Writer's Corner: Dialogue Tips #1

I thought I'd start giving a few tips to those who want to "become" authors.

Not every day but maybe once every week or week and a half.

Let's start with Dialogue since I think this is the easiest element of writing for most beginners—especially if you're the type who thinks snappy retorts to another but rarely says the sassy words aloud.

1. Dialogue should sound believable in keeping with the character.

Dialogue reflects the speaker's educational level, personality, attitudes, economic status, age, and sometimes ethnicity, country of origin, and country of residence. 

A young man from a traditionally wealthy background and educated at Harvard will probably speak differently than a young man with a high school diploma from a blue collar family in a small town. 

That small town young man will speak differently than a young man from an immigrant family where all members of the family work multiple jobs to attain the American dream.

2. Dialogue should sound like people actually speak.

Have you ever read a story in which characters do not speak in contractions? 

Someone running for her life does not scream, "Help! A man is chasing me. He has a knife. He is going to kill me." 

The woman would scream, "Help! A man's chasing me. He's got a knife. He's going to kill me."

Dialogue without contractions sounds stilted and formal. It drags the pace of a story. Readers won't find your story compelling. They can not because people in contemporary culture don't talk like that. Write the way real people speak.

Exceptions? Someone speaking without contractions to emphasize what they're saying. Example: "I said do not leave the house, young man. You are grounded!"

Or, if you're writing in a historical period when contractions weren't commonly used.

3. Dialogue should be written without regard to proper grammar if that's the way the character speaks.

People talk in fragments quite often. Don't they? Most people don't speak in grammatically correct sentences. So don't write dialogue like that. 

Example: "Are you going out?"

"Guess not."

"Grounded, huh? Bummer."

"Word."

I remember a retired teacher who wanted to be my proofreader. I gave her 10 pages.

She returned it with every contraction circled in red and the words for the contractions written out. Just in case I didn't know them, I guess.

I smiled and thanked her very much and assured her that was the only thing I needed proofread.

4. All dialogue should advance the story.

Dialogue should always move the story forward. It should reveal something about the internal landscape of the characters, the external perception of the characters, the protagonist's story goal, the conflict, or the plot. 

If dialogue is meaningless chit chat between characters, with nothing about the characters or the plot revealed, it should be cut.

5. There are two kinds of dialogue: internal and dialogue spoken aloud, and the two may be alike or may be different.

Example: A character raised in the South might say, "I'm fixing to go to town." But what if that character has trained herself through education and consciously eschewing the verbal habits of the South? Then she might say aloud, "I'm going to town." Of course, someone like that may speak well, but her internal dialogue may still reflect the verbal habits of her upbringing.

Takeaway Truth

I hope this helps those of you who are wannabe writers. If so, let me know by leaving a comment and tell me you want more of this type of post.

My thanks to the talented graphic artists and photographers who make their work free on Pixabay.

Image 1: Girls Happy Chat by Mircea from Pixabay.

Image 2: Girl Skirt Smile by GraphicMama-team from Pixabay.