Into the Fire

Right from the start, let me say this: I’m not pretending to be a teacher here. Too much of a rebel rouser in the writing world to profess a teachable attitude or a willing spirit to bend to the status quo, I like what I like, love what I love, and feel just as strongly about negatives and those who continue to implore writers with certainties and inflexibilities. Having clarified my position on those few things, this post addresses dialogue.

First of all, I’ve been told by some readers that my strengths lie in characterization and dialogue. What that insinuates is that I lack sufficiently in plot development! Regardless of those opinions, I do think I can put some meaningful dialogue on the page. Keep in mind I write contemporary stories, so I’m not claiming any abilities in maintaining the dialogue in historical fiction.

What I think is the first prerequisite for writing good or authentic dialogue is to truly know your characters. If you can’t picture them, “hear” their voices, or see them “speaking”, chances are you can’t get them to effectively express themselves. What we often refer to as “cardboard” characters acknowledges that they’re “stiff”, unnatural, one or two dimensional, and seem cut out of another book, article, or perhaps a drawing, much like an old-fashioned paper doll. Picture the movement of a cardboard character. You don’t expect to “hear” a cardboard character talking.

Understanding your characters requires a significant mental/emotional investment. When a writer tackles a character who is the opposite of all things he holds as important, vital, courageous, or other such traits, it isn’t easy to get into the character’s head and ultimately to speak for him. But that is precisely what must happen in order to come across without stereotypical vacant dialogue. As a writer, you have to know who this character really is, how he thinks, and consequently how he talks. The same goes with the sweeter-than-light character. To make her acceptable we as readers have to buy into her sincerity or the overall reason for her demeanor. Otherwise she’s just as stereotypical in another way as the villainous character.

The next prerequisite for good dialogue requires being a good listener. Hearing the intonations of people’s voices, their expressions, their formalities, their slang, their vulgarities (not that you’ll choose to use them directly, but they’re still important in figuring out your character’s voice), their intelligence or lack thereof, their mannerisms, their accents if any—all of these help decide, describe, and give detail to individual character’s words and are the tools used to create good authentic dialogue. Real people speak real-ly. As a result, you have to make fictional characters speak real-ly, too, for who you’ve designed them to be.

Finally for this post, if you need a final judgment on how the dialogue “sounds”, read it out loud. To yourself. Then to someone else if you’re still not sure about it. That dialogue must fit the person you’ve created. If you’ve got the King’s English coming out of the mouth of a 17 year old street person, something has gone terribly wrong.

Our words, even in conversations, speak volumes. They define us more than we’d sometimes like to believe. Characters’ words must back up who you’ve made them to be. If they don’t, something’s got to change.

In the worst novels I’ve read, the dialogue stands out as being dreadful. No contractions used in casual conversation. Exaggerated and unlikely emotional descriptions. Drama unfitting to the situations. Hard to imagine them getting past an editor with the way they’re written, but, alas, there they are. And for those novels, there were readers who methodically read the books and probably didn’t even notice how stilted the language appeared. They read them for the stories. It’s interesting, too, that the worst novels I’ve read also contained characters I came close to detesting and who in no way were supposed to be offensive. The accompanying dialogue only accentuated how little I enjoyed them—or perhaps contributed to why I didn’t like them.

So . . . what do ya think?

Lord, your words are perfect. Love having dialogue with you. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.