Writing Great Dialogue- Adam Desnoyers 10/10/07

I. Intent of Dialogue
a) Moves story forward
b) Shares information about characters/story
c) Shows the nature of the characters
d) Create conflict
e) Gives information
f) Gives history
II. General ideas
a) If you are afraid or unsure of how to write dialogue, pick your favorite writer and copy the
way they write dialogue.
b) Dialogue is a reduction
1. It is an exaggeration or approximation of how people talk. Not really how people talk.
2. Needs to do work, meaning it must reveal something about the characters/story that can
be revealed in no other way.
c) If character is performing an action and someone in story speaks, its likely the character
who is performing the action.
d) The way characters speak is representative of them
1. e.g. A shifty character will evade answering the question.
2. e.g. A nave character might give too much information.
III. If character is asked a question in story, they can answer it in a number of ways. No need to
give a straight answer.
a) Evades answering
b) Omits information in answer
c) Inappropriate/forward
d) Asks question or comments
e) Doesn't answer question at all. Non responsive answer.
f) Gets defensive
g) Turns the question back on the speaker
h) Changes the subject
i) Says something crazy. Different from inappropriate because it is so outlandish.
j) Disagrees with questioner
k) Says he doesn't want to know information. Questioner tells him anyway.
l) Answers part of the question
m) Answer can repeat plot points.
IV. Exchanges: dialogue between two characters.
a) Think about what you want each exchange to accomplish. What's your point in including
the exchange?
V. Purpose of Dialogue
a) Text: Pure text in story
b) Subtext: Indicates a deeper meaning beyond surface meaning.
c) Advances the story
1. Can show how characters feel about an event that both witnessed.
d) Reflects character's interior/soul
e) Escalates situations in story.
VI. Specific Advice
a) Tags
1. Use he said, she said, he asked, he told
 2. Don't use adverbs like he seethed, she intoned. These are tags.
3. If you use tags, people you submit the story will think you don't know what you are
doing.
4. If you need to use tags, dialogue is not telling reader enough about the character.
5. If tags are used, it must be done very sparingly. Like only once in the story.
b) Exclamation points: Avoid these for the most part. The situation and dialogue will indicate
the surprise in the situation.
c) Cursing: Avoid
1. Other words can say it better
2. Curse words give us very little information
3. Exercise: If you use a lot of cursing, take away the curse words and see what you are left
with.
d) Accent, Slang, Vernacular
1. Periodically write words in way to reflect the character's accent.
(a) Do it just enough to get the idea across.
(b) Easy to overkill, so be careful.
(c) If used too much, it can seem to dumb down that group or patronizing that group.
(d) Can reveal the writer's prejudices.
2. Foreign Language: use an occasional word from language.
3. Different regions: Use words used in those regions.
(a) For example, in some regions they say soda instead of pop to describe cola drinks.
e) Jobs
1. Have characters use jargon particular to that job.
VII. Text In Story: Falls into one of two categories
a) In scene: happening in front of reader/protagonist
1. e.g. The cat purred
b) Exposition: Actions that happened previously
1. e.g. I've had this cat for 11 years or I like this cat.
2. Don't use exposition in dialogue.
(a) Dialogue needs to do work and reveal things about characters in the situation.
(b) Exposition concerns past events or character's general feelings about a
situation/thing
3. Can just write exposition as is. Don't need to have a character saying it.
VIII. Dialogue with 3 or more people
a) Each time there's a new speaker, use that character's name
1. e.g. When Murray comes in and says something, write Murray said. Don't say He
said and then reveal Murray's the speaker later.
b) Have characters doing something during the exchange
1. Have them show mannerisms. e.g. Character smoking, stirring coffee, etc.
c) Have the character talk after the action and have another character react to what the first
character said.
IX. Summarize dialogue
a) Only use dialogue for important exchanges.
b) Can summarize conversations characters have if they're mundane or there's a long lead up to
the pay off.
c) Especially use this device if there's a story within the story.
1. e.g. One of the characters is writing a novel and there are excerpts of the novel being
read by other characters. No need to write what the text of this character's novel is.
X. Dialogue is a great way to end a story