From Fan to Fiction

Dialogue is tricky for many reasons, but a good place to start is knowing what shouldn’t even be in dialogue to begin with. 

Filler Words

While using words like Um, Uh, Like, ect. can do a lot to show a character’s hesitance or nervousness, there are other great ways to show these emotions without those filler words. Add body language, gestures, facial expressions, or pauses to show the character’s anxiety. I’ve seen ellipses used to denote pauses in dialogue, but only do this if you’re stingy with them. 

Also, be economical. Don’t use more words than you need to. When I’m editing my own dialogue, one word I’m always deleting is “that.” If you cut it from the following sentences, they roll off the tongue much easier. 

“I didn’t know that she was there.”

“I found out that he was cheating on me.”

“He said that he’d meet us there.”

Long Explanations

Say you’ve just written this fantastic chapter where your protagonist has been through absolute hell, yet they discovered something crucial to your plot. Then, in the next chapter, your protagonist meets up with another character and needs to catch them up on everything that just happened. It is more than okay to say something like, “Sarah told Bill what happened.” Focus instead on how Bill reacts or what he says in response. Readers  don’t want to hear an explanation of something they just read, so keep that in mind when recapping events between characters.

Greetings

When I answer the telephone, I say hello. When I see someone at work, I say hey and ask how it’s going. That’s realistic dialogue. But despite its authenticity, it has no place in fiction. Have you ever noticed how people on TV never say goodbye when they’re on the phone? Or they tend to just barge into a scene and start talking? We know people usually greet each other appropriately, but we go with it because we don’t want to waste time on trivialities when we’re enjoying a story.

Character Names

Use character names in dialogue sparingly. When two characters are speaking to each other, it’s redundant to use the other’s name.  A general rule of thumb is to only use a character’s name in dialogue when you’re trying to get that character’s attention, or if there are multiple people in the scene and you need to make it clear who she’s speaking to. When in doubt, leave it out!

And some last tips!

-Watch movies or television, or listen to an audio book. Part of learning to write great dialogue is hearing it. 

-Find a dialogue heavy scene you enjoy and analyze it! Do some characters speak in only fragments? Do some rarely use contractions? How many simple sentences vs. compound/complex sentences are there? How does the author denote accents or bizarre speaking patterns? 

-Read aloud dialogue you’ve written, either by yourself or with a friend. 

-If you’re writing prose, write the scene in script format first. Don’t worry about anything except the words inside those quotation marks.

Now go put words in people’s mouths!

Other great resources:

How to Write Great Dialogue

The Power of Silence

How to Write Dialogue

Foundation of Dialogue