Blogs by David A. Schwinghammer
Dialogue
9/3/2009 8:54:07 AM
Suggestions on how to write effective dialogue.
Dialogue
1. Write like people talk. They use fragments, run-ons sentences, they interrupt each other, they change the subject. A possible field trip for you would be to go to a place where there are a lot of people and listen: a football game, the mall, a bar. Bring along a notebook and try to get a sense of how they talk.
2. Warning: Most conversation is stultifying boring; remember you’re writing fiction. Use the technique, but not the content: “How are you?” “I’m fine; how are you?” “I’m good, got a new leaf blower.” Establishing a conflict or a goal for your character early on in your scene will help your dialogue. A wife will give her husband the needle; a friend will tease his buddy about his lack of success with women.
3. Avoid long speeches. Try to write in rhythm. Robert B. Parker is really good at this. See his Jesse Stone novels. It works like this. One, two: a character talks, the other responds or at least nods his head. Save long speeches for scenes where they are absolutely necessary. Dialogue sequences should also be fairly short to avoid boring the reader.
4. I had a critique partner once who thought she was breaking new ground by using dialogue at the expense of narration. If that’s your thing, write a play. Mix it up with sequences of narration, active description (lots of action verbs and imagery) dialogue and action. Action should be on the heavy side.
Move your main character through the scene. He can be driving a car or just walking down the street, but move him through the scene as much as possible. You don’t want any talking heads.
5. Tag lines (he said, she said). Use “said” rather than synonyms for it; occasionally you can use something like “responded” but don’t make a habit of it. Readers don’t notice “said” but they sure do notice when something else is used, like “rebutted.” Fiction is a dream state of sorts and any fancy work wakes your reader up.
6. Beats: This is the action that goes with the tag lone. “Hi,” she said, turning in her chair to look at him. Don’t overdo the beats; they become monotonous if you use them with every snatch of dialogue; they also slow the pace.
7. Avoid using too many participial phrases (“ing” words that follow the tag line.) One every now and then is okay, but avoid using them on the same page.
8. Pace. For a past pace don’t use tag lines. Your reader will be able to figure out who’s talking by what the various characters say. For a slower pace use more tags and beats, maybe lengthen your sentences a bit.
9. Summary dialogue (Used to quicken pace. Be sure you have a good reason to use it, like avoiding boring the reader with mundane conversation.
Some editors don’t like to see summary dialogue at all.
10. Avoid dialect unless you’re really good at it. I’ve been driving myself crazy lately with Irish dialect. I found a site on the Internet that translates English into Irish, but it sounds awfully British to me. Anyway, odd spelling bugs your readers. You can tell your readers the character spoke with an Irish brogue or use the occasional Irish word like “paypul” instead of people.
11. Interior monologue. Your character is talking to himself in his head. Editors don’t like it. It’s kind of hard not to use this, especially if you’re writing in author limited point of view, but avoid it as much as possible.
Dave Schwinghammer's novel, SOLDIER'S GAP, is available
on Amazon.com.
Post a Comment
More Blogs by David A. Schwinghammer
• The Sun Collective,, books review - Tuesday, February 2, 2021
• Winter Counts, book review - Tuesday, January 19, 2021
• American Gospel, book review - Friday, December 25, 2020
• Next to Last Stand - Sunday, December 13, 2020
• Anxious People - Saturday, November 14, 2020
• We Ride Upon Sticks - Saturday, September 26, 2020
• Camino Winds - Monday, August 10, 2020
• The Ice Cream Man and Other Stories - Monday, July 20, 2020
