The Joy of Dialogue by A.M. Westerling

 

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The Joy of Dialogue

 

            Recently, I had one of those A-HA moments. You know the ones, where you feel as if you have been bopped over the head with a big foamy hammer. And my epiphany?

 

Dialogue is my friend.

 

            Oh, how I used to fret and fuss over dialogue, agonizing over every word, forcing out sentence after sentence.  Introspection, back story, no problem. Description? Bring it on. But dialogue? It was like pulling teeth. Which is probably why my first manuscript had pacing issues. I much preferred to spend my words describing the scenery and clothing than have my hero and heroine actually talk to each other. 

 

But all of a sudden, one day I clued in - dialogue is a very, very powerful tool. Why is that?  Because:

 

1.         It breaks up narrative.  It happens in real time.

 

2.         It presents information. You can use it to tell the back story (one character talking to another.)

 

3.         It develops character. By word usage and slang, you can identify characters.

 

4.         Use it to move the plot along. The characters tell what’s going to happen rather than the author.

 

5.         It can also develop conflict – one character arguing with another.

 

            Now that I have more writing experience, I know how to build a scene with dialogue. Everyone has their own method but for me it is to write the conversation first, then go back and fill in the quotation marks, tags, emotional response, setting, gestures, etc. I might have to go over it a few times until I get the balance that I want but even so, I can write a few pages of dialogue a lot faster than a few pages of narrative.

 

Tips:

 

-       Get to the point – don’t waste time saying hello, talking about the weather, etc.

-       Don’t have the characters call each other by their names – we don’t talk like that in our everyday conversations

-       Identify pet phrases, expletives, etc for your characters – we all have them (see #3)

- If you’re in a public place, listen to people conversing around you.

 

 

A.M. Westerling, a writer of historical romance, is currently working on her tenth book for BWL Publishing and now finds that she can’t get her characters to shut up!!