Writers Tips

Dialogue

Dialogue is action. It can provide a break from narrative and make for a fast paced section of story telling. If done correctly, you can impart with a lot of information upon your reader that might be boring to read otherwise. However, be careful not to make the dialogue phoney otherwise the reader will catch you out immediately. For example:

‘Hey bill, lets go and kill the old witch in the haunted house,’ Frank said.
‘Yes, lets do it. You remember how to do it though right?’ Bill asked.
‘As you know, according to the scroll we found yesterday in your Mum’s cellar, we need to get some holy water, mix it with garlic and then rub it into her hair.’ Frank responded.
‘That’s right.’ Bill agreed.

See how it sounds phoney because of the information dump in the conversation? Sometimes it is totally plausible to use this kind of trick. However, here we know that both characters already understand how to kill the witch, but they insist on speaking it out loud for the benefit of the reader.

Whist we have an example to hand, it is also worth talking about speech tags. Note how every line spoken by the characters above is tagged. In this case it is superfluous because the reader should be able to work out who is talking to whom from the dialogue. It may be acceptable for the first Frank said to remain, but the other tags can be cut. Additionally, too many synonyms for said can get in the way and distract the reader. Frank said is simple enough and is invisible to the reader. They are allowed to concentrate on what is being said. Refrain from constantly thinking up new ways to say said (such exclaimed, responded, hissed, whispered etc) as you will rapidly overload the reader. Besides, you will soon run out of alternatives.

You should always have a reason for including dialogue in your text. The reader doesn’t want to listen to a boring conversation between old friends. It should hold interest for the audience as well as for the players in your story. Possible reasons for including dialogue may be:

 For the main character to persuade another to perform a particular action
 Explain how a character is feeling
 Tell us a characters motivation for doing something
 Show us how two characters react to each other

There are many other examples, but when you write dialogue ask yourself why you are doing so.

And remember, as discussed in the repetition section--Do not repeat information in dialogue that has already been disclosed in previous narrative.