• Valentine, book review - Tuesday, July 7, 2020
• IF IT BLEEDS - Saturday, June 13, 2020
• Masked Prey - Monday, June 1, 2020
• Redhead by the Side of the Road - Friday, May 22, 2020
• The Mirror and the Light, book review - Sunday, May 17, 2020
• The Medal of Freedom - Monday, March 2, 2020
• The Topeka School - Monday, February 24, 2020
• Baby Trump - Tuesday, February 11, 2020
• Epstein - Thursday, July 11, 2019
• The Rapture - Friday, June 14, 2019
• The Trump Baby - Monday, June 3, 2019
• Tax cuts? - Monday, April 22, 2019
• Climate Change Deniers - Friday, March 15, 2019
• El Paso - Thursday, February 14, 2019
• Bill Maher and Comic Strip Characters - Tuesday, February 5, 2019
• Pence Letter - Saturday, January 12, 2019
• Trump Foundation to be Criminally Charged? - Friday, December 21, 2018
• LIES - Thursday, December 6, 2018
• Indicted Felons Elected to Congress - Sunday, November 11, 2018
• Jews, blacks and Mexicans are Individuals - Friday, November 2, 2018
• Demagogues Never Accept the Blame - Thursday, October 25, 2018
• Red Hats - Thursday, October 11, 2018
• Death Threats - Thursday, September 20, 2018
• Maria deaths and Trump's delusional response - Thursday, September 13, 2018
• Vote these Leeches out of office - Sunday, July 29, 2018
• The Red Hen Was Responding to Right Wing Provocation - Thursday, July 12, 2018
• Oprah's Focus Group - Thursday, March 1, 2018
• Human Wave Attack - Tuesday, May 30, 2017
• Trump's "advisers" - Wednesday, March 1, 2017
• Fake News - Tuesday, December 6, 2016
• No Judge Garland - Friday, December 2, 2016
• The Bill Hodges trilogy - Friday, November 18, 2016
• How About a Class on the Issues? - Sunday, November 13, 2016
• The FBI Director's Dubious E-mail Discovery - Saturday, October 29, 2016
• Don't Split the Ticket - Monday, October 24, 2016
• Why does the media keep Covering this Clown? - Sunday, October 16, 2016
• Household Income Up, By a Lot - Friday, September 16, 2016
• Let's All Grow Up - Monday, September 5, 2016
• What the Clinton Foundation Actually does. - Wednesday, August 24, 2016
• World Government - Thursday, August 18, 2016
• Elon Musk, Tesla Founder - Wednesday, June 29, 2016
• The Trump Charade - Thursday, March 24, 2016
• Why Don't Our Kids Know History and Geography? - Tuesday, February 23, 2016
• Our Irascible Congress - Monday, February 15, 2016
• Citizen Trump? - Monday, December 28, 2015
• Our Bloodiest War - Tuesday, March 17, 2015
• Greedheads - Monday, September 29, 2014
• Worst President Since WWII? - Monday, July 7, 2014
• Tenure for Teachers - Thursday, June 26, 2014
• Koch Brothers Interfere in Local Election - Thursday, May 8, 2014
• The Wolly Mammoth - Wednesday, April 23, 2014
• Fran Tarkenton's political ad - Friday, March 14, 2014
• Propaganda vs. Legitimate Commentary - Sunday, February 23, 2014
• Porn as a Political Issue - Tuesday, February 18, 2014
• Drive a Stake Through the Vampires' Hearts! - Thursday, February 6, 2014
• State of the Union Stem-winder - Wednesday, January 29, 2014
• Ted Cruz - Tuesday, November 19, 2013
• Here We Go Again. - Thursday, September 19, 2013
• Reality TV - Friday, August 9, 2013
• Common Sense - Tuesday, July 30, 2013
• Skunks Believe Everybody Else Stinks - Thursday, May 16, 2013
• The Morning After Pill - Friday, April 12, 2013
• What Would Thomas Jefferson Say? - Saturday, April 6, 2013
• Boneheads - Tuesday, March 12, 2013
• Why Benedict XVI Resigned - Sunday, February 17, 2013
• Gabby Giffords Testifies - Wednesday, January 30, 2013
• Newspaper Caters to Gun Owners - Wednesday, January 23, 2013
• Piers Morgan Deserves a Medal - Monday, December 24, 2012
• The Red Devil and the Blue Devil? - Tuesday, October 30, 2012
• Is the new TV show, REVOLUTION, fantasy? - Wednesday, September 26, 2012
• Fanatical Moslems Aren't That Different From Our Fanatics - Wednesday, September 12, 2012
• We Need the United Nations - Wednesday, July 18, 2012
• Stop Catering to People's Basest Instincts - Monday, July 9, 2012
