In this article we'll consider:
The power of dialogue
Crafting realistic conversations
The one-two-three punch of subtext
Advancing the plot
Mastering dialogue tags
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As a novelist, you alone are the architect of your fictional worlds, crafting characters, settings and plotlines that captivate your readers. You have many tools at your disposal in your storytelling arsenal, but the most deadly and yet often underrated of these is dialogue.
When done right, dialogue can accomplish a host of tasks: evoke emotion, simmer with tension, create conflict, reveal character, advance the plot - sometimes all at once. But getting it right isn't as easy as it seems. Often dialogue is either underdone or overdone.
So let's take a look at how you can make best use of this deadly weapon.
The power of dialogue
Dialogue is never just characters talking to each other. It is always a window into their personalities, motivations, and relationships. Well-crafted dialogue reveals a character's quirks, fears, and desires in a way that narration alone cannot - and that's because spoken communication is the bridge between an individual's internal world and the very real, very scary external world.
A bridge with one or two missing bricks...
An unstable foundation...
And Semtex tucked behind the buttresses.
A character's inner life is much richer, more complex, and often darker than the outer life they present to the world. Sometimes, when a character is pushed to their limits, a little of that inner life reveals itself through dialogue and/or actions. In the meantime, that character will tread social behavioural norms with care and - as much as possible - constraint.
Knowing that what they say to another character could impact their relationship and status significantly, your character is unlikely to blurt out the things they really feel or that first come to mind. Usually they'll speak with caution, always aware of how their words might be received.
In other words, dialogue is largely a game of manipulation. Either keeping the peace, provoking a desired response from the other character, or... lighting a flame under a tank of gasoline!
Crafting realistic conversations
When it comes to your character's voice, authenticity is key. Dialogue works best when it strikes a balance between reflecting how people speak in everyday life, but minus the umms, uhhs and random changes of direction; or at least keeping them to a minimum and relevant.
The cadence, vocabulary, and tone of your character's speech is dependent on their personality, background, and sometimes who they're talking to. Where possible, we want to be able to identify who is talking just from their manner of speech and word choice and/or quirks; no two characters will speak in exactly the same way.
Examples of speaking styles:
A fast and ready talker, full of useless information and happy to talk to anyone
Clipped speech; prefers not to talk, says only the bare minimum
Awkward talker; rambles a bit, loses the thread, comes across as impatient
A nervous laugh, clearing of the throat, or other sound they can't help but make
Confident, self-assured, gets to the point, knows what they want, voice carries
Using particular words no one else does; those that have gone out of fashion, for example
Speech accompanied by physical reactions that denote discomfort or pleasure
Once we've mastered how they speak, we then need to consider what they say and to whom.
Take Bob, for instance. He's a manager of a local supermarket and has just had the worst day of his career. He's had to apprehend a teenage shoplifter, fire a junior cashier for persistent poor time-keeping, and inform five other members of staff that their hours are being cut to save money.
In each of these conversations he had to adopt a different manner of speaking and choose his words carefully - scalding but firm to the shoplifter, intolerant but professional to the junior cashier, sympathetic but hopeful and positive to the reduced-hours staff.
So downtrodden is Bob that he calls in the pub on the way home for a conciliatory pint. He spends twenty minutes spilling his miseries and frustrations to the other regulars, peppering his conversation with colourful language. When he gets home, he smiles at his wife who's been taking care of their ill youngest all day, and suggests they order a takeaway for dinner to save them both the hassle of cooking.
Other than drowning his sorrows in ale, we can imagine how many times throughout the day Bob has had to grit his teeth and swallow what he'd really say if social and professional conduct codes weren't a requirement for peaceful living. This is a simple example, but it leads us to the most potent power that dialogue can wield in fiction...
The one-two-three punch of subtext
As we've mentioned, dialogue is as much about what a person doesn't say as what they do. Through silence, sarcasm, or saying one thing and meaning another, your character is holding back. By doing so, they are both revealing to the reader the conflict between their inner and outer world, and raising the tension in the narrative significantly.
But even more than that. By layering on the subtext and hidden meanings through your characters' dialogue, you invite readers to infer and interpret the true intentions behind the spoken words; thus immersing readers more deeply in the story, holding their attention, and building curiosity. At some point the truth will out, the Semtex will go off, and readers will gleefully be bracing themselves for the fireworks.
