Crafting Authentic Dialogue: Unleash Your Characters' Voices

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Music.
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Hello, and welcome to Writing While Distracted, the writing podcast that helps
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you transform your scattered thoughts into literary brilliance.
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I'm your host, Brenda Murphy, your neuro-spicy writing coach.
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And today, we're going to talk about my favorite part of revision.
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And I know I've said that about several parts of revision, but I truly enjoy polishing my dialogue.
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And that's what we're going to discuss next. So stay tuned.
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Music.
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Hello, friends, and welcome back to Writing While Distracted.
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And today, as I said before, we're going to talk about dialogue and dig deep
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into a topic that I really feel can make or break a novel.
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And writing dialogue for a lot of people is the most difficult part of constructing
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a story. And it can be particularly challenging for folks who are neurodivergent.
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Whether you're on the autism spectrum, have ADHD, or whatever else,
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you might experience communication differently.
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And that's a strength, because we can bring a fresh perspective to dialogue.
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And today we're going to share some strategies to help you make the most out of your strengths.
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First of all, we want to keep our dialogue when we're doing revisions.
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This is when I'm talking about not, and you can try it the first time around,
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but I often find that I need to polish my dialogue because whatever I spill
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out on the page during my first go at a manuscript is not my best work.
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And that's the point. It's a rough draft. You want to polish it and make it be the best it can be.
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So the first thing you want to do with dialogue is you want to keep it natural, but not boring.
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During a typical communication, we use a lot of fillers, we wander in our conversations.
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It can really trip you up in trying to make your dialogue sound like real-life conversations.
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But real-life conversations are messy. We go off on tangents,
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we use filler words, We interrupt each other, and there are pauses as we gather our thoughts.
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And that's okay while we're in person, but in a novel, trying to fit all of
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that in is going to make your dialogue soggy and weak and confusing.
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So you need to cut out the small talk and the filler words and make the conversation
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flow and move your story forward. That's the other part of dialogue.
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It shouldn't be dialogue simply for dialogue's sake. It should move your story forward.
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It should advance the plot or show us something about your character or about what's going to happen.
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It can be used for foreshadowing. It can be used to demonstrate fears that your character has.
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There's so many functions of dialogue. It is so critical to your story.
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People use contractions in real life. They don't typically say I am or do not.
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However, people speak differently depending on their upbringing,
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how they live their lives, their education, where they're from,
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where the story is set, time period.
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There are so many things that fall into that formal versus informal conversation.
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We also speak more formally with those people we don't know very well versus
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the people that we do know.
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So there are levels to conversation and you can show characters getting to know each other,
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becoming more comfortable when they drop formal speech and fall into what would
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be more speech that you would have occur between friends or lovers or intimate people.
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I mean, those are the kinds of things you can show with dialogue,
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the progression of a relationship with how people speak to each other.
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You want to be mindful of people's relationships with how they communicate with each other.
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And as neurodivergent writers, we may think a little differently about communication.
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Maybe you're someone who prefers directness, or maybe you're more into subtlety.
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Either way, dialogue is a great way to show a character's personalities and
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emotions without having to explain it.
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And we all know that explaining things are not what our readers want.
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They want to see it on the page. They want to experience it,
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if you will, through the dialogue. It is the soundtrack of your novel.
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Your dialogue is your soundtrack of the novel.
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That's what keeps the story flowing, is your dialogue.
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So instead of telling your readers that she was nervous, you're going to let
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the dialogue, let her manner of speaking show you that she's nervous or bored
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or angry or whatever the emotion is.
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Using words and manner of speaking is going to show that to your readers.
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And here's the tricky part about dialogue. You want to pay attention to the
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subtext. There are times that you can show your characters talking about one
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thing, but we all know as readers, that's not really what they're talking about.
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And that happens in everyday life. And so you want to bring that into your story.
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They may be discussing the oil change for the car, but that's not really what they're discussing.
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They're discussing their relationship, couched, and who's responsible for getting
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the oil changed in the car.
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And those are the kinds of everyday things you can build into your novel using those conversations.
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What's being said is important, but there's a whole story that can go into what is not being said.
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You can show that through short clipped sentences, by what they leave unsaid.
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And hint at the character's emotions by using dialogue tags to show what they're doing.
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If you have a character slamming a pot onto a stove and ripping the lid off
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a box of pasta and dumping it into the boiling water,
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those are all abrupt, angry-appearing emotions or upset emotions.
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But if her dialogue doesn't match that, clipped dialogue, short sentences, or non-responses.
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The mismatch can either be purposeful in that she's one of those people that
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doesn't say when she's upset, or it can be because she's just tired of explaining
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the same dang thing again over and over.
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It can show a deterioration in their relationship.
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So use your dialogue tags. Now, dialogue tags.
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When I'm talking about that is the very ubiquitous, he said, she said.
