dialogue

Quick Link: How Do I Make Dialogue Meaningful?

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Dialogue is one area that I struggle with. It is important for a story but you want it to have a purpose. Just in time to practice before NaNoWriMo Hyu-Wai Loucks, posting at Elizabeth Spann Craig, has some great thoughts to help you manage your dialogue.

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How Do I Make Dialogue Meaningful?

by Hyu-Wai Loucks

Because the best dialogue is done barefoot.

One of the most difficult aspects of writing a novel, or any narrative for that matter, is striking the delicate balance between dialogue and description. While insight into a character’s thoughts, emotions, and perceptions help shape the audience’s understanding of the character’s mind, dialogue aids readers in developing an accurate and full understanding of the character’s complete self. It offers an external glimpse into how a character moves, speaks, and reacts to the world surrounding them; dialogue is a character’s internal motives coming to life. Even so, it is difficult to develop a meaningful flow of speech which progresses the plot, rather than stagnating it.

Countless times while I have been writing, I will be immersed in the world of my own mind, putting down the situations being played out in my head by pen to paper, only later realizing that my dialogue loops in circles, or even worse, straying entirely from the point I am trying articulate.

How can I prevent this????

Read the full post on Elizabeth Spann Craig.

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

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Quick Links: 5 Tips for Editing Dialogue

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Over at Writers Digest, Arlene F. Marks has some great tips about writing and editing Dialogue. Check it out and tell us if you have any handy tips for managing dialogue.

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5 Tips for Editing Dialogue

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"Frank, do you have clean underwear on?" "Depends"
Matilda was curious. “Frank, do you have clean underwear on?” she asked inquisitively. “Depends” he replied curtly.

Here’s a guest post from Arlene F. Marks, author of From First Word to Last: The Craft of Writing Popular Fiction and The Accidental God, in which she shares her tips for editing dialogue. If you have a great idea and would like to contribute a guest post of your own, please send an e-mail to robert.brewer@fwcommunity.com with the subject line: Guest Post Idea for No Rules.

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Dialogue is the writer’s equivalent of the Swiss army knife. What other storytelling tool lets you reveal character, advance the plot, establish the setting, and deliver a theme, all at the same time? Well-written dialogue is a fast and easy read. Ensure that the character conversations in your story will hum right along by catching and repairing the following “dialogue fumbles” at the editing stage:

1. Wooden dialogue

It’s important to read dialogue aloud while editing it, because the words you put into your character’s mouths need to sound natural and spontaneous coming back out. At the same time, unlike real people who often stammer and repeat themselves when conversing, fictional characters are expected to “talk edited.” Here are two culprits in particular that make dialogue sound stiff and rehearsed:

Radio talk: In the heyday of radio drama, scriptwriters peppered the actors’ dialogue with narrative details to help the listener picture each scene more clearly:

“Lucinda, why are you raising that hammer over your head?”

As you go through your manuscript, remove or revise speeches in which a character is doubling as narrator.

Unnecessary naming: Unless there is a good reason for doing so, including the name of the person being addressed can also make dialogue sound wooden:

“Congratulations on your promotion, Bob.”

“Thanks, Janice.”

“Are you planning to celebrate with your wife, Bob?”

“Yes, Janice. We’re going out for dinner.”

As you read through scenes of dialogue, be alert to excessive or unnecessary naming and trim it out.

 

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Link: Why Everything You Think You Know About Dialogue Is Wrong

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Paula sighed as she glanced at the blank screen. “This introduction on dialogue won’t write itself…”  “Meow” said Haldol the cat, while attempting to climb into Paula’s lap for the umpteenth time. “Thank goodness John Yeoman from The Wicked Writing Blog is here to assist writers with great points on dialogue” Paula cheerfully exclaimed! “Meow.” This time Haldol succeeded in climbing into her lap where he settled down purring.

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Why Everything You Think You Know About Dialogue Is Wrong

by John Yeoman

Friday, May 20, 2016

Truly brilliant dialog, if you speak cat.
Truly shattering dialog, if you speak cat.

