A Lesson in Speakery

            Good morning, everyone! Today I'm writing on speakery, also known as dialogue. 

            Pretty much every writer will tell you: dialogue is a pain in the butt. The thing is, normal, actual, conversations don’t sound anything like dialogue. They sound crazy. Everyone sounds ADD. No one knows what they really want to be talking about. Everyone has to get their two cents in about everything.

            Writers try to avoid sounding like that, but we still want our characters to sound real.

            How is that even possible? I have no idea. I think everyone is so used to the way dialogue “normally” flows in television and novels that they’re accustomed to it not sounding like we do. Or maybe we’re all glad it doesn’t sound like us, because we sound crazy…

            In any case, dialogue is something we all have to work on.

            First thing’s first (because I know how difficult it is), formatting. Yeah, yeah, I know. That’s the boring part. But you need to know it.

Now we can talk about the fun stuff.

Dialogue, essentially, needs to be written like a play. And no, not a Shakespeare play. Unless you’re writing for that era. In which case, I would recommend brushing up on your Shakespearian.

The easiest way to think about it is to remember that someone is actually saying the words aloud. If you would never be caught dead saying that sentence, and you can’t think of anyone you know who would be caught dead saying it, don’t have your character say it. The only exception to this rule is when it’s character related. For example, I have one character that never uses contractions. Ever. They don’t know how. Other characters comment on it. It’s amusing (at least to me).

In short, this is how I do it:

 

Just for funsies, here’s a sample of some of the first dialogue I ever wrote: 

(I'm slightly angered that I didn't catch the line under "like" before I took the screenshot...)

And here’s what it should look like, proper formatting and all:
(please note, I'm not saying that this is an awesome example of dialogue. It's just better than it was before)

Essentially, it’s best to avoid overdoing it. Don’t have someone speak when a nod would suffice. Don’t overdescribe their actions: if you say something simple, your reader will often elevate it to the level you intended. They’re smarter than you take them for.

I hope this was helpful. Dialogue was one of the things that took me the longest to master—but once you get there, it sticks with you.

Stay tuned for Friday’s novel-writing post!

{Rani}