Dialogue: 5 Tips for Dazzling Dialogue

As I work through the pre-writing on my mystery and get closer to actually writing, I’ve been paying a lot of attention to fiction. Truth be told, mostly, I’m obsessing because I’m getting really worried about writing dialogue for my characters. Because of that, I’ve taken a brief class on dialogue and been doing a lot of reading. Here is a small part of what I’ve learned.

Dialogue in a story does not sound exactly like two people talking. In reality, we say things like umm and uhhh. And we backtrack. We are needlessly wordy. When you are writing, you have to smooth at least some of this out. Only James Joyce could get away with a page that is a single flow-of-conscious sentence. Do not try it. No one will thank you. I read Joyce in college. We didn’t even thank him.

Dialogue is not a ping pong match. When we write a conversation, we tend to have Person A ask a question which Person B then answers. Person A responds and then Person B comes back with something else. Change things up sometimes. Person A asks a question and Person B says something, but it isn’t a direct response. Why? Because Person B has their own agenda and dialogue is a great place to let that show.

Dialogue for each character should be unique. Even if you have ten characters in your story, I should be able to read a line of dialogue and know who said it. Each character needs a voice. To achieve this, use your copy and paste functions to place all of one character’s dialogue onto a page. Do this with each character and make sure each has their own vocabulary, sentence patterns and more.

Dialect must be spot on. If you want to give a feel for dialect you can use a key phrase such as my grandmother’s “God Bless Him.” My family just saw Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Not for a moment did we think it was set in Missouri because the dialogue was wrong. Yes, they had dialect coaches but they obviously weren’t from Missouri either. And don’t use “God Bless Him” unless you speak fluent Southern. It is not a blessing.

Dialogue should be read out loud. I know, I know. I already said that dialogue shouldn’t sound exactly like a person speaking. But it does need to flow and the best way to test that is to read it aloud. All of it. Better yet, get someone else to read it to you and pay attention to where they stumble or look confused.

Dialogue done well can pull a reader into the story. Dialogue done wrong can send them for the hills whether those hills are real or as fanciful as Ebbing, Missouri.

--SueBE

PS.  I do recommend 3 Billboards even if it wasn't set in Missouri.

To find out more about Sue Bradford Edwards' writing, visit her blog, One Writer's Journey.  Sue is also the instructor for Writing Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults. The next session begins May 7th, 2018.