Re-Post: Dialogue vs. Non-Dialogue

Writers know about basic dialogue punctuation. Right?

I was shocked to find that in my advanced fiction workshop, several students consistently failed to use proper punctuation and capitalization.

I almost cried.

I know everyone has to start somewhere, but I had higher expectations for an advanced writing class at a university.

So, I feel obligated to include this link from Fiction Factor. Aside from punctuation, definitions, tags, and simple dos and don'ts, it includes a few simple tips for avoiding repetitive tags and a few other things.

Once you have the basics down, I'd recommend this Fiction Factor's post, which has several pointers that I thought were helpful. One tip they mentioned (that I tend to forget) is:

Unspoken dialogue can, at times, be the most powerful dialogue of all. When a character says the opposite of what she means, or says nothing at all, just looks away. This too is effective dialogue.

There's also an invaluable list of body language cues, divided by emotion, that I have to include. It's too good not to.

• Angry? Fisted hands. Narrowed eyes. Stiff posture. Clenched jaw. Slashed mouth. Jerky movements. Rough handling of objects.
• Happy? Smile. Wink. Twinkle in eyes.
• Relaxed? Sprawl. Loose-limbed.
• Crowded? Back up. Create distance.
• Interested? Lean forward, draw closer.
• Questioning? Cock head. Widen eye. Elevate voice. Hands lifted, palm up. Hiked shoulders.
• Nurturing? Clip a loose thread. Pat.
• Tender? Stroke, touch, lips parted.
• Nervous? Pace, scratch, rub your arms.
• Stunned? Wide-eyed. Stone still. Hand to chest, fingers spread. Gaping jaw.
• Sad? Tears. Listless. Hand curled to chest. Shoulders slumped. Fetal position.
• Trusting? Palm open.
• Lying? Avoid eye contact. Dipped chin.

Just be careful not to Over Describe. (Thanks Bookshelf Muse!)

• More on Dialogue

Write Better Dialogue

I've had stories come to me (via Musefire-like inspiration) in two ways.

1) A really cool situation and/or plot twist comes to mind
2) A really cool character comes to mind

If the character comes first, usually it'll be in dialogue form. Lines of dialogue form in my brain like I'm having a thought about what I want to eat for lunch.

But if I start with a premise, it's harder to develop characters that are real. And dialogue is part of that.

So of course, I did some digging.

10 Creative Techniques for Creating Character-Specific Dialogue come from Emlyn Chand and compiles a list of ways to personalize a character's dialogue, from specific vocabulary choices to catch phrases.

Have you ever read over your work and said something like My Dialogue Sucks? The Creative Penn comes to the rescue by reminding us of the Functions of Dialogue and showing us how to keep the reader from getting bored or distracted.

How to Write Effective Dialogue in Your Novel talks about the ever-important beats: small units that have an action and a reaction. I personally found it was easier to craft good beats while writing longhand. But that's another post.

Writing Pointers from Pennwriters -- Dialogue

A few little things I learned about dialogue and point of view.

• It's okay to zoom in and out of your character/change POV as long as it's for a good reason. (To show a character's thoughts, for example.) Your english teacher would tell you it's not technically correct, but this is fiction.
• Cut junk talk like "Okay", "Fine", or "Yes"
• Avoid having a character answer a question directly. It's a great way to increase tension.
• Read it ALOUD!
• Try to make your characters sound unique. You should be able to take a random line of dialogue out and know who the speaker is without dialogue tags.

Dialogue: New and Old Links

So here's my last-minute post on dialogue. (Sorry this post is so late. I ran my first half marathon this morning!)

The First Novels Club has my favorite article on dialogue. They analize each part of dialogue, give a tip, and then show by example. Good stuff.

Next, some oldies but goodies:

Some people go overboard with dialogue. Author2Author lists a few things to be aware of when writing dialogue. One big thing to remember: Dialogue slows pacing!

A while back I posted on the Functions of Dialogue. While this post from The Blood-Red Pencil is similar, I love the fresh perspective. It's worth a quick read.

And a few tips from yours truly:
To use dialogue to create conflict, you can list what each character in the scene wants and try to find two things that don't match up. For example, Penny wants to wear red, but her husband wants her to wear black.

This can also help you throw in some conflict. For example, maybe Penny's red dress is dirty and the black dress isn't warm enough for the weather. Suddenly, the two of them are scrambling to make their preferred color dress wearable. (Penny throws her red dress in the wash, while her husband looks for a black shawl to put over the backless dress.)

Remeber to use dialogue to show conflict. If the dialogue isn't related to the main conflict in the scene, it doesn't need to be in there! Dialogue always moves the story forward!

Revising a Rough Draft (Really Rough) Part 2

What's a common word that does little to enhance your story?

It.

So, Get Rid of It and replace it with something useful. Remember, every word in your book needs to pull double or even triple duty if you can manage it.

For example, an easy way to do this is through dialogue. With good dialogue, you can 1) further the plot, 2) increase tension, and 3) show character. Here's an excerpt from a draft of Shadow Bound (you may have seen this before):

"Rachel?" Lisa raised an eyebrow. "What are you staring at?" She turned, dragging one leg over so she straddled the bench. "Ooh, he’s cute."

I braved another look. He was attractive, but his stare made me uncomfortable.

"Too bad he’s taken," she added, twisting back around.

"What do you mean?"

She snorted and gave a sarcastic half-smile. "Well, I don’t think that’s his sister."

I peeked at him again. There was no one with him. On the next bench though, a couple was making out. "No, not him."

Lisa scanned the park again, this time pointing to a man walking his dog. "That old guy?" Her eyes narrowed. "Rachel, are you okay?"