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Personally, I'm not a fan of he said, she said, because very infrequently do
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people ever just stand still during a conversation.
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They're doing things, fiddling with a pen, rubbing the table,
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folding their hands, doing things that you can use to show your reader who's speaking.
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Now, he said, she said, disappear, but overuse of that is absolutely monotonous.
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And if you want an idea of how.
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Difficult it is for the reader's brain. Now, people say, oh,
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readers just skip over that. Well, readers do.
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But if your story is being read out loud, if your reader's using machine speech-to-text,
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whatever, you are going to notice how absolutely annoying it is to hear he said,
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she said, every other line of dialogue.
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Sometimes if you know who's speaking, you only have two people speaking.
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You only have to tag one person with an action. I think that dialogue is such
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a deep subject that the more you know about it, the more you listen to dialogue.
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Whenever I'm struggling with dialogue, I go back and I watch movies from the
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30s and 40s when they were first bringing talking into movies because,
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you know, there were silent films before that.
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But a lot of the films that they made were based on stage plays,
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which is another great place to study dialogue or movies, all of that.
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Watch how the story unfolds with dialogue and watch what the characters are
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doing while they're speaking.
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That will help you get into the mindset of how to tag your speakers with actions
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versus he said, she said. As we're talking about tagging dialogue with actions,
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that's the other part of your story you want to pay attention.
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Balance your dialogue, your interchanges with characters, with actions in the story.
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Too much of either thing is boring. You need to have the dialogue flow into
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natural breaks in the story.
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No one breaks into a very long monologue in the middle of a fistfight.
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Yes, they might say some things in a fistfight.
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But believe me, no one is going to give them time to stand back and have an
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entire page of dialogue unless the fistfight is over and somebody is laying
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on the ground so that they can talk.
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So don't do that. Don't have these long, drawn-out passages of dialogue while
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people are doing things.
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Balance it. You can have them talk while they're walking. You might have them
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chat a wee bit while they're running.
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But remember the natural pace of what they're doing and try and balance that out within your story.
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The other thing when you tag your actions is don't use those L-Y words.
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And I'm going to give you an example. He said tapping his foot anxiously.
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Now, you can say he tapped his foot it.
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But don't use anxiously. Use another description to say how it was.
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His foot hit the floor with a rapid staccato.
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Or he tapped his foot. You can leave it there and have the reader understand
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from the way he delivers his words that he's anxious or angry or frustrated.
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Use the words in your dialogue to show someone's emotion.
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The tag that you're using, he tapped his foot, they rolled the program tighter
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in their hands, balled their hands into a fist, whatever other tag you want
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to put in there, have it match what's going on in the words.
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Don't use those L-Y words. They're just a waste of space and redundant.
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Your dialogue should be able to convey that emotion. motion.
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Now, info dumps. A lot of first-time writers are really prone to info dumps.
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You'll hear that as, you see Bob, or as you know Bob, and then the person will
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go on and drone on and on about parts of the story that the other person already knew.
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And don't do that. That makes for the worst kind of writing.
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Don't say, I know you're mad at me for being late again.
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Don't do that. You can have the person walk in the door and just say sorry,
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and the other person angrily reheating dinner, have those actions going on.
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And then the person who was late, I couldn't help it. I had to stay late.
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And then just leave it because the other person turns around and glares at them.
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And at that point, they know that no explanation is going to save this relationship.
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That's what I'm talking about for dialogue.
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Imagine it in your head as it would be in real life. You wouldn't walk in the
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door and say that in real life. I know you're mad at me again.
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Well, you might, but it doesn't make for good reading. So don't do that.
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Information dumps also about research, like say your character's an expert in something.
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Don't have them go on for three or four pages about why something is the way it is.
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Even if it serves your plot, break it up and only put in the key points and
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have it be a natural sort of exchange.
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Have the other person ask why questions that then that person has to answer.
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Or you can say, I don't believe you. How is that possible?
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Or what are you talking about? And then they have an opportunity to explain, but keep it short.
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Don't write a dissertation about whatever it is. Have your character speak a
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dissertation about whatever it is the other person asked them a question about.
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Again, that makes for a boring book and not something someone wants to read,
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and they're going to skim over your dialogue. Now, the technical side of punctuating
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your dialogue is one of those things that your copy editor will help you with.
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But remember, there are tags like said, asked. Asked is another one you can use.
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However, if there's a question mark at the end of your sentence,
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I would submit that asked is redundant and I don't personally use it.
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But if there's a way that someone says something, as in whispered or shouted
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or muttered, those are great because that tells you tone.
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But remember, don't say, he said, get out, angrily.
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We should get that from the tone. And think about the tone.
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Get out, he shouted, versus get out, he whispered. two different tones and points in your story.
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One could be absolutely menacing, the other just an everyday occurrence.
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Who knows? But my point is, use your dialogue to convey the tone and the atmosphere of your story.
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And use those tags wisely and forget the L-Y tags, please.
