Ask An Author: "How do you write dialogue that drives the plot versus distracts from it?"

Each week, a new author will serve as your Camp Counselor, answering your writing questions. Marivi Soliven, our second counselor, has taught writing workshops at the University of California, San Diego and at the University of the Philippines. Her most recent novel, The Mango Bride, is about two Filipina women, and the unexpected collision that reveals a life changing secret.

How do you write dialogue that drives the plot versus distracts from it? — coffeeshoptuesdays

I use dialogue as a way to fill out the personalities of my characters. In The Mango Bride, all the characters speak English; each one does so in different registers to better illustrate each one’s social class, which is a pivotal factor in the primary characters’ destiny.

For example, Señora Concha’s speech is peppered with Spanish phrases and cuss words. The ability to speak Spanish is considered by some Filipinos as a sign of a good family, better education, and social prestige, all of which Señora Concha loves to flaunt.

Using dialogue in this way moves the plot forward because readers begin to understand how a character thinks and sounds, and why she makes certain choices in the course of the story. Good dialogue brings a character alive in the reader’s mind.

Dialogue also moves a plot forward if it reveals a new twist in the story, or implies that there is a secret waiting to be revealed. I use this quite a bit in the beginning of the novel, where Amparo keeps trying to find out what scandal estranged her Uncle Aldo from the Guerrero clan. The dialogue in those scenes sound like the two are circling each other in a verbal dance—the Uncle speaks in double entendre the entire time. The secret is revealed toward the end of the novel, during a violent fight… and in a crucial piece of dialogue.

Next week’s Camp Counselor will be Patricia Wrede, author of fantasy novels such as the The Enchanted Forest Chronicles.

Ask her your questions here!