Writing Lessons & Advice: Dialogue
I can’t come up with any cooking analogies for this topic this time; home construction lent itself better to the discussion.
Most literary analyses recognize plot, settings, characters, and themes as key storytelling elements. Think of them as the basic framework or skeleton of a house: the foundation, the studs, joists, struts, braces, beams, and rafters--all the woodwork, so to speak. They’re important elements to have and to get right, but they’re not enough to make the house complete. Getting to that point requires adding function and design details like siding, flooring, roofing, doors, windows, and utility systems. Now think of dialogue as function and design details for storytelling.
By definition, dialogue is conversation in written form and it is as common in storytelling as kitchens and bathrooms are in modern homes. However, at the same time, it is an element some writers wrestle with. Some of the pressure may come from the fact that good dialogue helps a story take shape and direction, or even becomes a standout part of the story. So here is some information and tips to help gain an upper hand in this matter.
A few punctuation and structural rules, first and foremost:
Set apart conversation with quotation marks ("---"). End punctuation goes inside the closing mark.
Start a new paragraph whenever the speaker changes.
Dialogue tags and/or action beats/tags are used to break up conversation and make it easier to follow. Dialogue tags denote who is doing the speaking, like he said or she said. Action beats work the same way, except they convey action with the spoken word.
If incorporating internal dialogue, or the thoughts of a character that they don’t articulate to another, use italics instead of quotation marks.
Some guiding thoughts:
Dialogue should serve a purpose.
Unless every little bit of small talk has a place in the grand scheme of the story, it can go unscripted. Stick to dialogue that serves the story, doing things like “showing” relevant details or advancing the plot, but without info-dumping, which is overloading one section of the story with more exposition than necessary. (Separate lesson on this topic here!)
An example of good purposeful dialogue in action comes from my current read during this writing: “Valley of Decision” by Lynne Gentry. To provide a little context, Maggie, the daughter of Dr. Lisbeth Hastings, is not at school where she is supposed to be. Lisbeth’s father was alerted of the absence and calls her mother. When considering where she is and how she got there, her father asks, “Could she have possibly gained access to the inheritance your grandfather left for both of you?” In short, and to avoid spoilers, this bit of conversation is key because Dr. Lisabeth can check the bank statements and confirm the hunch they have on Maggie’s whereabouts. If this bit of info were presented differently, it could have resulted in an info dump, diluting the compelling tone of the scene.
(Side note: “Valley of Decision” is the third book in a series called The Carthage Chronicles. The first two need to be read to get the full scope of this drama. It's a series I’ve fallen in love with this year!)
Draw from real conversations around you.
Some direction can come from observing general ebbs-and-flows of everyday conversation around you. For instance, how do you talk to your people and how do they talk to you? What do strangers at the store say when they’re in each other's way? Do you hear complete sentences all the time? Do you hear bantering friends use long or short sentences? How do you hear waiting room conversations start? What are they talking about? Just try to observe in ways that aren’t creepy, obvious, or nosey.
Another way to help establish either a unique or realistic character voice is to embrace imperfections, colloquialisms, slang, accents, or other quirky verbal details you may know of or witness. In action, this might look like a toddler’s dialogue written with a little baby talk, a lisp, or confused grammar or vocabulary since they are in earlier stages in language/communication development. Meanwhile, older kids or teens may use slang--or grunts if they don’t feel like talking.
“Say” away.
As discussed earlier, the most basic form of a dialogue tag is he/she/they said. Some view “said” as a rather generic word so camps within the writing community live by this mantra, “said is dead” to encourage stronger vocabulary. Nothing wrong with either side of this mentality. On one hand, you may observe that people don’t always simply just “say” things in conversation; they may mumble, shout, declare, question, answer, stammer...the list could go on, but the idea is that the colorful dialogue terms capture the action or emotion within conversation. The other side of the coin is a point made by the Well-Storied blog:
The clarity that tags provide is often vital, but bear in mind that dialogue tags are also a sign of authorship (i.e. a narrative element not written in the point-of-view character’s voice).
The occasional sign of authorship won’t pull readers from your story if they’re deeply engaged. But the more ubiquitous you can make your dialogue tags, the better. Readers will graze right over words like “said” and “asked” while still registering the identity of the speaker, ensuring your story keeps on flowin’.
A “said” dialogue tag is fine, if not necessary, on occasion. Descriptive tags “show” more, but said does not have to be dead.
Dialogue is both a functional and design feature in the construction of storytelling. Undoubtedly, your story will have characters, and undoubtedly, they will communicate. So dialogue is a natural incorporation, like walls and windows in a home. At the same time, dialogue is also artful conception—subjective choices ultimately decided by a designer or homeowner, like the style of windows or the color of the walls in a room. Through informed decision-making and fine-tuning ideas, a tasteful final product is established in construction of both a fine home and dialogue in a story.
Hope this provides you pointers for “constructing” better dialogue!
If there’s a topic you want me to cover in the future, you’re welcome to reach out to me on the web chat feature or socials!
sources/further reading
Comments