Secrets of Writing Dialog

June 21st, 2009 by articles

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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.

Effective dialog is essential as a main part of the story. Good dialog moves the story forward whiles it brings life to the characters. Dialogue will engage your readers as you reveal your characters to them.

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 that will demonstrate what kind of people live in your story.

To represent a sense of time and place through the use of speech patterns, vocabulary, rhythms and dialect.

And, finally, it develops conflict.

The secrets of writing effective dialog is writing a good flow of conversation. 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.

Following these simple guidelines will help.

Many sentences are not even complete.

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

Use words that will reveal things such as a character’s ethnicity, historical time period, age and gender.

Give your characters hidden personality through dialog.

Take notes as you hear real-life conversations. Writing too much dialog gets boring for the reader. Avoid overzealousness by keeping dialog simple.

Let’s look at the scene between Mammy and Miss Scarlett in chapter five of Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.

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!

Far and few between are the times that an experienced author should try to write this type of language. Irish brogue, for example, is a monster to read. Stay in the well-defined terms of simple dialogue and your readers will thank you.

Although people do talk for hours on end without stopping to admire scenery, it won’t work that way in writing dialog. 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. It would be best to take notes (but don’t let them see you).