I HAVE NO IDEA, I SAID. Dialogue in Fiction

I’d like to talk about dialogue today. I’d like to start by saying right off the bat that dialogue isn’t as simple to write as one may think. Dialogue must be one of the most difficult elements in fiction to do well. I personally hate to write dialogue because most of the time my dialogues come out fake. When we write dialogue there are a few things we need to remember: 

1) Dialogue must be instinctive. In other words dialogue must not sound fake or that we are trying too much. 

2) Dialogue must be competent. Dialogue must exposed features of the personality of your characters and also slowly present some clues about the plot. 

And 3) Dialogue must be real. This is the most difficult thing to pull off. A dialogue that is real means that your readers are able to recognize the personalities of your characters through dialogue.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez said once that the reason his novels don’t have much dialogue is simple because he isn’t good at it. Now, Gabo is a literary genius and because of his tremendous narrative abilities he can get away with no writing dialogue. Unfortunately for the rest of us who are not genius, at least I am not one, we have to learn how to write dialogue and incorporate it into our narratives.

The best tip I can suggest to you all in regards to dialogue is simply to read fiction (read your favorite writers) with lots of dialogue and write it ‘til your fingers bled. 

Check out this book from one of the masters. A master piece of dialogue is found here in this collection. "Hills Like White Elephants." 

Ernest Hemingway, The Short Stories. 

Listen to this teacher talk about dialogue

The Importance of Setting

Have you asked yourself why we fall in love with a novel or a short story? I have a theory. We tend to remember and endear stories, (some people can recall almost every detail of it), not only because of their characters, but also its settings. I would venture to say that the reason why the plot of a story stays in our memory is because of a perfect combination of well- rounded characters and the perfect setting. Think of the novels you have in your top ten list and I can guarantee the reason those novels are so vividly fresh in your mind that you probably reread every year (I read Garcia Marquez’s Of Love and Other Demons once a year) because it seems that we were there along with the characters living every minute of the story with them.

Know how to choose the ideal setting for your story is very important to create a feeling of unity, and more important to create the right mood for your story. In his book The Nighttime Novelist, Joseph Bates has great words of wisdom about setting. He says: “setting – the time, place, and space of your story- isn’t simply four walls you’ve dropped your character into so he’ll have someplace to sit, nor is it a larger, objective, impersonal world that only just happens to include the people you’re focusing on, tangentially. Setting is directly related to your character, another way of revealing and deepening our understanding of him and his quest.”

Although the mood and nature of a story can have a setting that doesn’t exactly fit with the genre of the story, (it is always better idea to create a setting according to the mood of your story) give your setting always a sense of place so you can achieve suspense and excitement.

Check out these two novels: Blindness by Jose Saramago

The Shadow of the Wind By Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Watch Carlos Ruiz Zafon talks about The Shadow of the Wind

POV

Last week I discussed the importance of the main character in your story. This week I will talk about POV(Point of View) and how to choose the right one for your story. Many apprentice writers don’t give POV the importance it deserves. They think the narrative voice is irrelevant as long as the writer is being consistent with the POV he chooses to write his story. David Jauss says; “Point of View is arguably the most important element of fiction writing, for it is inextricably linked to characterization, style, and theme, yet it is perhaps the least understood of all aspect of fiction.”

My early short stories were all written using the third person POV. One of my favorite writers is Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Almost all of his stories are written using a third person POV. Back then he was the only writer I thought was worth reading and emulating. Fortunately, I realized the importance and the relevance of POV when rereading these same early stories of mine, I noticed that many of them lacked narrative strength. I rewrote them all. Some of them became better stories when I changed the POV. Others were just as bad no matter how many times I played with the POV. Since then, I submit all my stories to the POV test. How to determine what POV to use for your story? There is one principle that I always use to determine which is the best POV for my story.

In choosing a POV, between 1^st, 2^nd, or 3^rd POV you must determine on what POV your story would have a stronger impact on the reader. So, say you have a story that just doesn’t feel right, feels weak on its narrative voice, rewrite the most important passages of your story using a different POV.

Check the POV on these two novels by two great writers: Italo Calvino, "If on a winter's night a traveler." italo-calvino.com

William Faulkner,"As I lay Dying" williamfaulkner.com

Watch Evelyn Lau, author of "Living Under Plastic," talk about POV