How to write good dialogue

Yes, yes, I meant indents. I was at that moment in non indent-friendly Web space.

 

In my WIP book -- which I am about half way done with -- I have found I am writing a lot of dialogue. Since I am a first time writer, I don't know whether this is good or bad. When I attempted to write a book a couple months ago, I realized I had not much Dialogue and way to much static narrative and description so I have made it a goal to put a lot more dialogue in. In my newest scene I made, I had about 650 words dedicated to dialogue and 550 dedicated to all other types of writing. Is this healthy or am I using to much Dialogue?

Thanks in advance - Kingzilla

 

Sounds completely healthy to me. Hemingway typically had very little detail, but loads of dialogue.

It's the way I also write myself. I actually switched to just writing scripts because of it.

But it's not a problem.

 

Thats nice to know. I have showed my chapters to a few friends and they all love it (its nice to be a teen and be writing a young adult book) so I assumed it wasn't such a big problem. I suppose there are many different styles of writing.

 

Depends what you're doing. Some writers have had success writing a ton of dialogue with very little narrative, and others have had success doing the opposite. I don't tend to write a lot of dialogue, partly because I don't trust it because it's so easy to do, and partly because my characters tend to be pretty taciturn. With one notable exception, they're loners who don't talk much. I usually write a lot of narrative - characters doing things rather than talking.

So what kind of story are you writing? One with many characters who talk to each other a lot? Or one with few characters who spend a lot of time alone? That will have a big effect on how much dialogue you write.

 

What determines whather you have too much dialogue is not the word proportion. It's how effective the dialogue is.

What is true of narrative is also true of dialogue. If you have content that does not contribute to the story, icluding expositon of character, you need to prune it to remove the deadwood.

There is a tendency to treat dialogue as sacred, not subject to the same rules as narrative. Perhaps it's a feeling that cutting out dialogue is somehow censoring the character. But characters are not real. They exist solely for the story.

As you pick and choose scenes, and even scene elements, to keep the focus on the relevent material, you do the same with dialogue. Dialogue is not a verbatim report of all the flows from the character's lips. It should give the illusion of real speech while leaving out the fluff and noise. Each piece of dialogue should open a window for the reader to new insights about the story or the characters. Often what is not said is more revealing than what is spoken directly.

So examine your dialogue in that light instead of the word proportions. Does the dialogue communicate to the reader to the same degree, word for word, as the narrative? If not, get out the pruning shears.

 

Is this a rough draft ? My first drafts tend to be dialogue heavy and I add deeper POV, more setting etc on the rewrite.

Some stories are more dialogue heavy than others - at least one book I remember has no dialogue in it.

 

My WIP is kinda dialogue heavy too, but that's because I prefer to 'show' the plot unfolding in scenes rather than telling it in narrative. I also have a lot of characters - I've introduced 4 main ones and 7 secondary ones already, and I'm on chapter 5 - so there is a lot of character interaction. It seems natural to me to have a lot of dialogue in a story that is about people, and how their lives impact one another. I think, as Cogito says, you just have to judge whether the dialogue is working for your story, or if it's superfluous filler. There are no rules other than that.

 

On the other hand I've seen a book by norwegian novelist Erlend Loe (haven't read them though, but they look nice) that seems to be almost only dialogue. and it doesn't even contain quotationmarks or dialogue tags, so you don't really know who says what but you get that from the context I guess. Any other writer who uses a lot of dialogue? I'd like to read novels like that. I think it could teach me a lot. I think they are the funniest part to write.

 

My problem with dialogue is that it tends to drag. And by that I mean, there are just two people talking and they're not revealing anything new to the audience, and they're not showing their characters, just dull words with no meaning. And then in my desperation I write a really long dialogue and the story implodes.

There's no problem with a lot of dialogue if it's well written. I can envision a delightful story of entirely dialogue in which a complex and interesting plot unfolds entirely through people talking about it. But that would be an extreme example and a very delicate balance to strike.

 

My WIP is a rough draft (1st draft). At this point, I really can't afford to go back and edit. If I did, I know I would be sucked in and I would never finish my 1st draft. Since my novel is a young adult book, I try to implement as much humor as i can without wrecking the plot or storyline. This requires a lot of... not pointless dialogue, but not really useful diaglogue either. I don't like to plan to much before I write so I someitmes do go off course, but I usually catch myself before I wreck my scene. I guess I just have to finish my 1st draft and see what damage has been done

 

Scandinavians are flavour of the month, they can get away with anything until the next trend.

 

This makes no sense to me. Narrative IS showing in scenes, if it's done right. It's not just telling. I had a chapter in my novel in which a character went hunting, all by himself, and it was an important sequence that ran to 10,000 words. Zero dialogue, because there was no one for him to talk to, and he wanted to keep as silent as possible anyway so as not to spook his prey. I think it was all showing, no telling.

Narrative does not equal "telling." Dialogue does not equal "showing."

