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
I agree with you, dialogue is a pain to do, if only because the writer has to stop their narrative style and let the character speak or else it comes out sounding really fake and unreal. It's not foolproof, but reading dialogue out loud often helps me pick out where my characters aren't talking like regular people.
ReplyDeleteyou are right. Reading dialogue aloud really help.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit, at least one of the most recognized authors today can admit he can't write dialogue. There are some authors who can't even do that and usually force bad dialogue on their readers.
ReplyDelete