The Bootcamp Mentors have hosted many workshops over the years, and we have included them all in this book. Consider this another ongoing resource from your friends here at BCM.
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Why do we need dialogue in storytelling?
Good fiction needs dialogue to engage readers and infuse a story with drama and relatability. There's more to dialogue than just giving characters something to say. Dialogue is a source of critical information in helping readers understand and relate to a story and its characters. This four part series should give you some useful tips on writing engaging character dialogue.
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What does dialogue accomplish?
Dialogue tells readers about the characters: The way a character speaks can provide a lot of information. Realistic, well-written dialogue will introduce readers to your character's voice, upbringing, even personality traits. So make that first impression count. However, you will also want to make sure that each character's way of speaking is unique enough to distinguish one from another.
Dialogue is an important tool to drive the plot forward: Dialogue is critical to plot advancement. Conversations between characters often provide vital moments of conflict or turning points, as what they talk about often affects the decisions they make later on. Dialogue can increase the tension between characters, creating suspense about the story's possible outcomes. It can also tell the reader whether a character is a reliable or unreliable narrator.
Dialogue can hint to things that are yet to come: Dialogue is a tool of foreshadowing, the presentation of details that hint to future events in the story. By using foreshadowing in dialogue, the author can drop subtle hints about characters and events while paving the way for future action.
Dialogue provides expositional information: Dialogue is one way readers learn about the setting and conflict in a story's exposition. While good fiction doesn't include lengthy explanatory dialogue, short, realistic lines with key details can teach readers the rules of the story's world. Reading dialogue can provide readers with information that is more meaningful coming from the mouth of a character versus narrative.
Conversely, dialogue should not be used in place of exposition or as an info dump: Dialogue will sound contrived and unnatural if it comes across as a lecture. For example: "Hi, Sally. Are you ready for our staff announcement meeting? I sure hope you get the promotion instead of Ted. And if you do, I hope he doesn't try to use it against you." A skilled writer will plant this information in the reader's mind through worries Sally might have as she's getting ready for the staff meeting.
