Writing Lessons
WRITING LESSON 06:
WRITING DIALOGUE
PEOPLE FEAR WRITING DIALOGUE BECAUSE THEY:
* ASSUME THEY DON'T HAVE ANYTHING IMPORTANT TO SAY
* ASSUME CAN'T MAKE THOSE CATCHY PHRASES LIKE
"Here's to looking at you kid." or "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn!"
* DON'T UNDERSTAND THE MECHANICS OF DIALOGUE WRITING
Well don't let those reasons stop you. Everyone starts somewhere and the fact is you have lived and gain by practicing and listening to movies, soap operas, plays and by reading fiction books, movie scripts, plays and short stories.
BASIC DIALOGUE RULES:
* REALIZE WHY DIALOGUE IS IMPORTANT
One major rule is No matter how well your character's icing and cake characterization, actions and descriptions, they'll never come alive to the reader until they talk. When your character talk, they officially come to life for the reader. Dialogue can be mixed with Attribution, Internalization, Staged Action and Objective Reporting. When you write dialogue, you'll be mixing one of these four techniques to make your dialogue come to life and seem real to the reader (more about these below).
* USE DIALOGUE MECHANICS AND STRUCTURE
1) Always start at the beginning of a new line for a new speaker.
2) Always put double quotation marks at the beginning and at the end of the spoken words.
3) Make ever word of dialogue move the story plot, characterization forward. If it doesn't do these things, seriously think about dropping or rewording the dialogue.
4) If a character speaks more than three sentences of dialogue at one time, be very suspicious. Usually it is a useless or flawed dialogue. Something can be whittled down to the essence of what the character wants to say. An exception to this rule is if the character is delivering a monologue.
When a character goes on for more than one paragraph of dialogue, you put the opening double quotation marks at the beginning of the first paragraph and a closing double quotations at the end of the last paragraph.
Another rule is to research what you don't know about, then you'll know what to write on a subject. This means if you like sky diving but you've never done it, simply go to the library and look in a book or two about the subject. You might watch a film about sky diving.
5) Avoid curse words, accents unless absolutely necessary.
* FOLLOW THESE SIMPLE DIALOGUE STRUCTURAL STRATEGIES
1) STRAIGHT DIALOGUE FOCUSES ON THE WORDS SPOKEN ONLY.
"I talked with my history professor again. He's so boring, but he's cute too."
In this case, we don't know who is speaking, but we can assume it is a female.
2) DIALOGUE WITH ATTRIBUTION:
Cassie said, "I talked with my history professor again. He's so boring, but he's cute too."
You can see [Cassie said,] is the attribution. This means the dialogue sentence is attributed to Cassie.
3) DIALOGUE WITH INTERNALIZATION:
Cassie thought hard and serious before she admitted, "I talked with my history professor again. He's so boring, but he's cute too."
You can see [Cassie thought hard and serious before she admitted,] is the Internalization.
Or
"I talked with my history professor again." Cassie smiled, inward thinking warm thoughts about how nice it be to bed him. "Though he's so boring, but he's cute too."
Internalization is what the character is feeling or thinking while the dialogue is spoken.
4. DIALOGUE WITH STAGED ACTION:
Cassie touched her breasts carefully after her shower. "Melinda, I talked with my history professor again. He's so boring, but he's cute too."
Staged actions are visible actions taken by the character before, after or during her spoken dialogue.
5. OBJECTIVE REPORTING.
Cassie's room held more rock stars picture than People Magazine, and she wanted to act in films. But until that, she never considered herself available to a dork professor. Her best girlfriend Melinda played with Cassie's Pug dog, Robo when the confession came. "I talked with my history professor again. Melinda, he's so boring, but he's cute too."
Objective Reporting is like a camera looking about the room or scene and it reports what the environment looks like.
9. MIXING THESE FOUR STRATEGIES:
Cassie laid her black mini dress on the bed and said to Melinda, her girlfriend, "I talked with my history professor again. Melinda, he's so boring." Although her bedroom wall left no free space for any more rock and film stars, Cassie wanted her professor anyway and wondered if he would attend the benefit function. "But, but he's cute too."
"You want him don't you?" Melinda replied.
