Dialogue
is the hardest aspect of fiction to get right, realistic and relevant. Yet it's
the pivotal mechanism that gives life to characters and drives along the
narrative and plot. It's essential in a compelling, attention-grabbing novel to
avoid producing wooden, pompous or dull conversations which jar on the reader,
argue with the character's personality, and contribute nothing to the
development of the tale.
One
key task for any aspiring writer is to read how other writers successfully
reproduce dialogue in their novels. I would add a second task. I find, as a TV
and movie buff, that listening to dialogue particularly in soap operas is
incredibly enlightening. I have no truck with critics who claim that soaps are
trash. They are a tremendeous, fun example both of great acting and of great
script writing, and the spring board for some very successful TV and movie
writers.
In
a soap the action is brought to us entirely through the reactions and words of
a cast of characters. The drama, arguments, fights, accidents, love
affairs, tragedies, comedic moments, have all come through those characters'
personae and through their mouths. If you listen carefully there are rare
occasions when the script writers don't get it entirely right and you are
entitled to criticise and to learn from that. One example that always strikes me
is how many dramatised mothers call their children by their name, instead of
say 'darling' or 'honey'. I'm not talking about soppiness. I'm talking about
natural affection. It's rare in my life to hear kids addressed without some kind
of endearment. My own kids have all manner of names, some of which I'm trying to
shed now that they're pushing teenage-hood. My sisters and I were only addressed
by our full names when our parents were angry. The rest of the time we were
known as The Buns or The Pickles which in itself is a long story..
Ditto
couples and lovers. Watch how they address each other on screen, and ask
yourself if that's realistic. ~Why not be an armchair critic!
Sometimes
after watching a film or programme I have been particularly moved by I find
myself writing dialogue like charactersI have just been watching. If I was
teaching a creative writing course, I would perhaps get my students to write a
scene in the manner of say EastEnders or Silent Witness or Mad Men, or Downton
Abbey.
So,
back to the writing. The fourth exercise I recommend to writers is
to read out loud the dialogue they've written - or with a very patient friend -
so as to see if it's realistic. But the final exercise for writing dialogue came
to me today as a brain wave after my nine year old son described his English
test. It occurred to me that it would be a brilliant exercise to give aspiring
writers in a workshop scenario, where there's a classroom feeling and also the
opportunity to see how others achieve it and what they think of your
efforts.
Basically
take the outline of a story or a play, a film, perhaps a newspaper article. It
doesn't have to be particularly dramatic or interesting or creative or artistic.
In fact the challenge would lie in taking one that wasn't obviously fascinating,
such as a financial report or a scientific discovery. Because the exercise is
then to bring that piece of writing, that chunk of information, to life. Using
only dialogue. This could be done as an interview, say a radio interview, but
that risks coming across as too stilted or formal. Nevertheless, it would be a
good vehicle for regurgitating the information in a different format.
Another way would be to have two or three characters talking about
the incident/contents of the report/scientific discovery, telling each other
what it involves, what they think of it, what it might mean. They could be
personally involved, or they could be observers.
Either
way the challenge is to take a story or factual report written as prose, and
turn it into a conversation.
See
my own short stories 'Stabbing the Rain' on Amazon. Short stories are often
thought of as more musing, introspective prose pieces, but perhaps because of my
love of televised drama, I tend to use dialogue a lot because I can hear the
characters. I can also see them on screen, perhaps in a Hollywood version of my
work. With Julianne Moore playing me!
Well,
we can always dream! Here is the link to my stories:
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