Eight Things I’ve Learned About Writing Dialogue

I think I can safely say that I struggle quite a bit with writing. What I don’t think I have too much of an issue with is dialogue. Of course, this statement is coming from someone who is as green as could be about writing.  Take it with a grain of salt.

Anyway, it’s snowing outside, it’s nice and warm in here, and I’m in a good mood. I thought I would share with you what I’ve learned about dialogue in this post. “So stick around if you wanna read more, “ I said.

The Eight Things:

Listen and learn – This one is pretty obvious, but how can you really learn to write great dialogue if you don’t know how conversation takes place? I know that most of us don’t actually pay attention to the words that people say between each other. Instead, we pay attention to the overall picture that comes from the words. Next time you’re talking to someone, pay specific attention to the words they use to talk.

Leave the hot air out – One of the things you’ll probably notice through number one, is that more than half of what comes out of a regular conversation is just hot-air. Leave the useless “umm’s” and “ahhh’s” out of your dialogue. You might be able to narrate this in a better manner, rather than to actually use it between your characters.

Further the story along – Imagine how much longer a book would be if you really tried to emulate conversations as they really were? Instead, leave out the hot air, and use each conversation in your writing to further the story along. For example, one character might talk about what had just happened down at the local bar, and the other is asking questions about the incident. This is giving your readers indirect information about the story, and what might possibly happen in the near future. Besides, I really don’t want to read a story about how nice the weather is, and what they bought at the grocery store yesterday. It’s boring.

Hooked on phonics – I’ve seen dialogue written phonetically before, and if it was sparse, it wasn’t so bad. What I would imagine to be worse, however, is using it too much to distract your reader, like: “I teh yew wha bowah, it’s code out heeyah!” It isn’t necessary to get the point across. In fact, I bet it’s possible to completely leave the “special words” out, and leave it up to your descriptive writing to convey the dialect.

Read it out loud – A good way to test your dialogue is to, well, read it out loud. Does it sound stilted? Of course, when I do it, I try to lock myself in a sound-tight room to avoid the people in white coats.

Use “said” – This one is a debated issue. Some people swear by simply using “he said” or “she said” all the time. Others will go heavily for “he growled” or “he angrily and heatedly spat”. I like things simple. The K.I.S.S. principle suits me well in regards to this matter.

Don’t confuse the reader – This one is commonsense, at least to me. Don’t confuse your reader by making it unknown who is speaking, and who is being spoken too. You’ll risk losing your reader’s attention if you do so. You can accomplish clear dialogue through the use of dialogue tags.

Preaching is preaching – Don’t use it in narration, or through a character’s voice. Be imaginative in the information you convey to your readers, instead of dumping tons of it on them at once.

These eight tips are definitely just the tip of the iceberg. However, I feel that these pieces of advice have served me well in writing dialogue (so far at least).  Some of the above might also be negotiable, as I’ve read plenty of books that might say one thing, instead of the other.

Also, there are real professionals out there that can explain it better than I. I found a great article that gets even more detailed than what I wrote; read the simply titled “Dialogue Tips” if you want some great information.

Aside from the eight I listed above, can you think of something else that’s important to writing great dialogue? I’d love to hear from you if you do.

Comments

[1ConfusedWriter]

I don't know. Stephen King would be on the less extreme side of using dialect, as compared to some others I've read. If there were an instance of a word he uses often (which does distract me), is the way some of the folks say "yes": "ayup" or "ayeahh" something like that.

Otherwise, it doesn't phase me too much.

Thanks for the comment, Kalbz.

Vic

[kalbzayn]

I've never tried it, but I bet it would be better to get somebody else to read the dialogue out lot to you would work even better. It is much easier to notice when other people sound funny than ourselves.

Everytime I read a Stephen King book, I always love his dialogue, except when he has people use that northeastern dialect. I've never understood why he did that. Very distracting.