Take a look at this piece of dialogue between eighteen-year-old Clay and his father in Bret Easton Ellis's debut novel Less Than Zero, published when Ellis was just twenty-one:
'Well, Clay, what do you want for Christmas?'
'Nothing,' I say after a while.
'Do you want your subscription to Variety renewed?'
'It already is.'
Another pause.
'Do you need money?'
'No,' I tell him, knowing that he'll slip me some later on, outside Ma Maison maybe, or on the way back to his office.
'You look thin,' he says.
'Hmmm.'
'And pale.'
'It's the drugs,' I mumble.
'I didn't quite hear that.'
I look at him and say, 'I've gained five pounds since I've been back home.'
'Oh,' he says, and pours himself a glass of white wine.
There is nothing exciting discussed in this piece of dialogue - and yet what it tells us about the family dynamics is huge. The disparity (gulf, even) between these two is conveyed in the kinds of questions the father asks and Clay's replies to the negative, as well as the truncated speech that doesn't allow for details.
The father's communication with his son extends only as far as what he can offer him financially; and even when Clay speaks the truth - that his thin, pale appearance is because of the drugs - it's in a mumble his father doesn't hear (or perhaps doesn't care to hear), and which Clay doesn't repeat.
In just a few short sentences, we know a great deal about the relationship between this pair without being told directly. Additionally, even with no physical descriptions of the characters here, our minds can quite easily picture a suited, business-type father and a grouchy, world-weary adolescent. All thanks to the wonder of subtext, giving us a profound, immersive reading experience.
Imagine how less impactful this passage would be if the pair said what they really thought:
"I'm only here because it's my duty as a father. I'd rather be back in the office. I've no idea what to say to you. I don't even like you."
"You think I want to be here? You know absolutely nothing about me or what I want and I'm sick of it. What's the point?"
There may be a time and place for a conversation like that, but Ellis in this piece shows us what those dynamics feel like, rather than telling us how it is. And the effect is powerful.
Advancing the plot
Aside from revealing character and building intrigue, dialogue can also move your plot along. You can use conversations between characters to introduce new conflicts, reveal crucial information, or drive the narrative in unexpected directions; particularly as some of those unspoken tensions come to a head.
Use dialogue in this way only if it's appropriate to do so. Avoid forcing conversation reveals just to progress the plot or get yourself out of a hole. Readers will see right through it. Using dialogue as a plot device will only work if it's a natural occurrence to those particular characters in that particular moment.
Mastering dialogue tags
Considering the often conflicting advice about dialogue tags, it's understandable you might get confused about what to use when. But there's more to dialogue tags than just who says what.
Firstly, there are no rules. So go ahead and use what you prefer.
Secondly, there are advantages to using them in a particular way, though.
The main purpose of dialogue tags is to attribute speech to specific characters (John said, Jenny said), and then sometimes to also convey tone (Albert shouted, Chloe whispered). This way readers read your dialogue with clarity and a sense of the emotion in the words spoken. All good.
But where your editor might suggest you can tighten dialogue and maximize its effect is in areas where there are excessive or unnecessary tags and indicators.
So, for instance, if we've clarified who's line of dialogue is first in a two-way conversation, and then who replies, after that we shouldn't need too many tags. We may not even need them at all if we've established each character's unique pattern of speaking, or if we can tell from what they say who will have said it.
Likewise, as long as the dialogue isn't ambiguous (doesn't have more than one meaning), what is said may be enough to convey tone all by itself without the embellishments of shouted, whispered, and so on.
Another thing to bear in mind is pace. Consider a heart-to-heart conversation between two friends near the final pages of your book. After all the action and tension, you might be looking to slow the pace down so readers can take a breather; to help you do this, you may use dialogue tags and physical reactions and actions in between longer sections of dialogue.
For a heated argument between lovers, however, the less interruptions the better. Just let them go at it all by themselves on the page, like a game of ping pong!
Finally...
Dialogue is a vital component of fiction, breathing emotion, authenticity, and depth into your stories. Overdo it and you run the risk of it falling flat. But keep it lean and mean and it'll work for you to strengthen your story and move readers in ways other techniques don't.
The battle between our inner being and outer being is an eternal conflict, and what better way to showcase that than through the subtle art of dialogue.
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Tina Williams of Fiction Yogi is a copyeditor and proofreader who works with writers at all stages, giving them the tools to improve their manuscript and level up their writing so they can meet their publishing goals.
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