TECH: dicing with tongues?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting 19 March 2009

Random dialogue?

Writer's Digest, January 2006, pages 34 to 37 (and a little bit on page 65) has some suggestions by Michael Levin under the title "12 random (but useful) thoughts about dialogue." For more details, read the original article?

1. Keep your characters ignorant. Actors and writers sometimes make the mistake of letting characters know what's coming. Sure, as a writer, you know where the plot is going -- but the characters don't. "Even though you know how the scene will end before you start to write it, don't let your characters act or speak as if they know where it's going." Let them be surprised.
2. Become the character. Put yourself in the character's shoes. Then write the dialogue that they speak.
3. It's not a transcript. Take your time and pick out the important dialogue. You don't need all of the hemming and hawing that we are likely to do while getting ready.
4. Make every word count. He uses examples from Amy Tan to show that even short three word quotes can do a lot. Make your words work.
5. Realistic dialogue involves rising conflict. Lajos Egri describes three kinds of conflict. Nothing happens, or static conflict, is the story that doesn't go anywhere -- and bores readers. Jumping conflict takes us from setup to resolution without any steps in the middle, which may be okay for stage magicians, but is just confusing for readers. Step by step, slowly they turned -- rising conflict -- with a confrontation that moves little by little to the inexorable conclusion. That's what you want in your story, in every scene, and in every bit of dialogue. Levin suggests thinking about dialogue in terms of arguments, which usually start with a tense moment, rise in intensity, and then explode into conflict. So good dialogue is as easy as having an argument with someone.
6. More on why less is more. Go back and look at a movie or a story that you liked. Usually, the scenes are much shorter and the dialogue less wordy than what you remember.
7. Writing dialogue is a multi-draft thing. First draft -- get the basic ideas down. Second draft, make it sound the way that character should sound.
8. Yes, you can use adverbs -- judiciously. Readers don't read. They use your writing as a script to let them play the part of the main character and the other characters. Make sure they understand how to read each line. Usually, the dialogue is clear. If it's not, go ahead and adverb.
9. Avoid repeating what the reader already knows. When a previous scene shows something, don't have a character repeat it.
10. Stick to people you know. When you try to make a character from a stereotype -- Southerner, mobster, foreigner, whatever -- you're likely to end up with a stereotype. Use the people you know.
11. When rewriting dialogue... read it aloud. Read it into a tape recorder and listen to it. Dialogue is best spoken!
12. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. When you write a great line of dialogue, don't tinker with it just to be tinkering with it. Just because it's familiar to you, doesn't mean it got less good -- it's just that you've read it so many times. Leave it alone.

Some things to think about when working on dialogue. Your assignment? Try putting them to use on your work in progress. Or take a look at dialogue in the book that you enjoy, and see if these principles seem to work.

And of course, write.

Two airplanes that passed in the dark? It doesn't have quite the same romance as ships, now, does it?