Plot Monkeys

Next week, Leslie and I are going to break down the following hand out from the workshop we did on dialogue. Read this over, and if you have any questions about dialogue, please post them so we can address them. Thanks!

Tips for writing effective dialogue:

1. Make sure the dialogue matches the “tone” of the scene you want to convey.

2. Keep the dialogue realistic to the time period, style of your book. Different books contain different types of dialogue:
A. Historical vs. contemporary
B. Suspense vs. warm family saga.
C. Comedy vs. drama.

3. Make sure the dialogue matches the character you’re writing.
A. Example: A society woman’s reservations can’t be found. “I’m quite sure you’re mistaken, can you check again?” vs.
B. A young, loud teen’s reservations can’t be found: “Yo, lady, you better double-check that book because somebody has screwed this up.”

4. Choose slang and pop cultural references carefully, but don’t be afraid to use them for fear of it being outdated in reprints in ten years.

5. To speed pacing, use bouncy dialogue…think of it as a tennis game, or a game of hot potato. Lob that sucker right back over the net!

6. To slow pacing, use longer sentences and interject more scene descriptions or emotions between each spoken sentence.

7. Keep the reader feeling what the characters are feeling by showing the internal dialogue with external.
A. Example: “Yes, I’ll be at the party.” God, she so did not want to go to a party honoring a backstabbing witch, but there was no way out of it.

8. Use physical responses to convey how the dialogue is spoken. Examples:
A. “Yes, I’ll be at the party,” Karen said with a heavy, resigned sign.
B. “Yes, I’ll be at the party.” Karen nearly bounced on her toes and her voice shook with excitement.
C. “I’m so scared,” Jess whispered as she hugged the shadows along the side of the building.
D. Jess smirked, not a bit concerned about Don’s threat. “I’m so scared.”
E. Elizabeth’s hand shook as she reached for the envelope containing the results of her lab work. With a calm resignation that belied the raging beat of her heart, she admitted, “I’m so scared.”

9. Try to avoid excessive use of attributions.
A. Stick to said, asked, replied. The K-I-S-S principle is important in attributions.
B. Use character traits or action to identify the speaker. Example: As usual, when cornered, he began to stammer excuses. “I’m…I’m sorry, I, I didn’t mean to do it.” (Don’t need to say, “he stuttered”. The reader can see that.)

10. Read your dialogue out loud to see if it sounds natural.

Dialogue should:
Advance the plot
Develop character
Set or match the tone of the book
Speed up or slow down the pacing

It should never:
Be inane
Be clunky
Take Up Space!!