Many writers have difficulty learning to write dialogue, but you can follow a few simple rules to make it work.

Dialogue is essential, and I’m a believer in using dialogue to do the heavy lifting of the storyline. There is so much more you can do with dialogue beyond a simple narrative.

An example. In The Elaine Mathis Detective series, Elaine’s often in a car with a partner when not interviewing witnesses or investigating a crime scene. The dialogue between her and her partner is a substitute for what would otherwise be narration to inform the reader of what’s happening. Speaking of crime scenes, dialogue between the investigators tells the reader everything the investigators are seeing and thinking. They often disagree on what should be considered relevant evidence and its implications. Powerful stuff.

 

Creating Tension

Tension isn’t always required in every scene, but it adds a layer of flavor that makes it more memorable, and dialogue can especially be useful. The tension doesn’t have to be to the level of yelling and screaming unless the scene calls for it, but hinted sexual tension, a power struggle, or where one character knows the other is lying will do nicely.

Dialogue should portray the character’s emotion in concert with narration. The basic rule, never tell the reader how the character feels about something, show them. Don’t say, for example, Helen was emotionally done with Mike. Show Helen being done with Mike. Helen slammed the car door. “Never call me again.” The combination of narration and dialog makes the scene.

 

Purpose

I know you’ve seen the film or read the book where the whole scene appears pointless. There must always be a reason for the characters to be engaged. Ask yourself the question, is the dialogue carrying the plot forward? Is there important information exchanged between characters?

I use dialogue to enable the reader to learn about the character instead of telling in the narrative. I show the reader the character through the character’s own words. Show the reader, never tell them.

Keep your dialogue clean of the extraneous back and forth that adds nothing to the story. I know people often speak this way. They cut each other off, and conversations tend to take wild turns, but you can never write dialog that way. Your dialog must flow, and each word the character speaks almost sounds rehearsed. Almost, but not.

 

Authenticity

The dialogue between characters needs to feel real, but if you made a transcript of everyday conversation, you would quickly realize that you could never write dialogue in such a manner. It would be far too boring. Like an actor on a stage reciting their lines, dialogue is more powerful and concise than normal conversation.

Bad language, unless justified by the situation, should be avoided. A character that uses bad language because that’s who they are can work, but the amount of bad language is far less than what you might hear in real conversation.

Slang must be appropriate for the situation and the age of the character. You can even invent slang or curse words for a Science Fiction novel as part of the way an alien race speaks. I remember the show Battlestar Gallactica. It included dialogue like “fracking this” and “fracking that”. We know what they were saying, but using a close substitute got the message across that Starbuck was a foul-mouthed, hard-drinking fighter pilot with personal issues; his verbiage enhanced his character.

Use the smell test. If it adds to the plot or character development, do it. If it doesn’t, then don’t. Ask your editor if the language you’re using is appropriate. Resellers like amazon will ask you about age appropriateness when you publish. Who is your audience, and what is their threshold?

 

Subtext

The subtext is what the character means or is feeling, not what they say verbatim. Reading ‘between the lines’ is a fair description. Give the reader credit to figure out what is meant by a character’s commentary or response. To spell it out is bad form, and it won’t come off well. Nuance is your friend here.

Have you ever been to a restaurant when the couple at the table next to you started to argue? Did you eavesdrop? I bet you did because tension is interesting, even when you don’t know the context. Our brains are wired that way.

Sarcasm is a great tool for subtext, and at the right time, it can cause tension in the scene, but it has to be something the character would say. Don’t force it for tension’s sake. Once the reader identifies a character as having a dry sense of humor, you can have them respond in a manner that takes another character off-guard. The reader knows exactly what’s happening, like an inside joke.

 

The Ear Test

You must hear the dialogue in spoken form. I use the e-reader in MS Word, but some prefer a human voice. What I like about the reader is it’s absolutely dry. Human readers like to put their emotions into the dialogue.

Listen for something that’s ‘off’. I would say it’s almost instinctual. If it’s just ‘not right’, try a few different flavors of the same line or change out some words. You can’t get around the time-consuming trial and error process. When it feels right, it’s good enough then, move on.

Dialogue should have a pace to it as well. A good back and forth between two characters has a rhythm, but that’s only a set rule. If, throughout your book, two characters talk to each other a certain way, try to be consistent.