 

That's not what I said. I am aware that narrative CAN be showing, but for my particular story, big chunks of narrative means there is no character interaction, and my plot is all about character interaction. Lots of action and description is fine, but that's not for me. I never have been, and never will be, someone who can write pages and pages of narrative without boring the shit out of both myself and my reader. I need PEOPLE in my life who like to CONVERSE with each other. Maybe it's because I'm a fairly sociable person. Or a complete chatterbox

 

I would say if you’re using dialog to describe atmosphere like “Look Jim the street lights have come on and the streets are damp.” Then you have to much dialog. On the other hand you can put together a character study with a number of characters in discussion with nothing but the equivalent of 2 or 3 hours of pure dialog and have a masterpiece.

Personally I find you have to use narrative to move things along or you end up trying incorporate endless minutia that are important to the story but can take forever to include with just dialog. It’s also hard to maintain pace and continuity when you span weeks, months, years and maybe even centuries when all you have is dialog.

In the end you have to decide what works for the piece. The tempo and atmosphere you're trying to create.

 

@ superpsycho I use a mix of static description, narrative, and dialogue to describe my atmosphere. I try not to lean on one of the three, but since my book is YA and it requires the plot to almost always be moving, I try to use dialogue to describe. I never do sentences like the one you wrote, mine are more like:

"'Do you see that building there?' Joel said.
Matt shook his head, 'No, I don't.'
Joel pointed to a tall skyscraper which stood above the rest of the city's towers. It was had a circular structure and the entire building was covered with tinted glass windows. 'Don't be stupid, Matt, it is the one with the logo on it. The big A with a circle around it. Oh, and it has a red flag on the top as well.'"

That is pretty much an indirect example of description in my novel. I didn't say it all at once, or even the same way, but the idea is by the end of the conversation, the reader knows that Matt is refering to a tall circular glass building with a logo on it and a flag at the top.

 

As long as the dialogue is important enough to move the story along, it's no sweat! I myself like to write lots of dialogue for scenes and plan out lengthy scenarios. If you truly feel the dialogue is meaningful then theres no need to worry, your fine.

 

In your example it would depend on the reason Joel needed to tell Matt about the building. If the observation stands alone then why is it there? If there is a reason for Matt and Joel to discuss the building as part of the plot, then of course dialog is what you want. If it’s just to provide a general atmosphere of the landscape then I’d rather just have one character stop look around then peek into his thoughts and feelings, so the reader gets some emotional feedback rather then a dry distribution.

 

If i was going to ellaborate on the example, the building would be probably important, hence Joel pointing at the building. I know what you mean, though.

 

Then don't worry this is just a first draft. Once you are finished decide whether you are going to heavily edit or rewrite. Either way the ratio of dialogue to description will probably change.

 

So, I thought I'd ask you guys for an advice, if you could help me.

One:
While writing descriptions and prose is a manageable task for me in stories/novels, I find it very hard to come up with dialogs. I think it's mostly because I'm a very quiet person in real life, it becomes almost impossible for me to come up with things the characters can say aside from the straight forward, into-the-plot dialogs. I want my characters to be more active, to have more conversations and to have side-chit-chat. When I read my writing, I feel that the reader will get bored by the lack of interaction.

Two:
While coming up with dialogs is not so impossible, coming up with funny moments is just... mission-impossible. There's this character in my story, who's suppose to be the one who breaks the ice, his characteristic is the funny, happy-go-lucky kind of person. But I just can't make him look like that without making it sound forced. I'm so stuck and it just makes me frustrated.

Would appreciate any ideas and helpful hints/advices.

 

Well, I can't help you with the second question, but the first resonates with me because it's how I am/was. I could not make convincing dialog without it sounding way too stupid or forced, until I started writing my latest short story. It started back when I was told to show action, not tell it. That gave me more options to have my characters talk and interact with one another. This helped somewhat, but not completely. Then after a while I realized that if I put myself in a characters shoes, I could make better dialog. I thought about what I would say in this type of situation, and what other people would say, then I pieced the dialog together and tailored it to my character. This was not everything though, for the next week I paid very good attention to every peice of dialog on any medium I could find.

Your Hemingway sig quote is pretty acurate, even when writing dialog. You need to put yourself in your characters shoes, and study dialog in multiple mediums, get a feel for how it works.
Hope this helps,
Imprive

 

I am very much dreading a rewrite. LOL

 

I'm the quiet type too, and when I do talk it tends to be with my foot in my mouth


I love films and telly, so when I'm writing dialogue I usually think about how the scene I've planned would pan out in a film or tv series. That isn't to say I write a screenplay or anything like it, but picturing the scene in this way helps me figure out dialogue that seems natural but still moves the story forward, so every word is relevant.


For your funny man, if you can think of a character in an existing programme, film or book who is similar you might want to watch/read that for some inspiration.


It might also help to do some people watching- neb in a bit on people's conversations at work or school or on the train, pay attention to how they talk and keep their conversation flowing.


So basically my advice is to watch tv and be nosy (err, and the obligatory- read moar books!)

 

Im with PPG - watch movies and think about the dialogue that captures moments for you.

Then read, read, read, funny books - Terry Pratchetts books are hilarious imo - and see how they do it.

Then bang your head repeatedly against the hard brick wall of effort until you can a) either do it or b) realise that not everyone can write every style of novel and decide perhaps you're a better thriller writer than a humorous writer.