by
Dr. Anastasia Trekles
You may have heard lots of advice on the
subject of dialogue-writing. Indeed, you may have sought out all of that advice
because it’s just so darn tricky sometimes to capture your characters’ voices
in text. After all, it’s tough to capture the subtleties of language through
the written word alone, so as writers, we often compensate by throwing in
little tidbits to help the reader see the nuances of tone, inflection, and
diction along with the words the characters say. There are lots of ways to do
this well, and some ways to . . . well, overdo it. Let’s look at three basic tips
you might try to practice.
1.
We don’t always speak grammatically.
Have you ever noticed the way people actually talk to each other? Our sentences run on and on, and
sometimes they simply don’t end at all. We string phrases together in odd ways,
and unless you’re the Queen Mum, you have probably thrown in some outright
grammatically incorrect colloquialisms when talking to your friends from time
to time. This is normal in today’s American English-speaking, Facebook-using,
140-character Tweeting society (and it holds true in lots of other languages,
too).
However, many times when we write, we
feel we must adhere to standard grammatical conventions, even in dialogue. This
isn’t wrong, of course, but, your characters definitely don’t need to sound
like the Queen Mum, and in fact, you can build a lot of characterization into
the way they speak.
Consider these two lines:
·
“I’m going to the store. I need to get out of
here for a while.”
·
“I’m going to the store . . . got to get out of
this place.”
They both convey the same essential
idea. But the second item arguably has more punch just based on word choice and
the use of ellipsis to hold the phrases together. Often in writing dialogue, an
ellipsis can emphasize speech that is trailing off, indicating the person may
be “daydreaming,” feeling out of sorts, sad, or searching for the right words
in a difficult situation. Other helpful punctuation you might not use that
often includes the em-dash and the semicolon, such as:
·
“They didn’t state the reason – at least, not to me.”
·
“I miss my kids so much; they were my whole life.”
Note that while these tools are
available, don't feel like you have to use them all the time.
Too many dashes, ellipses, and semicolons can make for a difficult read.
2.
You don’t always have to announce the speaker.
As mentioned in last week’s blog post,
dialogue tags aren’t always necessary. Many writers feel obliged to ensure we
know who is speaking, each time they say something, but typically, as long as
we have context, you don’t have to tell the reader over and over again. For
example, when you have only two speakers in an exchange, once the order of
their speaking is established, there’s no point in continuing to say that he
said this and she said that. Instead, you can get straight to it, and the reader
is unlikely to be confused.
David and Martha looked at each other as
David put Martha’s hand in his.
“Look, I’m really sorry,” he told
her, trying hard to maintain eye contact.
“Well, you really hurt my feelings.
Why would you do that?”
“I just . . . I wasn’t thinking. Can you forgive me?”
“I don’t know – let me think about
it for a while.” She snagged her hand back and rested it into her lap.
Note the avoidance of adverbs in this
exchange as well. Sometimes we use them to help emphasize how a speaker says
something (i.e., “he said passionately”). This is all well and good but again,
there is such a thing as too much.
3.
Pay attention to diction – but don’t go off the
deep end.
Word choice, slang usage, and dialect
can help place your characters within a historical or geographic context. However,
a character’s use of diction doesn’t have to be relegated to whether he or she
says “ain’t” or “isn’t,” and in fact, you can make a character’s voice very
difficult (or even offensive)
to read if you try too hard. Something as simple as using shorter sentences or
simpler vocabulary for a more direct, rude, or less educated speaker might be
just as effective as trying to convey an accent or heap on the slang.
Consider To Kill a Mockingbird. American Southern diction is found in much
of the dialogue, such as this early statement from Jem:
"Shoot no wonder, then," said Jem,
jerking his thumb at me. "Scout yonder's
been readin' ever since she was born, and she ain't even started to school yet. You
look right puny for
goin' on
seven."
For
those of us not used to this speaking style, it can be difficult to fully
understand in one read. On the other hand, we also get an instant and vibrant
picture of young Jem based on his words alone. You don’t even have to have read
the book to get something more than just what was said from that one line of
dialogue. So, in this case, Harper Lee’s use of diction is very effective.
Yours can be, too; just be mindful that your word choice is not so alien to the
reader that they need a slang dictionary to understand your work.
There
are many other ways to refine your dialogue,
of course, and there is no perfect science to it. As long as the moods and
personalities of your characters shine through when they speak, you can play
with language and structure as much as you like. Practice. Have fun with it. In
fact, the best advice that anyone ever gave me was very simple: read it out
loud to yourself. If you can hear your characters leaping out of the page, and
they don’t sound like they’re in a bad B-movie, then you’re on the right track.
__________
Dr.
Anastasia Trekles is a clinical professor of education and English at Purdue
University Northwest. Somewhere amongst the various academic works she has
published, she also has a few works of fiction available, including her
recently released novel, Core, available
at http://www.zelda23publishing.com.
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