HOW TO WRITE DIALOGUE

DO ALL YOUR CHARACTERS SOUND ALIKE?

How do you distinguish one character's dialogue from another? If you Google you'll find lots of authors and tutors giving their suggestions. There's useful advice there and it's tempting to apply it to characters all the way through the story but I think the important point is to SUGGEST rather than to hammer the differences home in every line of dialogue, which can become tedious and could slow down the pace of your story.

On the other hand, distinctive individual dialogue often develops as you get to know the characters in your story, knowing them so well eventually that you actually hear their voices inside your head!

I thought I'd have another look at some of my own writing and see if I could find some examples. How about doing the same with your own work, isolating the odd conversation from the story itself and seeing if it works? The following, though, are mostly just single sentences.

'Delighted, my dear. Take a pew.' This is a well-educated middle class older man.

'The guys all seemed so juvenile, apart from the usual creepy gang of hasbeens with their eyes on stalks.' A young woman, worldly but no longer a teenager.

'I ate half a caterpillar once. It was sweet. Like sugar. One of those long thin green ones, it was.' A small boy.

'That is a pity. Because I do not think your parents will wish to entertain your friend at this time.' An educated but non-English rather sinister man.

'Child - you are a child, are you not? Child, do you realise to whom you are speaking?' A conceited pompous fantasy character.

'Dickheads! Fuckwits! Arseholes! Just because a girl doesn't look like Beyonce, she doesn't have to take that sort of crap!' An angry tearful seventeen year old girl.

Normally it's not really a good idea to use slang or jargon of the moment, because it dates so quickly. Of course, if your story's set in the future you could invent your own. Think of The Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess).

Individuality depends on many things. A well educated, well read person will have a much greater vocabulary at their fingertips, at the other extreme a kid from a deprived area may struggle to find more than a few dozen words, relying heavily on the F-word. An older person may use words and phrases seldom heard amongst the younger generation and may - or may not - be more polite, more tentative. Syntax - the order of words in a sentence - may figure heavily. Grammar, dropped aitches and gees, mispronunciation, rushed, self-interrupted or slow and deliberate- all of these might be used, but again occasionally rather than continually.

Dialect can be a problem. likewise a character whose home language isn't English. Suggest occasionally - and avoid cliches (Och aye! for a Scotsman, n'est-ce-pas at the end of every sentence for a Frenchman. Syntax is useful here, again used occasionally.

I hope this is helpful. Setting it down has certainly helped me, making me think more deeply about my own characters.

WRITING YOUR FIRST CHAPTER

Dialogue always looks good on the first page, doesn’t it? Two characters plunging into the story. Plenty of white space. Exclamation marks!

But you don’t have to start at the beginning of the conversation. The small talk, the explanations. Start in the middle, where the drama begins.

‘You’re leaving me?’

‘I’m sorry, I -’

‘Who is she?’

‘You don’t know her.’

‘It’s not that new secretary, is it?’

He shook his head. ‘You’ve never met her. She’s … someone from the past.’

Ah! The first clue!

Or, in a crime novel, start with the murder. Your reader doesn’t know who the victim is, or even the murderer. All that will come later.

How about a waking up scene? Your character opens their eyes. They’re in bed/in a locked cellar/buried under masonry/on an operating table/ sprawled alongside a wrecked plane, the pilot and his mate hanging out of the cockpit.

Drama! Mystery! Suspense! Explanations can come later, maybe not until the final chapter.

WRITING - IT'S ALL IN THE MIND!

If you're feeling bored and frustrated, with nothing to do except go to work, clean house, cook dinner, feed the offspring, feed the cat, walk the dog, weed the garden, mow the lawn, check the bank statement, watch Match of the Day or The Great British Bake Off, perhaps you need a new interest.

So, assuming you enjoy reading and managed to stay awake through at least a few English language classes at school, why not become an author? Writing fiction - creating fictional people, putting them into scary or crazy situations - is FUN, and a long long way from writing an essay on 'What I did during the summer holidays'.

Perhaps there's no risk of your becoming the new Stephen King, Katie Fforde or J K Rowling, but hey, who needs money? And no one's saying it's not hard work, but the enormous, amazing, fantastic pleasure is in creating a world from inside your brain that's totally different from anyone else's.

So, why not have a go? It's easier - and harder - than you think!