‘Dialogue’ is what happens when two or more people talk to each other. Correct? No. Dialogue is almost any speech act. Consider monologue. The dictionary defines it as a long speech by one person, usually boring. Yet it’s still dialogue.

Why? Somebody is listening and responding, if only to tune it out.

But suppose nobody is listening? Maybe it’s ‘interior monologue’ – a person is thinking privately, by themselves, to themselves.

That’s still dialogue.

How come? When we think, somebody listens. Always.

Don’t they? At least, our alter ego does.

Virtually all forms of speech or thought are dialogue because each speech act implies – to use a stuffy academic term – an ‘interlocutor’. That’s another person or entity, imaginary or not, who is inherent in the act.

I said ‘virtually all forms’. If a radio, unattended, broadcasts a speech in an empty desert is that still dialogue? Probably not (short of a sentient camel). But the theory holds, in principle.

Sorry for that pedantic Definition of Terms. Are you still with me? Then we’re sharing a dialogue! Yes, the theory does work.

How can we use these truisms – boring, I agree – to write better fiction?

Once we realize that ‘dialogue’ is, in essence, almost any speech act we are free to experiment with its forms. Let me show you just ten ways, but there’s no limit to them:

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Links: How to Study Subtitles to Write Better Dialogue

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Andrew J. Stillman, guest blogging over at The Write Practice, has a great writing exercise to improve your dialogue that you can do while watching your favorite show! 

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How to Study Subtitles to Write Better Dialogue

Oh TV, is there anything you can't do...
Oh TV, is there anything you can’t do…

by Andrew J. Stillman

What if I told you that you can become a better writer and watch your favorite shows and movies at the same time—and all you have to do is turn on the subtitles?

Most writers agree that we should learn from watching film. How can we, as writers, study it to create more fluid and in-depth scenes?

We can start with the dialogue.

How Film Can Teach You to Write Great Dialogue

Many writers struggle with dialogue. We wonder how to make it real, make it believable, and make it stand out.

Of course, the words characters speak are vital. But as we get lost in finding our voice, we sometimes forget that it’s not only what characters say that matters: how they say it is just as important.

One of the great advantages of film is that the delivery is built right into the dialogue. Studying movies with the subtitles on can help you learn how to write powerful words and engaging scenes.

Try it yourself: choose one of your favorite television shows or movies and throw on the subtitles. As the scene progresses, pay attention to the intonation, tones, and expressions the actors use to convey their lines.

The subtitles alone often look boring or bland, but paying attention to the way the lines are delivered can help you fine-tune dialogue of your own.

3 Steps to Practice Writing Great Dialogue

Let’s try an example together using the show Gilmore Girls (expected to re-launch on Netflix before the end of the year, just in case you didn’t know), which is known for its clever dialogue.

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Writing 101: Let’s Talk Dialogue

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Working on my dialog was my Nanowrimo 2015 focus, beyond writing the 50k words of course. I applaud every author that can manage dialog. After a while I start going a little crazy because how many times had I used the word “said”. Kaitlin Hillerich address “said” fatigue among other important dialog points in her article on Inks And Quills. What are your strategies for dealing with dialog?

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Writing 101: Let’s Talk Dialogue

"I think we should sell everything and invest in racing llamas."
“I think we should sell everything and invest in racing llamas.”

~ Kaitlin Hillerich

Dialogue is a tricky little beast when you’re a new writer. From punctuation to making it sound realistic, there’s a lot that can go wrong. When done well, dialogue can be a true delight for the reader and make a story shine. But mess it up and, well…it can really put a damper on things.

Today, we’re going to look at some dialogue basics to get you started off on the right track. If you’re confused about punctuation, speech tags, or the difference between spoken and written dialogue fear not–keep reading and we’ll tackle them together!