Broken down by analysis:
Cassie laid her black mini dress on the bed = Staged Action
and said to Melinda her girlfriend, = Attribution
"I talked with my history professor again. Melinda, he's so boring." = Dialogue
Even though her bedroom wall left no more free space for rock and film stars = Objective Reporting
Cassie wanted her professor anyway and wondered if he would attend the benefit function. = Internalization
"But, but he's cute too." = Dialogue
"You want him don't you?" Melinda said. = New character speaking dialogue and attribute
As you can see, dialogue can be combined with these four techniques in any order you want. Dialogue/spoken words, attribution, internalization, staged actions and objective reporting mixed and matched however, you want can make your story really come alive to readers. It makes writing dialogue more fun too.
* WRITE ELSE CAN DIALOGUE DO?
Fourth rule is appreciate how dialogue can reveal many things in your story: History, plot, characterization, mood, tone, foreshadowing. Simply have the character say what you want about these topics.
1) REVEALING A CHARACTER'S MOOD:
Cassie sat across from Melinda at the café. She uncrossed her legs. "I talked with my history professor again." She sipped her beer again. "He's so boring, but you think he's got a girlfriend or wife?"
This tells us Cassie physically wants the professor and she's even verbalized it to her girlfriend.
2) REVEALING THE BACKGROUND:
"I hate Ohio," Cassie said, "There's nothing here but amusement parks, baseball stadiums and old folks." She waved her hand outward, "No water, No beach, No cute beach boys either."
Apparently, Cassie likes the beach. LOL!
3) REVEAL CONFLICT AND OPPOSITION:
"i hate his wife already, Melinda."
Melinda laughed heartily, "You don't even know if he's got a wife or girlfriend!"
"I just know it. Someone so tall, so handsome, and so smart." Cassie pulled her hair back over her shoulder. "He's got to have someone."
* SHOW THE ACTION, FEELINGS, OPINIONS, THOUGHTS IN YOUR WRITING.
Show, don't tell. Hmmmm....
Dialogue is one of the best ways to show and not tell.
Mary had a balloon with her in the park. She saw children play. They smiled at her and her balloon. Then a girraffee stole it. Sound exciting, right? = telling
Mary walk in Aziom Park, down the wild white rose lane where daffodils swayed and butterflies flitted back and forth. She smiled at the other children on swing sets and playing in the pond, who pointed at her big, beautiful red balloon. And just as Mary sat down in the cool shade, under a huge oak tree, a long yellow and brown spotted snake snatched the balloon string. Mary swiftly looked up and saw the snake retreating back into the green leaves. "Come back here," she yelled and gave chase only to realize the snake moved very fast, leaping from tree top to tree top. "Stop!" Mary yelled, her arms pumping wild as she ran, darting in between tree trunks. Mary kept thinking to herself that's no snake moving amongst the trees. It's a Giraffe! = showing
* EVERY STORY HAS A BEGINNING, MIDDLE AND END
Use dialogue to start a story or novel. You have to use it in the middle. And you can use it in the end like in Gone With The Wind.
Another way is to make sure your characters are doing some work, task that has a beginning, middle and end. They could be driving to the video store. Going to buy Mary Lou her prom dress. Anything, as long as it has a beginning, middle and end to it.
This guy has some Great Dialogue software. I’ll place it in my amazon store and you can buy it. Makes learning dialogue easy.
* ONLY SURE WAY TO WRITE YOUR STORY
The novel/story won't be written unless you finally sit down and type it OR write it OR
speak it out into a tape recorder or computer and transcribe it.
HOW TO PRACTICE WRITING GOOD DIALOGUE
* RECORD AN ACTUAL CONVERSATION
Record an actual conversation between you and your friends and transcribe it. You'll quickly find out real conversation is PRETTY boring. All the Uhs, Hmmms. Repeated Words don't work. Remember written dialogue is the essence of a real life conversation, not the entire real life conversation.
* READ COMIC BOOKS, NOVELS, SHORT STORIES, PLAYS, WATCH MOVIES
Read comic books or plays. Comic books have some of the best action dialogue. Plays have some of the best characterization dialogue.
Watch movies and even better is to read movie scripts.
Watch soap operas and even better is to write down or transcribe soap opera dialogue.
Watch TV shows and even better is to write down or transcribe TV show dialogue.
For any medium where you watch to learn dialogue. Better is to turn the visual off by making the screen black and listen to the pure dialogue. Better still turn the sound off and turn on the caption text option so you can see the text scroll on the screen. Best of all is to transcribe the dialogue.
Read novels or short stories.
* DON'T ALWAYS USE ATTRIBUTION
Don't always use Attribution with dialogue.
Cassie said, "I talked with my history professor again."