• Concerned Women for America political ad - Saturday, June 23, 2012
• Independent Voters Need to Pick a Side - Monday, June 11, 2012
• Romney's Solyndra Appearance - Friday, June 1, 2012
• Single Issue Voters - Sunday, May 20, 2012
• Bully or Sociopath? - Saturday, May 12, 2012
• Tan-orexic Woman Poor Role Model - Friday, May 4, 2012
• So Far Right They're Almost Left - Sunday, April 22, 2012
• Dog Eat Dog - Sunday, April 15, 2012
• The Tea Party is Back! - Sunday, March 25, 2012
• Gas Prices - Tuesday, March 13, 2012
• "Doofus" - Tuesday, March 6, 2012
• Bon Iver Front Man Makes Important Statement - Thursday, February 16, 2012
• Contraception Blowback - Friday, February 10, 2012
• 800 vetoes! - Saturday, February 4, 2012
• Issa Hounding Holder over GOP program - Thursday, February 2, 2012
• Rick Santelli's Rant - Wednesday, January 18, 2012
• Corporate Raider President? - Thursday, December 1, 2011
• Is This the Best They Can Do? - Thursday, November 17, 2011
• Tea Party a non-violent Movement? - Sunday, October 30, 2011
• Wall Street Protests - Wednesday, October 5, 2011
• Three new stooges - Thursday, August 25, 2011
• Hypocrite enters the race - Friday, August 19, 2011
• Business Leaders Need to Speak Out - Saturday, July 30, 2011
• Rupert Murdoch and GOP Credibility - Monday, July 25, 2011
• Playing on the railroad tracks - Sunday, July 17, 2011
• Scapegoating - Sunday, June 19, 2011
• The Biggest Swindle in US history - Friday, June 3, 2011
• We're Still Here! - Saturday, May 21, 2011
• Improve education by improving teacher morale - Wednesday, May 4, 2011
• Tea Partiers Don't Know What They're Talking About - Thursday, April 28, 2011
• General Electric paid no corporate taxes - Tuesday, April 5, 2011
• The Flat Earth Society is at it again! - Thursday, March 17, 2011
• Crap fest - Thursday, March 3, 2011
• Egyptian Revolution - Tuesday, February 8, 2011
• Tucson - Wednesday, January 12, 2011
• Would you want a right-winger for a neighbor? - Friday, January 7, 2011
• Noah's Ark Museum - Monday, December 6, 2010
• Frick and Frack Shoot Off Their Mouths - Friday, November 5, 2010
• Enthusiam Gap - Wednesday, October 27, 2010
• Super Computer - Tuesday, October 19, 2010
• US Chamber of Commerce, conservative front group. - Wednesday, October 13, 2010
• 13 Reasons to vote the straight democratic ticket - Wednesday, September 1, 2010
• Breitbart Makes Segretti look like a choirboy - Wednesday, July 28, 2010
• House on Fire? - Thursday, June 17, 2010
• The Blame Game - Friday, May 28, 2010
• National Prayer Day - Tuesday, May 18, 2010
• Conservative psyche (continued) - Friday, May 14, 2010
• Conservative psyche - Wednesday, May 12, 2010
• Are you smarter than a half-term governor? - Wednesday, April 14, 2010
• Rewriting History - Monday, April 5, 2010
• Fred Phelps - Friday, April 2, 2010
• Combing the Daily Newspaper - Wednesday, March 17, 2010
• Noir - Friday, November 6, 2009
• Interview with SOLDIER'S GAP author continued - Tuesday, November 3, 2009
• More from SOLDIER'S GAP author - Thursday, October 29, 2009
• SOLDIER'S GAP author answers questions. - Thursday, October 22, 2009
• Everything you always wanted to know about writing a novel - Tuesday, October 20, 2009
• Manuscript conventions - Thursday, September 10, 2009
• Revision - Monday, September 7, 2009
• Dialogue - Thursday, September 3, 2009
• Scene cards - Tuesday, September 1, 2009
• Point of view - Thursday, August 27, 2009
• Plot - Tuesday, August 25, 2009
• Arnie's dream - Friday, August 21, 2009
• Rituals - Thursday, August 20, 2009
• Dressing Arnie Vogel - Tuesday, August 18, 2009
• Character sketch continued - Friday, August 14, 2009
• Character sketch - Thursday, August 13, 2009
• Characterization - Wednesday, August 12, 2009
• Scene outline - Tuesday, August 11, 2009
• Warm-up activity - Freewriting - Monday, August 10, 2009
• Warm-up activity - brainstorming - Sunday, August 9, 2009
• Warm-up techniques (clustering) - Saturday, August 8, 2009
|
