"Um. Er. Argh." #Writer's Tool

This post is all about DIALOGUE, a huge and important part of writing fiction in fact.

The first thing you should know already is that when you're introducing a new speaker, they start on a new indented line. If you don't show the readers that a different person is speaking they're not going to know until you get to the identifier.



An Ear For It

People say listen to conversations, don't eavesdrop with malicious intent but make notes on how natural they speak. I disagree slightly with that comment because natural speech is full of filler: 'um', 'er' and 'erm' there's also a lot of topic changing and speaking over each other.

Good dialogue needs to be precise and to the point, it's no good floundering, not unless it's stylistic and helps grasp a better hold of your character, but even then you'd need to practice.

Keeping It Natural

Stutters? Accents? Speech impediments? Well, not everyone will or can speak enunciating their words--it's just unrealistic, but some people try and perhaps one of your characters does. What I'm trying to get it as that even though all words are spelled the same way (apart from if you live in America and possibly Australia) they don't always sound the same.

Some techniques of giving dialogue realism is how it SOUNDS-- I always say what my characters are going to out loud before I write it. That way, I can determine how I write it as people with accents tend to contract their words, such as 'morning' becoming 'mornin'' -- I know that after reading a lot of Stephen King this is somewhat normal and one of the aspects that gives his writing it's rich and realistic feeling.

Speech isn't always long, there are pauses and breaks, sometimes these breaks are due to the speaker's actions or being interrupted. Conversely, if there is two much description between dialogue breaks and interruptions, the scene could drag and frustrate your readers.

Another thing about natural speech is there's a lot of greetings and everyday dialogue. So ask yourself, is this absolutely essential? As a writer you're constantly under scrutiny for you writing (heck, I've probably got so many mistakes in this post) that you need to always ask yourself questions like is this essential? Does it aide the plot? Will the readers really be missing out on anything if it's cut?

Identifies / Attributives

I'm not big on the whole 'he whispered', 'he stammered' etc. however, I haven't always been like that. There was a time when I was about 16 (2 years ago) when I received a critique about how many of these tags I'd used and how it meant they had to read everything--similar to being told everything. The critique went on to say how tags such as 'said', 'asked', 'answered' and 'replied' went unnoticed and I totally agreed, because thinking back on it and going through books looking for tags, I noticed that they didn't use them at the end of every piece of dialogue. However, when they did use them they did it sparingly.

Also, in the critique, he told me good dialogue speaks for itself, the only thing that should go after it is action to add realism and making sure that characters weren't stiff. He said let the action compliment the dialogue, give it depth, show they were angry instead of saying "he said angrily" instead try "he said slamming his fist against the table". (I will go deeper into Show Vs. Tell in a later planned blog post).

Repetition of names is also important because if the dialogue is trying to flow and you keep adding "Jeremy said" and "Marie said" at the end of everything it can seem unnecessary and monotonous, similarly if you're using 'he' and 'she' and they are the only two people involved in the conversation you can probably just cut it and allow the reader to move through the piece faster. 

Thought Bubbles

Are you ever struck trying to think of how you want to phrase a thought? Well I was when I was starting out writing, and I'm sure there are some who have the niggling as well. This isn't a problem if you're writing in first person (Me, He, You, We. WHAT? - Viewpoint and Narrative post). However, it is a problem if you're writing in third person, do you go for italics? Do you use the same format for speech but use the tag "he thought" instead? --Okay I wouldn't recommend the second suggestion because of the stylistics, so you might you quote marks instead. There is no right answer to thought "bubbles" except if you do use them then stick to the same format and don't mix it up!

Punctuation!

I should have put this some place a little higher.

The first would be that the comma, exclamation mark, full stop or question mark be used at the end of dialogue and before the tag. EX. "But I don't feel like dancing," she said pulling her hand out of his. I used a comma, and a little note about full stops is that a tag like "he said" isn't used, because like a full stop ends a sentence, it does the same for dialogue. Action may follow, but a full stop is normally used because the person speaking is already in the scene and the dialogue is perhaps between two people.

I used to fall prey to not punctuating my dialogue and notice some novice writers still make these mistakes.

There's also punctuating dialogue. No, dialogue does not have to be grammatically correct, are you always formal and grammatically anal around your friends (okay, some people will be, but there will be a majority who just want to relax around friends). Think of the characters, think of the innocent lives you'll be ruining and turning 2D--oh, the horror!!

Happy Writing & Happy Reading!I hope you enjoyed my blog post!

~Joseph Eastwood