By:
Linda S. Clare
YOU
ARE NOT YOUR CHARACTERS
One of the easiest ways to improve your
dialogue is to keep in mind that you are not the characters. If all the
dialogue sounds like YOU, it will be hard for readers to differentiate (and
root for or against) characters in your story.
Whenever you’re out in public, keep a keen
ear on the conversations around you. Some writers even secretly record or jot
down snippets of the things people say. Take special care to note the
differences in how men and women, kids and seniors, white-collar workers and
laborers speak. They say writers must be perpetually noticing, so allow your
noticing to extend to the speech you overhear. Then apply these gleanings to
your fiction. You’re more likely to paint a vivid picture of your character if
readers believe the way a character speaks makes sense.
NO
FAIR INFO SHARE
A second easy way to pump up dialogue is
to avoid the temptation of stuffing characters’ speech with convenient
information, info both characters already know and yes, speeches. I preach the
value of The
Rule of Three to avoid “speechifying –” that is, after a character
speaks three lines of dialogue, either switch to the other speaker or else
break up with a sentence or two of action, emotion or inner thought. And think
about how people who know one another seldom speak words of info both know.
An example might be two guys who work at
the Los Angeles Aviation and Widget Factory. Would one say, “Are you going to
work today at the Los Angeles Aviation and Widget Factory?” More likely,
he would say, “Are you going to work today?” They both know where. And if you
use dialogue to reveal crucial information about the story, beware. Info dumps,
the “you know” syndrome (You know you have to spend the night in your aunt’s
haunted mansion in order to collect the million dollars) and other author
devices are easily spotted by readers and take away from the suspended
disbelief a story must maintain. Instead, look for more natural ways to
disclose important points.
IF
IT TALKS LIKE A DUCK
.
. .
To
read the rest of the post, click here:
~*~
If
you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they
are again:
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Yourself Miserable? | Jane Friedman http://ow.ly/Uw7EQ - Fiction University: The Spit Shine: Things to Check Before You Submit http://ow.ly/Uw7Sl
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Dos and Don’ts | Linda S. Clare http://ow.ly/Uw84j - Self-Publishing? What’s Your Release Plan? | Jami Gold, Paranormal Author http://ow.ly/Uw8f6
- 25 Story Starters for Writing Fiction | Writing Forward http://ow.ly/Uw8jT
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to make the magic work http://ow.ly/Uw8Hf Pantsing the Plotter (Many Darlings Were Harmed in the Making of This Post) http://ow.ly/Uw8NM- How to Dream up a Product Which Makes People Drool http://ow.ly/Uw8Uc
- Story Structure and the Self-Published Home Run - Storyfix.com http://ow.ly/Uw93h
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