|
The Golden Rule of dialogue is to Show rather than tell. AuthorHouse identifies five areas that you should be looking at to produce readable, effective dialogue. The first thing to do before looking at how to improve dialogue is to recap on what our dialogue should be doing for our story. Keep these functions in mind when we read through and edit our manuscript will make the job much easier. The Six Functions of Dialogue
The dialogue in your story should: 1. Reveal character (in what is and isn’t said).
2. Provide pertinent information.
3. Drive the plot by building tension and drama.
4. Reveal the chemistry and relationships between characters.
5. Provide an emotional outlet for the story’s characters.
6. Create white space on the page to avoid blocking and break the story up for the reader. So now you have finished the first draft of your manuscript, it’s time to edit. AuthorHouse suggests a dialogue-specific edit after your first general edit. In this article we identify the first of five areas where you should be focusing. 1.Make Sure You are Using the Appropriate Vocabulary
There are two groups of people to consider when selecting the style of language your characters will use. The first group is your readers and the second is the characters themselves. Here are some questions you can ask yourself about each group to make sure you are using the appropriate vocabulary. Age Appropriate
Characters: A teenager will speak differently from a senior citizen.
Readers: Think about movie ratings in terms of explicit language. Also gear the level of sophistication of your vocabulary to your audience in terms of using long words and technical jargon. Gender Specific
Characters: Male and female characters will use different vocabularies.
Readers: Male and female readers will respond differently to the vocabulary you have decided to use. Social Airs and Graces Characters: Are your characters trailer-trash or were they born with a plum in their mouth? Readers: Different socio-economic classes will view different subject matter from their own points of view. Think about how they would be affected personally if what was happening in your story was really true and what their reaction might be. Educational Attainment
Characters: How varied or limited will their vocabulary be? Will they use technical jargon and speak knowledgeably about a wide variety of topics?
Readers: How much of your technical jargon will they likely be able to comprehend and how many topics will they be familiar with? Residence and Background
Characters: Does their geographical location and background dictate they use particular slang or catch phrases?
Readers: Will your readers understand the slang and catch phrases your characters use? (We will talk about dialect and slang later in this article) This article has captured the six functions of dialogue and the first of AuthorHouse’s five suggested areas to focus on when editing your story’s dialogue. Part two of this AuthorHouse series of articles will deal with the conversational aspects of dialogue for book editing.
Related Articles -
AuthorHouse, edit a book, functions of dialogue,
| 
