Dialogue 101

Dialogue 101
By: Chelsea

Allow me to introduce myself. If you don't know me already, my name is Chelsea and I've been an avid writer since third grade; nine years old. I mainly write and read Science Fiction and I don't do much else. I am not published but I am currently writing a military sci-fi series called Xenophobia also, I've written a zombie-thriller called Cryptic Dead and a humor/adventure series called The Chronicles of Heinous Jester. I've been roughly writing for five years of writing in total and definitely counting. I had a subtle, innocent beginning with writing. I haven't been writing since I could write words and I haven't been writing since I could hold a book. That's all a bunch of smack-talk. I grew up normally but one day, in third grade, my next door neighbour (one of three other older brothers) asked me to write a Star Wars play. I've been a Science Fiction fanatic since I was young and I'm going to be one until the day I die. At first, I said to him, "What? Are you kidding me? I can't write," That is, of course, until I actually took up a pencil and found a piece of paper and started writing. And... that rocketed off to my very long career as a writer. Enough of me, let's get down to business.

I'm going to be discussing dialogue from what it is and all of its mechanics. Dialogue is tricky and hopefully I can clear up somethings and hopefully make writing dialogue not so much of a struggle; if it is, of course.

About 70% of a novel consists of dialogue because it's the finishing the "icing" to the beautiful cake that makes up your story. Throughout these advice-column things, I will be referring to your book as a cake because frankly it is a like a cake. And when I mean "cake". I mean like a grand wedding cake with the multiple layers of cake and covered in icing and finished to the two-newly weds desires, which is exactly what you are. But I seriously hope you're not married; you might think you are but I hope you're not legally married because that would be really strange. Anyway, back to dialogue. Like I said, it's what makes the cake look whole and complete. I don't see how... you could have a novel and not have dialogue. And if you've somehow managed to pull that off and make it a best-seller, please, don't hesitate to tell me.

Let's start with the dirt. Here is, directly from yours truly, the life-saver dictionary.com, the definition of dialogue: the conversation between characters in a novel, drama, etc. Pretty self explanatory but to those who need a simpler definition; here's my definition of dialogue: The words that come out of a character mouth. So, basically it's just what the character either says to himself or another character. Easy right. And being the Sci-fi Fanatic I am, let's use a reference everyone should know. Here is an example of dialogue:

-Luke, I am your father.
-No, that's not true. That's impossible!

Of course, since this is such a famous line; we know whose speaking but to people who don't know what Star Wars is and who Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader is, they'd be generally confused. And to solve this problem of whom is speaking and how they're speaking the words; man created things called, "dialogue tags". Here are is a simple dialogue tag: "He said". Simple enough, we've established that a man is saying the bit of dialogue and that he just merely said it.

Now, I want to tell you one simple rule that people often just ignore because number one; it's annoying to the reader, and two; it's grammatically incorrect. Always, always use quotation marks when a character is speaking. (") <-- Those without the parentheses. It looks kinda like the claws to a paw. And please, please, please PLEASE use them. Don't just not use them... please.

Okay, let's get to into more detail about them. Dialogue tags can not only say who is speaking and how they're speaking but if they're doing an action with the words. As you know, some people are very gestuculative when they speak; as in, they use a lot of hand gestures or motions to emphasis what they're saying. (Being an Italian, I am very gestuculative) And not only can they display those three things, they can also be before the dialogue is spoken so it can be established early-on, or it can be in the middle, like there is a pause, and also at the end to maybe create some suspense as to who is speaking. Here are an example of dialogue tags being used.

"Luke, I am your father." Darth Vader whispered darkly, clinching his gloved fist.
"No," Luke stammered clinging for mercy onto the pole, "that's not true. That's impossible!"

Ta-da! Hooray, we used dialogue tags! Those are very helpful to the reader so he/she is not confused on who is speaking. Also, it doesn't only clear up confusion, it gives the book a bit more zest than just saying "he said" or "she said". Which also leads into another subject.

Dialogue tags come in many forms and use a huge myriad of words that use humans know. And I advise when choosing a word to describe how the character is saying a bit of dialogue; try to stray away from the constant "saids" because after a while it gets annoying and dull. Of course, if you're a published author and well-known, like the one I know of, you could probably get away with just saying the "saids" with a couple of "growled" "shouted" and "whispered". Why? Because the dialogue itself is probably more interesting the tag itself.

I could give you a list of all the words you could use instead of "said" but I'm not going to. It's not because I'm not helpful, its because I really don't want to list them all because truly, the list is endless and if not; there's gotta be at least 100+ words to use. Just keep it fresh and new and try not to be boring... the last thing you need to be is boring.

Let's get to the more technical stuff of dialogue; grammar. I know, I know, grammar sucks and I'm not even good at it either. We're not perfect but you have to at least know enough to get by without being completely off. The good thing about dialogue, since it's speech, grammar doesn't apply! Yes, you can cheer, it's wonderful... BUT that doesn't mean you can use text language. Actually, I don't to ever see text language in dialogue because frankly, that is for Facebook and cellphones. Don't worry; I have a Facebook and I also text - a lot and I use text language. I'm guilt of it because it's convenient and easier than typing out the entire word with your thumbs. Trust me, I understand but leave that for the cellphones please.

If you haven’t read books such as Tom Sawyer by the well-known humor writer, Mark Twain, since the setting of that particular story is in the 1800s the dialect they spoke in was really low-class. Especially the Africans; you could tell they weren’t educated. Their dialogue was so hard for me to read that I had no idea what they were actually saying until my teacher had to decode it for me. I don’t have an example, I apologize. That’s when you can get away with that but all in all...

Use proper spelling when you write dialogue.

Lastly, I would like to discuss the very important matter of... clichés! If you don’t know what the word “cliché” means let’s go back to the good ‘ol dictionary.com. “Anything that has become trite or commonplace through overuse.” Here are some examples:

-___ is my middle name.
-Is that all you got?
I’m just getting started.
-Tell my wife and kids that I love them.
-Cover me. I’m going in.
-So, we meet again...
-(greeting) Well if it isn’t...
-You’ll never get away with this.
Watch me.
-Time to die.
-I’m not leaving you.
You have to go on without me.
-I eat guys like you for breakfast!
-Wait! I can explain! It’s not what it looks like.

And so on and so forth. If you want an entire list of cliché lines, feel free to browse and de-clicheify (my new word) your writing.

http://www.gointothestory.com/2009/11/definitive-list-of-cliched-dialogue.html

To solve yourself from straying to something cliché, try to always think about the situation your character is in from different perspectives. When you feel you’re character has said or is going to say something cliché, take the time to write out the many things your character could say in that situation. This normally does the trick.

All in all, keep your dialogue fresh and original, stray away from clichés, be courteous with grammar, be creative in dialogue tags, always use quotation marks, and... of course, never stop writing. You’ll never gonna get better until you actually take the time to practice... so what are you waiting for! Go check out your dialogue and make those changes and become a better writer!

Also, I really hope this website will help you be better and better but... you won’t be perfect. No one is perfect and I understand right now that I’m not a perfect writer and I probably will never be. But I can make my work the best I can make it be. And so can you! Go get out there, and show the world what you’re made up!

Happy Writing,
Chelsea.