Tool 7: The Parts

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Dialogue

It’s important to remember that psychologists say that a very large percentage of communication is nonverbal, yet on the printed page all you have are the words.  There is no tone, no facial expressions, no hand gestures, nothing that in normal face-to-face communication can drastically affect the message being communicated.  Because all you have are the words, you must choose them very carefully.  A conversation in a novel is not exactly as it would be in "real life".  Because you are lacking the things you would have in real life, you make up for it with your word choice.  You also must be aware that you can't bore the reader, thus your written dialogue is usually more concise than spoken.

Purposes Of Dialogue

You use dialogue for many reasons beyond the simple fact that your plot calls for a conversation at a certain point.  Dialogue is a good way to overcome limitations of some of the tools you are using.  For example, if you are writing a first person detective story, dialogue is useful in giving your main character (and in turn the reader) important information.  It is also useful in imparting backstory information and exposition.  Dialogue does the following:

Develops characters.  It is their chance to express themselves directly to the reader.  Make sure, though, that the voice they use is consistent.  If you want to check this, go back through whatever you've written and highlight everything each character says, using different colors for the different characters, then trace each character’s dialogue by itself, making sure it is the same voice.  Make sure that all your characters don't sound the same.  Dialogue can reveal motivation, which is critical to character.  Remember, though, just like in real life, you have to consider whether what a person says is the truth.

One thing you can do to check for consistency with your various characters’ dialogue is to highlight each one differently on a print out and then just check that color throughout the entire book.

Dialogue advances the plot.  It can sharpen conflict between characters.  Since every scene needs conflict, an argument is a way to develop that conflict.

Another thing it can be used for is to control the pace of the story.  Sometimes if you are going full speed ahead with action, dialogue can be a good way to slow things down a little and give the reader a breather.  You can do the opposite and pick up the pace of a story with snappy dialogue.

Movies tend to beat dialogue to death, always searching for that greater line.  Who can forget Clint Eastwood's "Go ahead, make my day."?  While your dialogue should keep the readers’ attention, don't beat them to death with stilted dialogue.

Dialogue must fit the characters but try to avoid excessive slang as it usually interrupts the smoothness even though it is natural for that character and locale.  Think about it:  the reader is going along, your smooth prose has them absorbed in the story, and all of sudden the writing changes to slang.  It can be disconcerting.  Again there are places where it works, but understand what the disadvantage is and weigh it before using.

I liken this to going to see a play by Shakespeare and not being able to see the stage, but only being able to hear.  So you have a friend sitting next to you who describes all the action.  I don’t know about you, but it takes me several minutes to get used to listening to ‘olde English’.  But what if my friend is describing the scene in ‘new’ English to me?  Would I be able to keep track of everything?

Don’t overuse dialogue.  Even in a screenplay, half the page should be action.  If your book starts to exceed fifty percent dialogue you might have too much, although, as usual there are exceptions to this.

Dialogue Guidelines

Weave in silence

Weave in action

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