Hi folks,
Below, I'm posting a guest blogpost I just did over at Kristen Lamb's blog. This is Part I and Part II comes out tomorrow. Hope it helps!
You can read the original post and comments on Kristen's blog HERE. If you're not visiting Kristen regularly, I'd urge you to do so. She has the most amazing and helpful info out there for writers.
Also, I'll be teaching a class for Kristen's educational system via WANA in the near future on story beginnings. I'll post details when I get 'em.
Thanks for having me over, Kristen.
I love what you’ve done with the drapes! And this is the first time I’ve been
served my favorite coffee, Community Blend Dark French Roast with chicory—thank
you!
Les was far too street smart to fall
for the Free Candy van. But fortunately, he could be bribed with caffeine
:D. Since many of you requested a post to teach you how to write great
dialogue, I unsuccessfully kidnapped recruited one of the Masters. Les Edgerton is a
multi-published award-winning author and his craft books are a MUST HAVE. ALL
OF THEM. Take it away, Les!
DIALOGUE
Dialogue is one of the most crucial
elements of good fiction writing. For many of us, it’s also one of the toughest
skills to master. Some writers have an instinct for writing great dialogue, but
for others it takes hard work to achieve believable and interesting dialogue.
But, no matter if it comes naturally to you or if you have to work long and
hard to be able to create convincing dialogue, it can be achieved by almost
everyone.
Because of space limitations, I
won’t be able to cover everything necessary to achieve mastery, but will cover
many of the main facets.
What Good Dialogue Isn’t—It Ain’t a
Q&A
The worst form that a dialogue
exchange can take is in the form of a Q&A. That: “Hi, how are you?”
“Fine, how are you?”
“Good. How was your day?”
“It was great. I went shopping and
bought a new pair of shoes. What’d you do”
“Oh, I watched TV and took a nap in
the afternoon.”
And so on, ad nauseum. On-the-nose
dialogue. One of the worst forms it can take. Dialogue becomes even worse
when it becomes an info dump. Try always to avoid direct question and
answer responses. It’s one of the biggest killers of effective dialogue.
White Space---Subtext
Dialogue is one of the elements in
fiction that require lots of “white space” to work well. White space in this
discussion refers to what is not on the page. The most important
component in great dialogue isn’t so much what’s on the page but what isn’t.
The very best dialogue consists of the
subtext. Successful screenwriters realize
this probably better than anyone. In fact, one of the chief reasons screenplays
get a pass instead of a consider is that the dialogue is couched in Q&A
format.
One of the requirements of good
dialogue is that it gives the appearance of real speech, not that it imitates it. Real speech is full of ers and ums and
hesitations and going off on tangents and dozens of other elements that, if
included would destroy its effectiveness.
Listen to a court reporter’s
transcript of a trial or better, listen to the taping of criminals when they
don’t know they’re being recorded. It’s almost impossible to sort through all
of the extraneous baggage real speech carries. Fiction dialogue has to be much, much better than real
speech and the aim is only to give the illusion of real speech, not to
transcribe it the way actual speech is delivered.
Look at how two people who know
each other well converse. It’s chockfull of subtext. Not to mention body
language and facial expressions and other physical clues that inform the speech
that can’t be delivered on the written page, at least not without coming across
as cluttered at best.
Notice how people “talk around”
things—especially those topics that are emotional landmines. They’ll say everything but what’s
really on their mind. The proverbial “elephant in the room.” That’s subtext.
Perhaps the best way to illustrate what subtext is is to provide an exercise I
give my classes on that very thing (tomorrow). Writing teachers might find it
useful in teaching dialogue.
Other Dos and Don’ts of Good
Dialogue
1. Actor’s Business
Don’t give your characters what
they call in the stage play arena, “actor’s business.” Don’t have your
characters rubbing their noses, lighting up cigarettes, raising their eyebrows,
wiping perspiration off their brows… unless it contributes to the scene and
represents something other than just giving them something to do with their
hands.
