As with many elements of writing, dialogue can be difficult. New and learning writers face many challenges with it. At the surface level and beginning writer may be inclined to ask, “What’s so hard about relating what characters are saying?” It is true that the idea of dialogue is simple, the writer creating or retelling a conversation between characters or real people, but experienced writers know that dialogue is an art within an art.
How to Write Dialogue: the Mechanics
Traditionally writers use tags to indicate which person or character is speaking. Most readers are so accustomed to seeing he/she said at the end of quoted dialogue that they barely register it. Minimalistic writers like Hemingway would enjoy the simplicity of using he/she said. However, other tags exist that can convey the way that a line of dialogue was spoken.
For example, compare the following lines by using their tags:
“John, I’m leaving you,” she said.
“John, I’m leaving you,” she whispered.
“John, I’m leaving you,” she cried.
Note the raw mechanics of these lines as well. When using a tag directly at the end of dialogue, always include a comma followed by the quotation marks. The tag should not be capitalized. Connecting dialogue can be done in a number of ways, such as:
“John, I’m leaving you,” she whispered. “I can’t take anymore of this.”
However, this could also be done in this way: “John, I’m leaving you,” she said, “I can’t take anymore of this.”
The different tags tell the reader mostly how loud she is speaking the words, but they can also convey emotion when further details are added. It’s easy for writers to mix up the tags, but be warned that creative tags can sometimes detract from the actual line of dialogue. While writing, consider this question: Is this tag distracting my readers from what’s being said? Is this line of dialogue strong enough to stand on its own?
It is with the second question that another element of dialogue comes into play, and sadly this one is much harder.
Good Dialogue is Realistic but Has Meaning
From time to time everyone will come across bad dialogue, and every writer is guilty of it. Bad dialogue may be completely sound grammatically, but readers will cringe anyway. Why is this? One of the most common mistakes a writer can make with dialogue is by pushing their own agenda into it. The writer, working in the background, is concerned with creating a story. Too often conversations between characters are sacrificed for the furthering of plot. This mistake is so common in fact that it has its own name: Expositional Dialogue.
“As you know, we’ve been looking for Spinosaurus bones in Egypt for two years with the hope that we might find some skin imprints. It’s been long and hard and the sun is sure hot outside, but finally we’ve found something to show for all our hard work.”
Presumably the character is speaking to others on the team because the speaker is saying we and as you know. The dialogue is extraneous for the situation. A real person would never waste time saying information that the gathered group already knows.
Try to use character conversations to more subtly advance the plot. To do this, do not be afraid to add details and description to fill in gaps for the reader, restricting the dialogue to what would be natural for the character to say. This is actually more enjoyable for readers in the long run.
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