I love dialogue. Effective dialogue brings the story to life. It is literally the starting breath of all my novels. A snippet of conversation bounces around my brain and I have to figure out the who, what, when, where and why of those one or two lines.
But, how is novel writing dialogue different from real-life dialogue? For starters, effective dialogue in novels skips the niceties of real-time dialogue. It’s rare that “Hey, what’s up? How’s your mama?” is needed (unless, of course, the novel is about your mama and the person asking is the antagonist. . . but if that’s not the case, then, that convo probably isn’t needed). Word economy is critical in dialogue. The reader does not need to be a part of the conversation about what your characters did for lunch or watched on television.
Second, people talk differently. Characters should talk differently, as well. I once read a book (I confess, I made it three chapters), where all the characters talked exactly the same, despite being different ages, different socio-economic levels and vastly different occupations. A jock is going to talk differently than a priest and grandma is going to have a different vernacular than a teen. Even amongst my friends, we have a different communication style. Some of my friends are more blunt and straight-forward, some are more tactful, some make bad jokes. Varying the dialogue styles of characters makes it easier to distinguish them and gives them their own character. It’s one of the hardest parts of crafting characters, but it will elevate your book.
Third, you’ll read this next piece of advice often on my blog: KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE. How does this affect your dialogue, you ask. I’ll tell you. I have a lot of traditionally masculine characters, particularly soldiers/veterans. When I wrote “Higher Honor,” I butted heads with my editor. She was an award-winning, highly respected Christian editor and was very good at editing traditional Christian fiction. I’m not a traditional Christian writer, and I’ll write more about that later, but she was adamant that I could not use the word “crap” in my novel. This frustrated me, because having been in a strongly masculine, military environment, I felt I couldn’t go any more sanitized than “crap” without losing my audience. Soldiers aren’t usually going to say “gosh diddly darn” (which, btw, can be said with more malice than “crap,” but I digress). My approach probably won’t work for strict romance or books geared toward more conservative readers, but those are not my target audience.
Now, I’m going to complicate things. Concerning dialect, tempo, and vernacular. While these will distinguish characters and give them their own “voice,” using it too much will overwhelm the reader. Like a good seasoning, use them in small amounts at the right time. This takes practice and getting feedback from your critique group. It’s okay to ask for specific feedback on dialogue (or any other issue you’re concerned about.)
And, to complicate it further. . . you know sometimes, your speech vernacular, tempo, and style are one way at work, another at home, and another in a different situation? That’s because you know your audience. Guess what, characters can be the same way.
For example, in “The Disposable,” Rax works really hard to be a professional, intelligent student when talking to Dr. Alvarez, his advisor at Georgia Tech, but he can be more relaxed when he’s at the farm. When Dr. Alvarez compliments Rax’s paper, the young man responds with “I can hit the broad side of a barn every now and then.” He immediately regrets this because he wants his advisor to see him as a capable student, not a dumb hick. We also see Andre, who is blunt, struggle with learning to be more diplomatic and polite.
Often, I’ll write conversations and go back to edit the language or the tempo because my rough draft is strictly about getting the gist of the chapter or scene on paper. Sometimes, I catch myself not staying true to the character.
The bullet points:
- Don’t write the small talk
- Vary your characters
- Use it to show who your characters are
I’ll write more about dialogue later, including texting as dialogue (I’m loving it, btw). Challenge yourself this week when writing dialogue and happy writing!
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