Also, in sounding it out, does it sound like the character? If your character is soft-spoken in your mind, you should convey that to the reader through the character’s words and how they verbally interact with the other characters. As a reminder, dialogue should sound slightly more dramatic than normal speech. I would describe it as sounding ‘punchy’, so your soft-spoken character may speak in a dry tone without many ‘verbal fillers’. Conversely, if your character is high-energy, their speech may be dramatically over the top.

 

Punctuation and Length

The use of commas can add drama, tension, and emotion, as well as the M-dash. I’m not too fond of the semi-colin in dialogue; it’s too formal. Dialogue is informal speech but more formal than everyday speech.

I seldom use the ‘!’ character to portray an elevated volume. If you write the dialogue well, the reader will know the character is upset and is probably speaking more forcefully than normal.

I do use as many contractions as possible because it is the way most people talk. Dialogue isn’t narration. It’s a conversation with bite.

I mentioned before that dialogue needs to have a rhythm. Punctuation affects pace in partnership with sentence length. I tend toward short sentences and back-and-forth between two characters, even when there are other characters in the scene. There-way or four-way conversation can be difficult to follow, and you don’t need it to carry the plot, but I will, on occasion, use a third or fourth character”chiming in” to add some flavor. The point is to set the pace and maintain it. Don’t circle the drain because the smart reader will see what you’re doing.

On special occasions, I will have one character “lecture” another. Forget rhythm there, but the situation must call for it. In my book “Lottery,” the top bad guy lectures the investigator who has the goods on him when he visits to make the arrest. The lecture shows the reader the motivation our bad guy used to justify his actions as he blames everyone but himself revealing his character.

 

He Said, She Said

A rookie mistake is to attempt to use too many descriptive words such as: replied, insisted, responded, answered, etc. Use this simple rule: Unless you feel the need to ‘qualify’ how a character is speaking, use ‘said’. I use a few pet qualifiers like, insisted, and shouted because it adds emotional context, but I use it sparingly, and don’t overuse any modifier. You can search for the word to see how many times you used it.

Once you define the back-and-forth, you don’t need to continue to tell the reader who is speaking, but at some point, you may feel the need to mention it. I like to add a narration break to describe an action to reset who is speaking. If a third party breaks into a two-way conversation, you must note who it is, then reset to who is then speaking next.

Another trick to use for a crowd conversation is, John turned to Joan, “When’s the next train arriving?” The person answering is Joan unless otherwise noted. You could start the next line as Mike stepped between them, “Why are you asking her?” Here I’m using dialogue to tell the reader they are waiting for a train, and for some reason, Mike doesn’t like John talking to Joan. Tension? Showing not telling through dialogue.

On a similar note, don’t have your characters call each other by name unless the situation has them trying to get their attention. You never speak that way.

 

Character’s Speaking Voice

Yes, it is good to give characters unique voices, but be clever about it. In my novel, Ergot Fanning, for several characters, English is not their primary language, so the dialogue is choppy and has consistently incorrect grammar. Try to not overdo it to the point of making the character sound illiterate or stupid.

You may have a character with favorite words, such as “perhaps” or “whatever”. Age can also be signaled by the use of certain words. Note how teenagers speak as opposed to Grandpa. With the effective use of words, you can also convey the subtext we spoke about earlier.

The character’s tone can change as they speak with other characters indicating their like or dislike. Tone can be implied by short, truncated remarks and negative sarcasm versus playful banter.

 

Humor in Dialogue

This is where you can go for the cheap laughs. In the English language, context sometimes completely changes the meaning of words. “I made a spirited attempt before I was spirited away.”

You could also use an exchange like this: Two investigators get back in the car after interviewing a person of interest. The first one asks, “Do you think she’s a suspect?” The second responds, “I suspect she’s lying.”

Delivered, as a dry comment, and depending on the characters’ personalities and relationship previously established, it could be a funny line. I have a separate post on humor because I think it’s that important.

A word of caution: Where the characters can pull off a cheap play on words, you could not do this in the narrative. You can and should interject humor into the narrative, but it has to be more subtle.

Please feel free to comment on the series of posts I’ve provided. My experience is what it is. If you have something to add that will help other writers, I greatly encourage all feedback.