"Yes," Melinda said.
Cassie smiled inward thinking warmly about how nice it be to bed him. "Though he's so boring, but he's cute too," Cassie said.
Melinda shrieked, "You want to fuck him!"
Cassie said, shyly, "Only one time. I'm really into rock and film stars."
"You're out of control," said Melinda.
As you noticed, you don't even need to all the attributions when it's two characters going back and forth in a conversation. Too many attributions make the dialogue boring indeed. Instead of using Attribution, you can use Staged Action to introduce the character
Cassie smiled inward thinking warmly about how nice it be to bed him. "Though he's so boring, but he's cute too."
When you have more than two characters, Attribution becomes more important; but remember, you don't have to always put the attribution before the dialogue. Attribution can come in between that same person's dialogue or at the end of that person's dialogue.
* WHY NOT TO USE FANCY ATTRIBUTIONS?
A more important reason is the dialogue should be written with the internal meaning in the words themselves. You should be able to get the mood from the words alone and so don't need the fancy attribution.
"He's so boring, but he's cute too."
Inside this statement, we can sense her mood for the professor.
So, don't use fancy attributions unless you really have a knack for it. She said or He said is invisible to the reader. Because fancy attributions are noticed.
Cassie cooed, "He's so boring, but he's cute too,"
"He's so boring, but he's cute too," Cassie declared hotly.
Melinda chortled, "You want him don't you?"
You'll notice fancy attributions are used more in romance novels. Sometimes they are used in clever ways and add to the story, but for the most part "she said/ he said" works just find.
* IF YOU WANT USE FANCY ATTRIBUTIONS
If you want to use fancy attributions or dialogue tags the theory is:
She/he: + a Verb related to someone talking. See verb list.
1. began demurely, directing her attention to the butler.
2. crooned
3. sneered
4. snarled
5. barked
6. snapped
7. gasped
8. declared hotly,
9. explained crisply
10. smirked
11. gritted out,
12. mocked
13. cried
14. cooed
15. chortled
16. urged.
17. railed.
18. declared hotly
19. cajoled
20. whispered
21. bellowed
22. asserted
23. gritted dismally through lips…
24. fussed amid herr weeping
25. queried
26. affirmed,
27. stuttered
28. A slurred voice snarled from under the craft
29. The little man retorted peevishly
30. answered as graciously
31. The sailor asked incredulously
32. Replied without situation
33. beckoned
34. cried with a chortle, bringing
35. Another exclaimed lustily
36. The tar repeated with a sharp hoot of disbelief
37. retorted
38. replied carefully
39. barked suddenly
40. murmured dolefully,
41. explained
42. mused aloud,
43. groaned,
44. admitted with a chuckle.
45. asked, wisely
46. acknowledged quietly
47. answered quickly, making sure
48. The man announced.
49. rebuked impatiently
50. humbly apologized.
51. urged acidly.
52. declared, wringing his hands
53. implored curtly
54. informed him bluntly.
55. chided with a grin, lifting
56. mused aloud.
57. queried in surprise
58. explained, tossing
59. assured him, worrying far
60. added, “I’d be
61. And, with a lame shrug, explained, “See’s as
62. sighed in relief. “We ain’t
63. called
64. interrupted, striding
65. said after an uncomfortable silence.
66. surmised
67. groaned softly.
68. queried hopefully.
69. sighed.
70. silently fumed.
71. apologized stoically.
72. replied blandly and, with a flick of his fingers, directed
73. announced in a solemn tone.
74. muttered ungraciously.
75. mumbled, holding up a hand
76. muttered in low tones, gestured
77. insisted.
78. demanded, ready to fly
79. cautioned.
80. broke in sharply, drawing a
81. reminded him acidly.
82. roared
83. flinched
84. conceded
85. confided, wrapping an arm
86. explained, dimpling beneath t mate’s smile
87. replied eagerly, and then
88. murmured with a smile, running a hand over t sleeve
89. asked worriedly
90. gave a glad cry and rushed forward to give
91. breathed a sigh of relief.
92. informed her.
93. confessed proudly.
94. agreed.
95. chuckled, displaying a
96. asked in a thick tone and then corrected rself.
97. stated carefully, preferring not
98. eagerly responded.
99. broiled.
100. brawled.
101. assured
DIALOGUE TECHNIQUES
Yes, all the above was structure. Now for the Techniques to make real sounding dialogue. You'll realize these techniques sound familiar. You use some everyday in your conversations. Almost any dictionary word and especially subword under communication in the thesaurus provides clues to possible conversation techniques.
