Everyone Says It Differently

I had dinner with my mother and my grandmother the other day and at the end of the meal, we all basically said the same thing. "The meal was great." But what really interested me was how we each said it.

My grandmother said, "That was excellent. Just excellent."

My mother said, "Mm. I really enjoyed it."

And I said, "Ooh, yeah. That grub was killer."

So, why am I telling you all this? Because that's what you need to do as a writer! What? No--not have more dinners with your grandma! Jeez...

All your characters need to have their own way of saying things. Some characters would say, "half-dozen" where others would just say, "six."

You see what I'm getting at?

Yep. If you know me, you'll know I love dialogue. There's nothing better than dialogue done correctly. You can gather an endless amount of information about a character based on what they say.

But when dialogue is done badly, it can really kill a story. I don't care how good your narrative is--if your characters open their mouths and your reader yawns/rolls their eyes/skips it completely, you're done for.

--Things to avoid--

*Idle chit-chat.

No one wants to read about people talking about their breakfast or exchanging pleasantries. Cut to the meat of the conversation and let the rest go.

*Meaningless chit-chat.

Sort of like idle chit-chat, but a little different. These are conversations that lack any importance at all. They don't give the reader any new information, they don't advance the plot, they don't develop a character. They're just useless. Don't write a conversation for the sake of writing one. It needs to be important.

*Everyone-Sounds-The-Same Syndrome.

Like I said earlier, every character needs their own way of saying things. No two characters should ever sound exactly alike. If you can take everything one character says and copy and paste another character's name on it, there's something wrong.

*Everyone speaks in complete sentences and uses perfect English.

Yeah, this is a big no-no. As writers, you'd think having the English language completely mastered is a good thing. And it is. But people don't speak in complete sentences and use absolutely perfect English all the time. When it comes to dialogue, you're supposed to make things realistic.

*It's getting a little too realistic now.

Yes, I just told you to be realistic, but hear me out. When real people talk, they pause a lot. They "uh..." and "err..." and go off in all kinds of directions. If you transcribed an actual conversation, you'd see what I mean. And reading that would wear a reader out. Hell, I'd be surprised if it didn't tick them off a little. I know I'd stop reading.

So, basically, all you've got to do is make sure everything the characters say is important while also being unique to the character, but while also staying realistic, but not too realistic. Eek.

Aw, don't worry. It's not really as hard as it sounds. It just takes a little time and practice, and you'll be writing great dialogue.

My suggestions for getting better?

Well, in short, read a lot. I wrote horrible dialogue until I started avidly reading and saw how to do it well. And maybe do a little eavesdropping around the mall to get a feel for "real people speak."

For more about writing dialogue, click here.

HAPPY WRITING, LOVELIES!