On Dialogue

Dialogue

Dialogue can be some of the best fiction writing. We all love to recall famous words said in favorite books by characters we love and hate.

Like for instance:

“It does not do well to dwell on dreams and forget to live."

—Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

"Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement."

—Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings

“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest I go to than I have ever known.”

- Sidney Carton A Tale of Two Cites

“But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”
-W.B Yeats

“Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.”

Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

“But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?

It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.”
Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare

I could go on forever with this so I will stop now.

Most of these words are nothing like what a real person in real life would ever say. Even if people would express these ideas and sentiments they would never, off the cuff, express them so eloquently. But as a writer, yeah, it’s good to have your characters speak with elegance and power which doesn’t always mean with sophistication. Take for instance:

"'He's a nice fella,' said Slim. 'Guy don't need no sense to be a nice fella. Seems to me sometimes it jus' works the other way around. Take a real smart guy and he ain't hardly ever a nice fella.'"

- 'Of Mice And Men'.

“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.”

—Winnie the Pooh 

So a major thing to know about writing dialogue is that it is nothing like real speech between real people. And it shouldn’t be. Real speech is full of phrases like: uh huh, awesome dude!, hey no, but wait, oh…, Are you hungry, how’s it going?, I just broke my pencil, a…a…a, Hi how you doing?, please come in,  etc., etc. Remember what Elmore Lenard said – Leave out the boring parts (paraphrased)

Don’t go on forever. Dialogue can be great but anything that goes on for too long loses its power. One great line of dialogue is much more effective than 10 good lines or even 10 great lines. Seems like 10 great lines would be better than 1 great line but it’s actually not. The human mind cannot absorb too much of anything at one time. Ten great lines of dialogue one after another will tend to dilute each other. Think about a Shakespeare monologue; some of the greatest writing of all time, but each one was only about 20 to 30 lines long or less (short poetic lines). Now imagine 5 or 6 of these placed one after the other. It would be too much. The impact would be lost. The reader would get a brain freeze. So with dialogue you don’t want it to go on for too long and you don’t want every line to be a zinger. One or two lines of pure genius per stretch of dialogue are all you need. Of course this advice applies to fiction novels. I also write picture books and they are a whole different animal. Nothing in picture books could be considered long. Plus repetition is a prime operative in picture books.

According to most authorities you should never use a verb other than “said” in dialogue and never use an adverb to modify the verb. I do not strictly agree with that. Most readers do not notice breaches of these rules unless they are egregious. Like for instance:

“How dare you!” he remonstrated. 

“What a dump,” she simpered.

Something like:

“What time are you going?” she asked.

Will not even be noticed by a reader. And basically what you are trying to do is to not take the reader out of the story because attention is called to the writing style.  So something like:

“What time are you going?” she asked gruffly.

Will probably also not be noticed by a reader, and may transfer character knowledge to your reader.  That said if you are currently unpublished and writing literary fiction the gatekeepers of this fiction will probably toss you aside for transgressing on these rules. If you are not writing literary fiction, you can probably get some leeway with these rules. If you are as yet unpublished how strictly you want to adhere to these rules is your decision to make. I’m not a fan of these rules, but I’m also not a fan of flagrantly discarding them.  Any type of ostentatious and pretentious writing is to be avoided: like – “ouch!”  she demonstratively aspirated.

You can create long lines of dialogue without any “saids” after the first one or two lines, if the conversation is between only two people it is assumed the lines alternate between the two characters.  I don’t advise doing this. I think it can get confusing. I find it confusing when reading writing like this.  But you don’t have to have a “said” with every character’s line of dialogue.  And you can attach other things to a line of dialogue.  Like for instance some action – I took her hand in mine, “Sybil, dearest won’t you confide in me?” or some inner thoughts like – Helga wondered if Marcel was lying to her about the inheritance, “Where did you get the money for the yacht?”  You can put description of a person, place or thing along with a line of dialogue like – The wind carried the fragrance of the lilacs over the balcony reminding me of last summer, “I miss talking to you like this.” You can break up the dialogue even more with paragraphs of action, description, or inner thoughts. However much you decide to interrupt the lines of dialogue I suggest you do break them up somewhat. Long strings of alternating dialogue with no “saids” or anything else, in my opinion, doesn’t work.                                                                                        

Don’t be repetitious in your dialogue. Don’t have a character say the same thing over and over again. Real people in real conversations do this. But it’s boring!  Also, your characters don’t have to say what is really on their mind. By combining inner thoughts with dialogue, you can convey a lot about a character.

Just as with any other type of writing in your novel you have to have your dialogue move your story forward.  All pieces of your novel have to move the story forward, add some new knowledge, another piece of the puzzle and if not it needs to be cut.  How does each character speak?  How does their speech represent their personality?  What do you need to convey about each character in this piece of dialogue? You need to get the information out economically and hopefully with some style and panache.

Look at writers whose dialogue style you admire and study what they are doing.  Artists learn from other artists. Analyze how they do what they do.