Here, we have dialogue. It pushes the plot forward by showing that Lisa isn't able to see what Rachel sees. (Trust me. It does.) This snippet is needed in order to move the story in the right direction. But what else does it do?

We see that Lisa is curious (nosy), and we here her voice. We see her wry sense of humor. There's also conflict here for Rachel. She has to decide to either explain what she sees, lie, or come up with a way to change the subject. We also get a little bit of setting (which I hadn't intended, but hey, I'll take it.)

See what I mean by double duty? Any time you can get two (or six) birds with one stone, do it. Look for opportunities like this. It makes for a page-turner.

Here's a link back to Revising a Rough Draf Part 1 and Part 3.

Dialogue Part 3

Some people go overboard with dialogue. Kate from Author2Author lists a few things to be aware of when writing dialogue including the big one: Dialogue slows pacing!

I recently posted on the Functions of Dialogue. While this post from The Blood-Red Pencil is similar, I love the delivery of this information and the fresh perspective. I think it's worth a read, even if you know the functions of dialogue.

And a few last minute tips:
To use dialogue to create conflict, you can list what each character in the scene wants and try to find two things that don't match up. For example, Penny wants to wear red, but her husband wants her to wear black. This can also help you throw in some interesting situational conflict. For example, maybe Penny's red and black dresses are dirty or stolen or not warm enough for the weather. Suddenly, the two of them are scrambling to make their preferred color dress wearable. (Penny throws her red dress in the wash, while her husband looks for a black shawl to put over the sleeveless dress.)
...Or something. This is just an example off the top of my head. :)

If you find your dialogue is stiff or unnatural sounding, put yourself or your best friend in the character's shoes. What would you say if someone told you XYZ?
If that doesn't work, try listening in on other people's conversation. As politely and discretely as possible. (Note: ONLY do this if your dialogue is too formal. It's not ideal if your dialogue lacks conflict.)

Any other tips? What do you do when your dialogue is stuck?


More on Dialogue

The Basics of Dialogue (and Non-Dialogue)

Writers know about basic dialogue punctuation. Right?


I was shocked to find that in my advanced fiction workshop, several students consistently failed to use proper punctuation and capitalization. I almost cried. I know everyone has to start somewhere, but I had higher expectations for an advanced writing class at a university with such a great writing program.



So, I feel obligated to include this link from Fiction Factor. Aside from punctuation, definitions, tags, and simple dos and don'ts, it includes a few simple tips for avoiding repetitive tags and a few other things.

If you think you have these basics down, I'd recommend you skip straight to Fiction Factor's post, which has several reminders that I thought were helpful. One tip they mention (that I tend to forget) is:

Unspoken dialogue can, at times, be the most powerful dialogue of all. When a character says the opposite of what she means, or says nothing at all, just looks away. This too is effective dialogue.

There's also an invaluable list of body language cues, divided by emotion, that I have to include. It's too good not to.

• Angry? Fisted hands. Narrowed eyes. Stiff posture. Clenched jaw. Slashed mouth. Jerky movements. Rough handling of objects.
• Happy? Smile. Wink. Twinkle in eyes.
• Relaxed? Sprawl. Loose-limbed.
• Crowded? Back up. Create distance.
• Interested? Lean forward, draw closer.
• Questioning? Cock head. Widen eye. Elevate voice. Hands lifted, palm up. Hiked shoulders.
• Nurturing? Clip a loose thread. Pat.
• Tender? Stroke, touch, lips parted.
• Nervous? Pace, scratch, rub your arms.
• Stunned? Wide-eyed. Stone still. Hand to chest, fingers spread. Gaping jaw.
• Sad? Tears. Listless. Hand curled to chest. Shoulders slumped. Fetal position.
• Trusting? Palm open.
• Lying? Avoid eye contact. Dipped chin.

More on Dialogue

Dialogue: Make it Matter

Dialogue is difficult for a number of reasons. Some people struggle with making dialogue sound realistic. Others struggle with voice. Still others (myself included) have trouble making dialogue mean something.

I recently had some of my work critiqued. I mean nit-picked. And the biggest problem with my opening scene? Sure, the dialogue was realistic, but it had nothing to do with the conflict that was happening. My two characters were talking about pretty much nothing while something important was going on. Basically, one character was unaware of anything unusual and the other was trying to keep it that way.

I really struggled with that one. To fix it, I put the two characters against each other, one on either side of an imaginary line. (That line: knowing what was going on.) Character A knew there was a ghost nearby, Character B didn't. So, how does that affect dialogue? Character B wanted to know what Character A was staring at, what made her facial expression change, why she was acting different all of a sudden. She wanted to know why Character A kept looking at an "empty" bench.

With these changes, and a few others, I was able to make the dialogue relevant to the scene. The dialogue was tied to the conflict, and was actually useful, because it built tension. That's the key to fiction, isn't it? Tension and conflict.

So, my advice? Figure out what your scene is about. What are you trying to accomplish? What is the main conflict for that particular scene? Make sure your dialogue supports your scene's purpose.

More on Dialogue

Link: 6 Functions of Dialogue

I found a new website (new for me anyway) belonging to author Ellen Jackson. The particular article I found was so straight-forward and refreshing, I had to share. You can read the entire article here.

This article discusses the SIX FUNCTIONS OF DIALOGUE (she gives more detail and examples in the article, if you're interested.)
Dialogue reveals character.
Dialogue gives necessary information.
Dialogue moves the plot along.
Dialogue can show what one character thinks of another character.
Dialogue can reveal conflict and build tension
Dialogue can show how someone feels

I had no idea, but it makes total sense. Dialogue serves these purposes. Knowing this will help add variety to my conversation, while maintaining conflict. I'm excited!