WRITING DIALOGUE: MORE THAN TALKING HEADS

“Always get to the dialogue as soon as possible. I always feel the thing to go for is speed. Nothing puts the reader off more than a big slab of prose at the start."
 P.G. Wodehouse



I love dialogue in novels and short stories, even in nonfiction. It makes the people come alive for me. Perhaps that's why I wrote plays even before I wrote stories. Plays depend on dialogue to intensify and direct the action. The most important part of writing dialogue is capturing the real speech of real people, but without the flab.

What do I mean by the flab? Real conversation includes boring stops and starts, lots of "uh's" and "you know's"--repetitions and meaningless pauses. A good writer makes her dialogue give the impression of actual speech while moving the action along, creating suspense, or heightening tension.

If you want to know how real people talk, eavesdrop in restaurants, grocery stores, school hallways, in the elevator. It's a good way to keep up with the current slang and catch phrases. But don't quote what you hear verbatim because much of it will be boring.

Two people meet in the elevator:
"Hi, how are you?"
"I'm fine. Uh, fine. How are you?"
"Fine. Looks like rain, doesn't it?
"You think so. Yesterday was nice."

BORING!

Cut to the chase. Use dialogue with a purpose. Use dialogue to make your reader wonder about the character's motives. Use dialogue to illustrate something about the character's personality and view of the world.

Two people meet in an elevator:
"Good morning. How are you?"
"How do I look?"
"Sorry, I was just--"
"Sticking your nose in. Why don't you mind your own business."

Now this might be the start of a story. What it the elevator gets stuck or the next person who gets in is an attractive member of the opposite sex?

A character's speech tells a lot about him, where he comes from, his social class, his education, his aspirations. It changes with the times. Don't make your present day characters sound like they're from a movie filmed in the thirties, and don't have characters from the past use modern expressions.
Put words in your characters' mouths, but with a purpose, not just to make them chatter. WRITE ON!