Dialogue Writing

Written dialogue (as opposed to spoken conversation) is challenging in part because the reader does not have auditory clues for understanding tone. The subtle shades of spoken conversation have to be shaded in using descriptive language.

KEEP IT TIGHT

One of the biggest rules in dialogue is: no spare parts. No unnecessary words. Nothing to excess.

That’s true in all writing, of course, but it has a particular acuteness (I don’t know why) when it comes to dialogue.

If you include an unnecessary sentence or two in a passage of description – well, it’s best to avoid that, of course, but, aside from registering a minor and temporary slowing, most readers won’t notice or care.

DIALOGUE SHOULD BE IN CONFLICT

It’s obvious, really…

Just as a scene about two young lovers spending a perfect day out at the zoo doesn’t constitute a plot (not unless the girl falls in the lion enclosure), so two people chatting about nothing much at all – and not disagreeing, either – doesn’t constitute gripping dialogue.

KEEP YOUR DIALOGUE CONCISE

If you take just one thing away from this article, let it be this…

To write good dialogue, cut it to the bone, and preferably to the marrow. Never use ten words when five words will do. And if you can get the job done in three words – or even with a simple gesture like a shrug – so much the better.

DIALOGUE CAN BE “TOLD,” NOT JUST “SHOWN”

Shown dialogue is where you write down what the characters say, word for word, and put the speech inside quotation marks.

Told dialogue is where you summarize a conversation using regular prose.

HAPPY LEARNING!

ANAMIKA GUPTA

IAAN