HAVE THE TWO PEOPLE TALKING:
1) Argue.
2) Argue about one being afraid.
3) Bait and challenge one another's cherished ideas of goals.
4) Chit-Chat: Talk socially without exchanging too much information. Dictionary term. Have one person desperately interested in finding out something specific, important and the other person interested in only chit-chatting.
5) Crossfire: A lively or heated interchange of ideas and opinions. One person challenges another on one issue, only to have the second person challenge the first person on their ideas and opinions, usually something else entirely.
6) Pious platitude: Insincere talk about religion or morals
7) Monologue: One person goes on for more than three sentences about something they feel passionate about. Usually called a form of getting on a soap box. See the www.cupiderosbooks.com/blog.html for movie monologues by females.
8) Internal Monologue: One person mentally beats up on themselves about some action they did usually, but could also be about their beliefs. No external person hears it. The readers hear this from the Narrator in narrative occasionally. Most of the time it happens as Internalization.
9) Subtext: Something is said but all the hidden pieces to pull it all together are missing. Only the two people understand. Imagine a person goes to the mirror for beauty answers. The mirror always lies and says she's ugly or this is ugly. She asks the mirror: Is the Goddess ugly? No scratch that. I know what you're thinking. Whatever!
10) Have one person distracted in their conversation by outside people, scenes, other people's conversations. Then have them come back and pick up or try to pick up where the conversation left off.
11) Proverb: Have a person bring up a quotation or proverb from some person.
12) Anti-Proverb: Have a person bring up a quotation or proverb from some famous person but twists it so that it looks foolish or doesn't say what it was meant to say originally.
13) Motherese: An adult's imitation of the speech of a young child. One character uses Motherese towards another character who obviously isn't behave or cooperating.
14) Communication Foul-up: One person mentions something they shouldn't have. For example, revealing a man is having an affair when the man's wife is around at the party.
15) Exposition: Two people in real time talking about some event in the past.
16) Foreshadowing: "I told you not to fuck with me and my llama farms. How I get my llama's is my business and no one else's?"
17) Pregnant Meaning: "You'll never understand. You'd have to be there to understand. That's just it and you don't want to be there!"
18) Hedging: "Maybe I want my balloon back," said Mary to the flight instructor, "Maybe I don't."
19) Irony: Witty language used to convey insults or scorn. Or Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs. "You think I'm a wuss, Giraffe, because I chased you down and retrieved my balloon."
20) List: One character runs off a list of what they are trying to do, have done or are already doing.
21) Mocking: One character mocks another.
22) Apophasis: Mentioning something by saying it will not be mentioned. "I don't want talk about the problem between me and the Giraffe," Mary said to the Space Shuttle Trainer. "Let's just say, he's gone up to the space station and I want to go up there too!"
23) Figures of Speech will give you great examples of how to use dialogue in your story, poems or novels. Some figures of speech listed below:
1) conceit2) dead metaphor3) dramatic irony4) exaggeration5) frozen metaphor6) hyperbole7) irony8) kenning9) metalepsis10) metaphor11) metonymy12) mixed metaphor13) oxymoron14) personification15) prosopopoeia16) simile17) syllepsis18) synecdoche19) synesthetic metaphor20) zeugma24) Perhaps the most famous dialogue technique is the Keyword. Sounds just like you think. Character 1 makes a statement, any statement and usually a keyword statement. Then Character 2 picks up the keyword and piggy-backs off of it driving the conversation to the same or to some other area. Keyword is capitalized below:
Mary: Giraffe where is my BALLOON?
Giraffe: What BALLOON?
Mary: The BALLOON you snatched from me while I played happily under the palm tree.
Giraffe: You know it's unsafe to PLAY under a palm tree.
Mary: [Mary clinches her fist.] You want to know what's UNSAFE?
Giraffe: What? (Subtext here is "What is UNSAFE?")
Mary: Taking a little girl's red balloon is UNSAFE!
Giraffe: I BORROWED it. (Back to the word TAKING.)
Mary: BORROWED it! I had to chase you over the desert range, into the air on a jet
and into outer space on a shuttle. (also the list technique)Giraffe: Who asked you to CHASE me!
As you can see, from one word to another the characters respond to the keyword for their new response. So a keyword refers back to one of the previous character's stated words!
GO START WRITING GREAT DIALOGUE!
This page was last updated: August 31, 2009
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