This is the last post specifically on dialogue for a while, but next week we'll be focusing on character. Characterisation and dialogue are strongly linked as your character should develop their own voice and personality set, which will be reflected in their dialogue.
In this post, I am going to be sharing a few more of the best tips I have received and employ in my writing.
1. They said.
The gist of this is show don't tell. Using taglines such as 'they said forcefully' or 'they postulated' aren't very subtle. They draw the reader's attention away from the speech in the way that 'they said' doesn't. Your character's dialogue or actions should tell the reader how they feel, and the reader will feel more involved having to work it out themselves.
But also remember you can omit taglines when two characters are having a conversation, otherwise it can get repetitive. Think back to Terry Bisson's story Meat: he doesn't use any taglines, but we are still able to follow the conversation!
2. Build relationships.
Think about how people act around different people. Your body language and speech patterns change depending on who you are with: family members, best friends, colleagues or someone new. Your character will use different types of speech in these situations.
They might be more formal or shy around a stranger, using complete and well formed sentences. They might be calm and relaxed around friends and family, using slang and shorter sentences, or they might ramble (though this can be boring for your audience). You can easily show your character's relationships or underlying tensions with another character by how they speak and act around them.
3. Be careful with background.
In television programmes, there is a tendency to dump information on the audience in the form of speech. This is because there is no internal monologue (generally speaking, of course) that you can play around with in a story. Don't make your speech clunky for the sake of giving the reader information. Your audience can work out a lot from subtle clues, or you could use a technique such as a prologue if you need to get this information out.
4. Avoid extended speech.
I have hinted at this before, but try to avoid extended speech! By this I mean long rambling stories: one character talking for a long time. How often do you see stories with a whole page of uninterrupted dialogue from one character? It isn't realistic or interesting to read.
In a normal conversation, you might try and tell a story over a long period of time, being cut off by other characters or a bad phone signal, etc. but is there a reason why they would be interrupted? Normally, you can distill a character's anecdote or rant down to a few key lines or topics, and use this instead.
5. Check yourself.
Obviously, the editing process is hugely important to any piece of writing, and I will be coming on to this in a little while (the month of June, if all goes to plan). It is really easy to edit dialogue, however, just by reading it aloud. If it is a conversation, you could even get someone else to read it with you.
This will tell you how easy it would be for the character to say, and you can make sure they wouldn't be tripping over words and whether their dialogue suits their personality. It should sound like a real conversation, despite it being distilled and controlled, and it should flow well.
As ever, make sure you are utilising your notebook to test your ideas. Your notebook is private and you never have to share it, so feel free to write anything and everything down, no matter how bad it sounds. The more you practice, the faster you will improve.
Happy writing!
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