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Silences are just as powerful. Your character not responding to another character's
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dialogue or stopping themselves from continuing a line of dialogue can be very,
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very powerful in the storytelling toolbox.
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The things that your characters don't say carry emotional weight.
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Or if a character is hesitant, or if there's an awkward pause before they start,
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or if they try and busy themselves looking away, finding many other things to
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do rather than confront the situation,
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that lends power and that lends excitement to your manuscript.
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Pay attention to overly long conversations.
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Yes, it can happen.
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But if you feel the need to have a long conversation happen with your characters,
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break it up with a little bit of action in between.
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Say they've had a wonderful night together and it's the morning after,
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and it's not an awkward morning after, it's an exciting morning after.
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It's a, we're looking forward to our future morning after.
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It's, I'm not sure we're gonna leave the house morning after, if you write romance.
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Break up that happy conversation with maybe them having breakfast and then figuring
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out what they're gonna do the day.
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That's another conversation. And then whatever happens after that conversation.
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Conversation, break those scenes up.
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Don't have pages and pages and pages of dialogue without your characters doing
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something, because people will skip that, and it doesn't push your story forward.
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And lastly, be super careful of exposition. And I kind of touched on that with
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the you-see-Bob kind of conversation.
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It can feel like it would be the natural thing for someone to do to explain what just happened.
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But here's the deal. Even though that might occur in real life,
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as in my explaining this to you for a long period of time that you're purposely listening to,
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it doesn't make for good reading to have your character drone on for pages and
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pages and pages about whatever.
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You need to break that up. You need to pay attention on whether or not whatever
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they're conveying in the dialogue really needs to be part of their dialogue,
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or if you could show it through action or other ways.
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And that's an editorial decision. That's what you're doing during revision,
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looking at your dialogue and seeing how you can make it the most effective way
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to convey your story and to convey emotions and tone.
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Move your plot forward. Show character.
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Character interactions shown through dialogue is a goldmine of storytelling.
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You can learn more. You can show your readers more in a four-sentence interchange
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between a character and another character than and pages and pages of manuscript can convey.
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So always hold on to that. There are a few movies that I feel like really do
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a great job with dialogue, and they're older movies.
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One of them is the Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall classic,
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The Big Sleep. It's a detective story.
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It's kind of twisty, but the dialogue is just on point. Interestingly enough,
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the screenplay was written by William Faulkner.
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I find that a really great movie to watch again when I'm really stuck for how
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to use my dialogue effectively.
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Some modern movies that I find use a dialogue effectively are Good Will Hunting,
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Silence of the Lambs, The Big Chill, No Country for Old Men,
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The Big Lebowski, and Fargo.
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Screenwriters that I would recommend are Chloe Zhao, Shonda Rhimes,
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Diablo Cody, Misha Green, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Sofia Coppola.
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All of those screenwriters bring a freshness to their dialogue and are very,
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very good storytellers.
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So check them out as well.
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All of those movies, the thing that they have in common is their ability to
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have dialogue that conveys volumes in addition to the visuals that are going on in that story.
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And why I watch movies for dialogue is that much of a movie's success depends upon its dialogue.
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We will have books that are infinitely more readable and relatable because there's
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no room for excess in a movie script.
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You have about 90 pages to tell a story.
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And in that 90 pages, what's going to be the prominent thing?
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Dialogue. That's the most important part to convey your story.
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And there are a lot of directors of photography that'll probably argue with
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me, but I'm going to say this.
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You could have not so good filmmaking and not so good photography,
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but if your dialogue is on point, that movie is still going to be a success.
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If you have the best cinematography in the world, the most amazing amazing cinematography
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in the world and your dialogue is terrible, that movie is not going to be a success.
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There are plenty of examples of that, but I won't go into those.
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So I hope I've given you a lot to think about and to remember as you're working
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on your dialogue, remember, keep it natural, give each character their own voice,
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balance it with action, and make sure that your dialogue has a purpose.
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Remember that as a neurodivergent writer, you have a unique perspective that
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can lend strength to your dialogue, to your observations.
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Lean into that. Use your different way of experiencing the world to create dialogue
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that is engaging and authentic.
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So until next time, keep writing. I hope these tips will help you make your
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next revision process a little easier, and we'll see you again in the next podcast.
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Thanks for tuning in to Writing While Distracted, where we navigate the winding
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roads of creativity amidst the chaos of distraction.
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If you've enjoyed this podcast and found it useful, please share it and tag
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me. DM me and let me know what you found useful. I love to hear from y'all.
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Please leave a review as it really helps get the podcast in front of more folks.
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Remember, in the dance between focus and diversion, every stumble is a step
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closer to mastering the art of writing.
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Join us next time as we continue to unravel the mysteries of the writer's mind.
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Until then, keep writing, keep wandering, and embrace the distractions that fuel your creativity.
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Stay tuned, stay inspired.
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Music.