Basically, don’t just write things
in just to vary the narrative. It’s obvious, it’s amateurish, and it does
nothing but make the reader aware someone is writing the story, thereby
interrupting the fictive dream.
2. Info Dumps
Don’t use dialog to provide info
dumps. In other words, don’t have characters telling each other things they
both already know. Real people don’t do that and neither should your
characters. Find other ways to deliver necessary info and not via dialog. Also,
it just sounds plain dumb… kind of like one moron talking to another moron.
3. Use “Said” for Your Dialogue Tag
Verbs, 99.9% of the Time
This is very important. The word
“said” has been used so often over the millennia, that it’s no longer seen as a
word by readers, but almost as a form of nonintrusive punctuation. As a word it’s become invisible.
Using said for just about
all of your tags allows the dialogue to work unimpeded and won’t make the
reader aware that a writer is at work, which they’ll realize when they start
seeing synonyms for said. Using other synonyms is a red flag to editors
who realize they’re reading the work of an amateur and one who hasn’t kept up
on the conventions of contemporary fiction.
Those synonyms also include verbs like
asked, replied, answered and the like. The reader sees clearly that it’s a question or in reply
to a question by the punctuation used and/or from the content or context of the
dialogue. About the only exceptions to the word said are verbs such as whispered,
shouted, yelled and the like.
And whatever you do, don’t use
dialogue tag verbs that are physically impossible! Don’t have your speaker chortling words, for instance.
Try to chortle a sentence out loud and you’ll see what I mean.
And don’t feel you have to use
dialogue tags for every speaker, every time. Use emotional clues, physical
clues, the context of the speech to identify the speaker as much as possible.
But, do be sure the speaker’s identity is clear. There’s nothing worse than a reader in the midst of a
longish exchange who suddenly doesn’t know who spoke the last line and has to
stop and backtrack to figure out who’s speaking!
4. Use Contractions in Your
Character’s Speech
Nobody speaks with perfect speech,
not even Princeton professors. We all use contractions in speech. Nothing sounds
more wooden than perfect speech. The only exception is when you intend to
portray the character as a pedant, but I’d be careful even there. Such a
character will quickly become boring.
5. Don’t Phoneticize Regional or
Cultural or Racial Dialects.
The days are long gone from when
Mark Twain phoneticized Jim’s speech. Not done these days. Today, we use an
occasional idiomatic word or occasional particular syntax to convey a
particular dialect. A word or two used judiciously is all that’s needed. The
reader will fill in the blanks in their minds.
6. Don’t Include Housekeeping
Details and Minutia in Your Dialogue
In phone conversations, for
example, only include the one or two sentences that are important to the story.
Don’t include the character dialing, or answering or hanging up the phone. Just
end the conversation and only include the truly important dialogue and
summarize the rest.
We just don’t need to see the
“hellos” and “goodbyes” or the mundane social chatter some calls include. And
then end the conversation with a bit of important speech. Don’t show them
hanging up. As readers and people who talk on
phones often, we kind of know they hung up the phone…
7. Read Authors Who are Renowned
for Their Dialogue
Read those writers who are
acclaimed for their superlative dialogue. Folks like Elmore Leonard.
There’s a reason they have these reputations. Study what they do that makes
their dialogue come alive and incorporate those techniques into your own
efforts.
There are many other techniques to
creating great dialogue, but space restricts how many I can cover here. See you
tomorrow for Part Two!
Hope these help!
And, thanks, Kristen, for letting
me visit. It was a gas!
Blue skies,
Les Edgerton
Thanks, Les! And we will see you again
tomorrow for Part TWO. I love hearing from you guys, so please ask questions or
give us your thoughts. Maybe some suggestions for other authors who have
amazing dialogue or just a quick THANK YOU to Les for stopping by to help.
ALSO, stay posted because Les is an
instructor for WANA International and will soon be offering classes about how
to begin your novel--HOOK them in and NEVER LET GO. I will announce when his
class is open for registration.
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