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Dialogue:
noun – a work of literature constructed
in
conversational form; the part of a novel describing the conversations
between characters; verbal interchange or discussion; diplomatic contact
between nations or blocs; valuable or constructive communication between
different groups.
Dialogue can move a story
forward, increasing the pace, or it can be used to describe events, emotions
and people in a more subtle way than pure narrative. It also breaks up text on
the page, allowing
white space to make the passage more appealing to the eye. A
lot has been written about tag lines in
dialogue and I admit to avoiding them
whenever possible. However, in long passages of dialogue, it's necessary to
identify the speakers from time to time so the reader doesn't become confused
about who is
speaking.
Many beginners use
adverbs
in their tags or replace a simple 'he said', 'she said' with variations like,
'shouted', 'cried', 'expostulated', 'avowed', exclaimed' and so on. Some things
to remember about this: 'he/she said' rapidly becomes 'invisible' to the
reader, supplying the clue to the identity of the speaker without drawing
attention to the tag. Terms such as 'shouted', 'cried' and the rest are
generally redundant if the dialogue is well written, as the words and context
will describe the manner of delivery. And adverbs are best omitted from fiction
writing whenever possible. The general rule of thumb advised by most of those
in the know is that one adverb in a thousand words is quite enough.
It's important to be aware
that dialogue in a story is not simply
natural speech. If you listen to people
talking - really listen – you'll observe numerous pauses for thought, often punctuated
by 'redundant' words to fill the space whilst the speaker thinks; 'er', 'you
know?', 'like' are examples of such fillers. Also, people repeat themselves and
frequently speak in banal terms when holding conversations. The job of the
writer is to compose dialogue that reflects the nature of the character without
reducing the text to boring passages of meaningless twaddle. If a writer can
make his characters into poets as they speak, without resorting to overblown
language, there's a good chance that the resultant dialogue will captivate the
reader.
Another aspect of dialogue
writing often overlooked is the use of contractions. Using the 'correct' forms
of phrases that are usually contracted will make your dialogue sound stilted in
the mind of the reader. But that doesn't mean that every instance of such
phrases should be contracted; balance is important.
Similarly, the use of
dialect and
foul language in dialogue needs to be well regulated if it is not
to either confuse or offend the reader. A text peppered with dialect only fully
understood by the people who've lived all their lives in the hamlet of Nether
Puddleton is likely to have your readers scratching their heads in an effort to
discern meaning. And a block of dialogue with every alternate word as an
expletive will simply irritate and possibly offend many readers. As the modern
expression has it; less is more.
'Get your skinny arse over
'ere!' Carter
yelled angrily.
Here, 'yelled' and
'angrily' are unnecessary, as the words and punctuation send the message to the
reader.
'Come; place your gentle
hand in mine and I'll lead you to the dance.'
The reader here knows that
the speaker is a male, talking to a female. So, if only these two characters appear
in this part of the story, no tag is needed to identify the speaker.
'I erm, well, like, I was
about to, you know, I thought if you, like, erm, well, would like to maybe, erm
come to dinner with me, like?'
A little exaggerated; but
this is what a lot of natural speech is like.
'I wondered if you would, maybe,
er, have dinner with me?'
The same sentiment, but
this time the speaker comes across as a shy or diffident individual asking a
question of someone admired, and the reader doesn't have to plough through all
the extraneous stuff. The manner of speech, the hesitation and lack of
confidence are all conveyed by the words used.
'Tha's a raight fothery
nugtent, an' there's nay doot ya'll fratter yon gloogs if tha nivver gits out
on thither blitherpile.'
That the speaker is being
insulting is clear. However, the meaning of the sentence is impossible to
discern (largely because some of the language used here is invented). But it
illustrates the over-use of the dialect form.
'I cannot agree with you,
because my view does not tie in with the way you are arguing or with the horrible
way you are stating it.'
This, apart from sounding
pompous, is stilted and unnatural.
'I can't agree with you,
because my view doesn't tie in with the way you're arguing or the horrible way
you're stating it.'
This is an improvement.
But the following might make for better dialogue, without altering the meaning:
'I can't agree; our views
don't match and the way you state them is offensive.'
As a final point; note
that punctuation belonging to the speech is included inside the
quotation
marks.
'If I ask you nicely, will
you give me what I want?'
But: 'I hope he'll give me
what I want.' Was she bold enough to ask?
