Too many writers use dialogue to fill up space on a page or to pad their word count. As a result, the overall effect is that of a sleeping pill. No reader wants to eavesdrop on the banal, incoherent utterances that, most often, resemble conversations that take place daily on public transportation, in line at the grocery store or at work. For dialogue to work, it must create interest, intrigue, or offer insight into the personalities, motivations and ethics of the characters involved in the story. Effective dialogue moves a story along and helps create a mood. The following is a checklist that should allow writers to gauge whether their dialogue is dynamic or dull.
DOES IT ACCURATELY REFLECT YOUR CHARACTERS?
The best way to get to know a person is to listen to what they say and how they say it, and dialogue allows readers to get to know a story's characters in a way that is more descriptive than having the author tell about them. For instance, there are only so many ways to tell your audience that a particular character lacked common sense, but to have the character gush about winning a bidding war on eBay for a chunk of limestone pretty well clinches it (Note: This is a case of “truth is stranger than fiction,” and that's all I'm going to say about that!) Dialogue allows the writer to show, rather than tell about, the character in a story. This adds depth to a character that description alone could never communicate.
Writing dialogue that matches the character demands consistency. One of the biggest flaws in writing dialogue is that the writer interjects his or her own personality and experience into the character, and suddenly you find the dolt described above rendering a soliloquy worthy of Hamlet. Study the way real people talk, and incorporate that into the dialogue you write. Does your Aunt Minnie continually use redundancies, such as “6 a.m. in the morning,” or “true facts”? Character quirks have to be maintained throughout the story for any dialogue to ring true.
DOES IT DRIVE THE STORY?
The following script is an example of poor use of dialogue:
“Hi”
“Hi”
“What's up?”
“Nothing. What are you doing?”
“I'm at the mall”
“I'll meet you there.
What store?”
“Marshall's”
“Okay”
“See ya”
“'Bye.”
“'Bye.”
Although the conversation may be realistic, it lacks any “stickiness.” The reader notices by the time, “I'm at the mall” comes up, the dialogue is going nowhere, and closes the book, never to return. Compare that sample to the following:
“Hi.”
“Hi.
Where are you...and why are you whispering?”
“I'm at the mall. I think somebody's following me.”
“Where can I meet you? I'll be there soon as possible.”
“Marshall's. I'll be browsing the spring dresses.”
This exchange immediately engages the reader's interest, creates a mood, and sets up several possible scenarios. Does the caller “disappear without a trace?” Does her friend show up, only to find the caller having a psychotic breakdown? Who is the person following her, and why are they following? This is an example of dialogue driving the story.
Effective dialogue combined with vivid description helps put the reader into the story, and gives them more than a bird's eye view of the action and environment. The reader can “get into the heads” of the protagonist and his or her antagonist. This means the reader can anticipate what will happen next, and this anticipation motivates that reader to continue on in order to see if their assumptions were right. Effective dialogue, then, is a major component of the “page turner.”
So, watch your words! Make sure that your characters speak in a way that matches their background, educational level and environment. Be sure that what they say communicates essentials to the reader. A few lines of dialogue often will say more than a paragraph of description.
