Dialogue

In bad dialogue all you’re getting is the information, exposition, or emotional declaration…Beware of that as you work to get that unselected, unironic, there-for-information stuff out of your writing: it’s going to try to find a new home in the mouths of your characters.

--Robert Olen Butler

This section on dialogue is largely from Burroway and Stuckey-French's Writing Fiction.



The way in which an author uses dialogue is a style choice. There are different uses, different types, different conventions. There are also some universal rules to abide by. This page will outline some guidelines as well as some options.


What can dialogue do?

Dialogue must do more than one thing at a time. Here are some possibilities:

1. characterization
2. provide exposition
3. set scene
4. advance action
5. foreshadow
6. remind
7. subtext: characters conceal emotions

Chekhov says that a line of dialogue should give the impression that more could have been said.




Types of dialogue

Direct: "Why is that book so important to you?"

Indirect: She had a question for him: Why was that book so important?

Summary: She asked him why the book was important to him.



The way characters speak

1. What characters say: be specific.

"Details are the rocks characters throw at each other." --Stephen Fischer


2. How they say it: it has to fit the character and the circumstance

Syntax and diction can characterize someone.

Characters change their tactics if they don't get what they want. If being whiny doesn't cut it, they might try to be logical, appeal to emotion, be aggressive, be seductive.

"People may or may not say what the mean, but they say things designed to get what they want." --David Manet




Dialogue as action

Dialogue must contain the possibility of change. Ask yourself: Does the dialogue in this scene move the story ahead or would it not make a difference if this conversation was gone from the manuscript? If the latter, murder it.



Speech tags

Your options:

"said" ("It only costs 50 dollars," he said.)
"asked" ("Only 50 dollars?" she asked.)
using action ("Yup. Just went on sale today." He eyed the woman's purse.)
no tag if it's obvious who's speaking.


Common mistakes

Formatting:
Note the comma inside the quotations if there's a said/asked speech tag.
Note the lower case h in "he said" when there is a comma.
Note the new sentence when the tag is a separate action.
Note the upper case H when there is a period.
Note the lower case s in "she asked" even though there is a question mark in the quotes.

Flowery tags:
It's tempting to write "he demanded" or "she wondered" but it slows down your reader. Said and Asked are virtually invisible.

Using actions as though they are speaking:
You can say: He laughed. "That's the worst thing I've ever seen!"
You can say: "That's the worst thing I've ever seen!" He laughed.
You can't say: "That's the worst thing I've ever seen!" he laughed.
You can't say: "That's the worst thing I've ever seen," he laughed.
Same with sighed, snorted, etc. They are separate actions. You can't laugh words. You can laugh before, after, or during, but the laugh is not speaking.

Redundant tags:
Tags like "shouted" or "exclaimed" are almost always not necessary because readers should get it by what is said and how it's said.

Don't do this: "Get out of here!" he exclaimed.

There's an exclamation point. Do you really think that readers are not going to figure out that he exclaimed this? Likewise, if you say "Get out of here," he exclaimed, it looks ridiculous because there isn't the exclamation point. How can he exclaim it then?

Try this: "Get out of here!" He shoved me toward the door.