue at all costs which I totally disagree with, ofcourse, becuase without dialougue the whole story would be the same and boring and...hang on....I've just realised the best short story I've written has no dialougue....re thinking...OK
A story, in my opinion, that is spoken in the third person with no dialougue is boring.!

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There have been a handful of very good third person short stories written without any dialogue, and one masterpiece, Jack London's "To Build A Fire," that has only one short line of dialogue, said to no one, as the protagonist dies.

First person fiction is really all dialogue, only without the quotation marks.

Jamesaritchie said:

I don't quite agree with this one. Redundancies in speech, maybe, but real people do shrug and say, "I don't know." It's very common. If your character is the type of person who would do this, let him do it. Dialogue isn't about rules, it's about people.

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The point being, do what feels right. The "no redundancies" was put to me by an editor who was trying to help "tighten up" the section, and improve the rhythm. Redundancies can drive a reader (at least me) nuts if they are frequent. That's my caution.

NeuroFizz said:

The point being, do what feels right. The "no redundancies" was put to me by an editor who was trying to help "tighten up" the section, and improve the rhythm. Redundancies can drive a reader (at least me) nuts if they are frequent. That's my caution.

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I agree, but I simply wouldn't consider this a redundancy. And, of course, some writers have made a reputation from redundacy. Try reading Gertrude Stein.

Celia Cyanide said:

Ruby, I mean no offense by this, but did your teachers mean everyone, or just you? As in, did they think you, personally, write better when you avoid dialog, or did they honestly think everyone should do it? Because if the latter is the case, then that is truly bizarre. Bad dialog can slow a story down, but good dialog can be the most interesting part of a story to read. But you just said you did your best work without dialog, so maybe they noticed this about your work?

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Wierdly enough she was talking to everyone! Lots of my mates only read the dialougue in books.