Dynamic Dialogue Part IV

It's me again, dear readers. But I promise not to name drop too much this time. I'm back with another tip for avoiding Awkward Dialogue Syndrome. It's another simple one.

Beware the talking heads. 

Another way to say this is, ground your characters in their scene. Notice the complete lack of background in the above photo? Lots of times I read a scene in a manuscript, and it's the same way. Two people are talking back and forth, but I have no idea where they are or what they're doing.

Having your characters interact with their surroundings can show a range of emotions (like kicking a chair in anger or nervously picking at sweater threads), and it can give some much needed breaks between speeches. 

So, keep your characters grounded in their scene. In fact, let your setting BE a character. 

Don't let your characters be floating heads. That's just creepy.

Dynamic Dialogue Part III

Dear Readers,

Today I want to talk to you about my favorite awkward dialogue trap, friends. Can you guess what it might be, readers? No? Friends, I'll give you a clue. I've done it four times so far, readers.

Friends, (that makes six) I call it the dreaded name drop.

This is another common dialogue misstep that is easily fixed by my first rule, which, in case you don't remember, is:

Read your dialogue out loud!

If you read your dialogue, just your dialogue with none of the narrative, you may notice that many (and in some cases almost all) of your characters' first sentences begin with another character's name. Maybe you're doing this to help the reader keep track of who's talking and to whom. But in real life, we don't talk like that. Are you married, have a roommate, or someone you spend most of your time with? How often do you use that person's name (when you're not calling them to get their attention) in conversation? I'd venture not that often.

When you were a kid, did you ever sit in church snickering as you counted how many times one of the deacons would say the Lord's name during the closing prayer? (Don't admit it if you still do.)

Dear Father, I just thank you Lord, that you love us, God. I pray, Father, that you'd bless the gift and the giver for the betterment of thy kingdom.  Lord, as we leave this place, God, would you lead, guide, and direct us? And Father, put a hedge of protection around us. We love you, Lord. And it's in your Son's precious and holy name we pray, God, Amen.

Whew. I wish that were an exaggeration.  (Note: also in the above prayer, there were a whole lot of cliches and needless repetition. Other no-nos we'll cover in the coming weeks.)

Were you keeping count? It's distracting, no? And you don't want your readers distracted, snickering, or--heaven forbid--counting when they should be absorbed in what's happening on the page. (Just like you should have been paying attention to what was going on in that church service.)

It's our job as the author not to give our readers anything to be distracted by.

So, use those speaker beats and action tags, and even a simple attribution like Bethany talked about last week. And trust your reader to keep up. Don't be a name dropper.

Nobody likes a name dropper.

Dynamic Dialogue, Part II

Last week, Erynn shared about the importance of natural sounding dialogue. Think like a screenwriter. Every minute of screen time, every word counts. Don't add fluff.

Here's something else you shouldn't add: director commentary. 

Sure, people buy DVDs with bonus footage, but I don't know many people who actually watch the version with the director chatting the whole time--explaining, telling what he wanted from the scene, making himself sound generally witty. (Peter Jackson doesn't count. Of course you watch those.)

Seriously, though. Audiences want the end product. They want to be entertained. They want the scene to play out in their mind. And they don't want to think for one second about the writer behind the scenes--at least the first time.

Here are a few ways to accomplish that.

Use the word "said." Avoid sounding like a thesaurus with your dialogue tags.  No one wants to be wowed with your synonym skills. Statistics show that readers actually skip over the word "said" in their reading. It doesn't even register. All they see is dialogue (which is what you want). 

If your characters are replying, interrupting, cajoling, remarking, and muttering? There's no way people can miss that. 

     "Are you kidding me?" Jen queried. "Just tell me we can undo it," she complained. "What will it take?" 

     "We'll do what we have to do," Will countered.

     "We better," she sniped. "If we lose this account because you dropped the ball--"

     "Relax," he challenged. "Your attitude isn't going to help us win them over."

It can get annoying after a while, right? 

Use action beats about 50% of the time. An action beat is exactly that--a moment filled by the character's action. When it's right next to the dialogue, it's clear who's just spoken. Often, an action beat can do more to convey the emotion than an explanation, with no "said" involved. Isn't that same excerpt better like this?

            "Are you kidding me?" Jen snapped her head to the side. She swallowed, then turned back and locked gazes with Will. "Just tell me we can undo it. What will it take?"

  

If the characters are taking turns nicely, don't tag every give and take. Sometimes, it's obvious. 

     Will stood a little taller. "We'll do what we have to do."

     "We better. If we lose this account because you dropped the ball--"

     "Relax. Your attitude isn't going to help us win them over."

     Jen rolled her neck and closed her eyes. After a few deep breaths, her shoulders relaxed an inch. She met his gaze once more. "I'll smile, and you dig us out of this hole you got us in."

Make sense? A little goes a long way. 

This weekend, our Get Your Grammar Fix(ed) post will tackle the difference between a compound sentence and a complex sentence and whether a comma is necessary. 

More on Dynamic Dialogue mid-week. Erynn's going to talk about some of our favorite mistakes.

Thanks for swinging by!




Thanks to Vancouver Film School for use of the image. http://ow.ly/prL79

Dynamic Dialogue Part I

Over the next few weeks, we'll be bringing you some tips on taking your dialogue from drab to dynamic. Writing great dialogue requires you to walk a fine line. You want it to sound realistic, but not too realistic . . . because a lot of real life dialogue is, quite frankly, boring. 

The goal is real dialogue with all the boring bits taken out. 

Before I give you the tip of the week, I want to give you my number one tip of all time. It's so simple, and may seem obvious, but it will save you buckets of time and awkward dialogue. Ready for it?

Read your dialogue out loud. 

That's it. Skip the action beats, the setting, all of the prose. Just read the dialogue. You'll be surprised that you hear all manner of unnatural sounding conversation. Pretty simple, eh?

Okay, on to the tip of the week. I promise to keep it short. 

This is it: Use contractions. Almost always. Real people in real conversations use contractions. No one says: "I do not have the needed ingredient for this dish, so I am going to the store where I shall pick up some cilantro."

We say: "I don't have any cilantro. I'm going to the store to pick some up."

When you write out words that could, and should, be contractions, you make your characters sound needlessly formal, or like English is their second language. 

However, if your character is formal, say a grand duke or a nineteenth-century butler, then by all means, let them speak with panache. Likewise, if they're new to America, feel free to skip the contractions, misuse common idioms, and let them use improper grammar. 

Then take it back to my first rule. Read it out loud.

If it sounds awkward, redo it.

Easy as that. So, what do you think? And what are your dialogue pet peeves? We'll make our best attempt to cover them all in the coming weeks.

 




Thanks to dalbera for the great blah image. http://ow.ly/pdjwa