Behind on the Writing 101 series? Click to catch up! Part 1 (The Fundamentals of Story), Part 2 (Writing Term Glossary), Part 3 (Creating a Successful Hero & Villain), and Part 4 (Unraveling Tension, Conflict, and Your Plot).

What is Dialogue?

Dialogue is the spoken words between two or more characters, which is signaled with quotation ” ” marks. Most of your story will consist of dialogue. Dialogue not only moves your story along, but it also helps reveal who your characters are.

However, dialogue in fiction is not the same as dialogue in real life. When we write dialogue for a story we are actually creating an artistic imitation of real speech.

Why? Because no one would want to read real-life dialogue. In real speech, people stammer, um and uh, talk over and interrupt each other, get distracted, forget what they were going to say, bring up random stuff, chit chat about the weather… Trust me, no one wants to read that! It would be a mess.

To really see the difference between real and written dialogue, take a look at this piece of dialogue I’ve transcribed from an interview with Doctor Who actor David Tennant:

Read the full post on Inks And Quills

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

I Smell Your Rookie Moves, New Writers

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This post by Chuck Wendig originally appeared on his terribleminds site on 8/26/15. Warning: strong language.

I am occasionally in a place where I read work by new writers. Sometimes this is at cons or conferences. Sometimes it’s in the sample of work that’s free online or a fragment from a self-published work. Sometimes I just roll over in my bed and there it is, a manuscript by a new writer, haunting me like a vengeful incubus.

I would very much like to yell at you.

Now, listen, before I begin the part where I scream myself hoarse about the things you’re doing wrong, I want you to understand that we’ve all been there. We’ve all done it poorly. Doing it poorly is the first step to, well, not doing it poorly. I have written my fair share of HOT PUKE, and it’s just one of those things you have to purge from your system.

(Though here we also enter into another caveat: HOT PUKE is not actually a delicacy. You do that shit over in the corner, barfing it up in the potted plant so nobody sees until morning. You don’t yak up today’s lunch in the middle of the living room and then do jazz-hands over it: “Ta-da! The Aristocrats!” What I’m trying to say is, your rookie efforts are not automatically worth putting out into the world, especially if those efforts cost readers money to access them. The mere existence of a story is not justification for its publication. Don’t make people give you cash for your inferior efforts. Get it right before you ask money to reward you for getting it wrong.)

Here, then, are some things I have noticed in drafts by new or untested writers, and these are I think standard errors — and they’re ones also that tested authors sometimes stumble into, so peruse this list, see if you have stropped up against any of these sins like a randy tomcat, and then fix your business. Get it? Got it? Good?

Let the yelling commence.

 

Read the full post, which includes many specific writerly mistakes with illustrative examples, on terribleminds.

 

The Seven Deadly Sins of Dialogue

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This post by Susan DeFreitas originally appeared on Lit Reactor on 2/23/15.

Ursula K. Le Guin has said that scenes with dialogue are where emotion happens in fiction. According to the emerging body of neuroscience on fiction, such scenes are also where fiction most clearly approximates actual lived experience, that “vivid and continuous dream” of which John Gardner spoke.

That may help to explain why readers love dialogue—some so much so that they’ll skip right over your meticulously written descriptions and summaries to get straight to the goods: people talking to each other.

But dialogue is also a place where things can easily go south. As an editor, I have become far too acquainted with all the ways that otherwise competent writers can absolutely hamstring their fiction—precisely at the point it counts most.

 

1. Said Bookisms

Say what you will about the Bible, The Prince, and Fifty Shades of Grey—as far as I’m concerned, one of the documents most destructive to the project of civilization is Said Is Dead. Starting in the eighties and continuing to this day, many elementary-school English teachers have seen fit to foist this guide upon their hapless students, to the detriment of us all.

In it, the writer is instructed to throw over plain old said and asked for such highfalutin alternatives as queried, snarled, intoned, and god help us, even cajoled. Which, after all, are more specific verbs, and they help us avoid repetition. So what’s the problem?

 

Read the full post on Lit Reactor.