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Dialogue Is Essential To Developing Meaningful Characters For Your Book by Robert Price
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Dialogue Is Essential To Developing Meaningful Characters For Your Book by ROBERT PRICE
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| Article Posted: 06/21/2012 |
| Article Views: 76 |
| Articles Written: 276 - MORE ARTICLES FROM THIS AUTHOR |
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Dialogue Is Essential To Developing Meaningful Characters For Your Book |
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Education
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Nothing can derail your portrait of a character more quickly than inappropriate dialogue. This doesn't apply simply to poor use of a foreign or regional accents, the first violation most people think of. Words have to suit the characters in your novel. They have to be almost as descriptive of the speaker as a listing of his/her physical characteristics. Well crafted dialogue allows your speakers to converse with one another without ever requiring attribution. It offers insight into the thoughts and motivations of a character, in effect allowing the reader to penetrate the very being of the person who is speaking. Test the quality of your dialogue by using that exercise. Read the dialogue you have written without attribution. If your words are effective, you won't need attribution. I have always admired the way author Oscar Collier and Frances Spatz Leighton describe dialogue in their book on the novel, "What brings the plot to life is the characters. What brings the characters to life is dialogue-with each character having his own way of talking. Someone once said that if you can't tell which character is talking, if they all sound alike, none of them is talking. It's the author who is talking." Beware of Overdoing Accents Some writers, usually novices, tend to overwrite accents. Obviously, you want to insert characteristic speech mannerisms, but you must be very careful not to overdo this. When you read a well-written piece that includes a foreign person speaking, note that the accent is introduced strongly at first, and then tapers off, leaving only a trace to remind the reader of the speaker's ethnic background. That doesn't mean that a talented author can't sustain interest in a character who continually exhibits an accent. One very obvious example of this is Zadie Smith's White Teeth in which Jamaican patois intermingles with British, Indian and even Bangladesh accents to demonstrate London's melting pot. Much more subtle, but extremely challenging, is J.D. Salinger's characterization of a teenage boy who serves as primary character as well as narrator throughout the hundreds of pages of that great American classic The Catcher in the Rye. Uses of Dialogue While dialogue's descriptive capabilities certainly unveil much about the speaker, they also can serve to describe a third party. In place of a rote, dull portrayal of a person-grey hair, tall, stocky, etc-dialogue can add interest to description. "Gosh, did you see how he had to duck when he came through the kitchen doorway?" That's also true when describing a place or a setting. "The fascinating eroded peaks seem to change each time I come back." Here's another example: "I love watching the water cascade over the falls, but I can only watch for a minute or so because the roar upsets my ears." That line is so much more graphic than saying, "Huge amounts of water pass over the falls." Very often the injection into the descriptive statement of a personal comment by the speaker doubles the insight of the description, as the comment on the falls does. It helps us not only to visualize the object of the description; it tells us something about the speaker. "The young deer hopped over the hedge with such grace it formed a perfect ellipse without ever slowing its pace." We certainly know something about the deer from this statement. But it also tells us that the speaker is a sensitive observer who responds to beauty wherever he/she finds it. Variables in Speech Just as people look different; so they speak differently too. More than that, as mood changes, so does speech. The same person sounds very different when angry from the way he/she speaks when happy. As characters respond to events and situations, it impacts the way they speak. Spoken words are quite different from those that are written. Often people speak elliptically, using fragments of a sentence to express a thought. This can be treacherous grounds for a writer attempting to find the ideal balance between the more formal mode of expression and such fragmentation. So be very cautious as you try and copy everyday, casual speech. Never overlook body language as a very revealing mode of "speech." Often the words a character speaks and the body language exhibited are very different. Clever writers use this contrast to help the reader peer inside the speaker's mind to discover what the he/she really feels. Talk and Act Another very effective tool for the dialogue writer is to give the speaker some action while talking. In real life, we seldom just speak. We almost always are busy doing something else like cooking, driving, walking in the country. Weave that activity into the dialogue either simply by mentioning what the character is doing to break up the speech. Or allow your character to be momentarily distracted by something he/she sees or does or simply comments on. This technique gives a greater sense of reality to the exchange while also adding greater interest. Dialogue is an incredibly useful tool for any author. It does take some time to hone your skills, but once proficient at writing dialogue, you will find that it enriches everything you write, whether fiction or nonfiction. essays online
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