What is the purpose of dialog? How do you use dialogue?
What makes dialogue good?
What makes dialogue bad?
How do you go about writing dialogue?
How do you make the characters sound unique?
How do you fix bad dialogue?
Is there such a thing as too much dialogue? Too little?
When is dialogue most effective? Least effective?
What makes dialogue a great characterization tool?
As always, any topic that will help us improve our writing is fair game in these discussions, so feel free to bring up any of your writing concerns.
Let's talk.
The group No Whine, Just Champagne will meet here at this article for a live discussion about writing and the writing life on Thursday, June 28, 2012 at 9:00pm ET (8pm CT, 7pm MT, 6pm PT). Hope to see you, but if you can't make it then, the discussion will continue during the days afterward, so please stop by and tell us what you think.
recommend
Facebook
Twitter
bookmark 
print
Comments: 16
I worry I'm not doing it right or good enough, that my dialogue will seem forced or lame.
But it is essential. Imagine a movie without anyone talking. You might be able to pull off a book without dialogue that turns out good, but it wouldn't be easy, and you'll probably alienate a lot of readers.
Even worse, I would sit and agonize over the way my characters spoke. “He responded sparingly.” “She informed him haughtily.” He mumbled sadly.” Ouch.
Sometimes readers see things in the characters that I didn't purposely put there, and that's because they saw something different in the action than I did. All you need to do is make sure the action fits the words and the character, and readers do the rest.
Mary stuck a pose. "What do you think of my hat?"
Jan winced. "Couldn't you have found a more flattering color?"
If the wincing isn't attached, chances are you'd have to add a "said" to show who is talking. If it's only two people, of course, you can get by with a speaker tag every three or four lines. Any longer than that, and the reader has to pause in her reading to count lines.
Besides helping identify who is speaking, beats help set the stage, tell us about the character’s personality, and vary the rhythm of the dialogue. Overdone, the beats are as distracting as any other speaker attribute, so the secret is to pay attention to the flow. Do you want short snappy dialogue? Don’t use beats. Do you want to slow things down a bit, keep the dialogue from seeming too disembodied? Use a few beats.
It’s hard to write crowd scenes and keep each character identified without resorting to copious “said”s, but beats keep the scene moving and, if you use beats that are specific to your character, you make the various characters come alive.