Writing Business, Part IV

(Part I, Part II, Part III)

So I had all these thoughts of making this entire post a big dialog. Then I wrote it. It was lame. And trust me, lame dialog is death. So I erased it.

You’re welcome.

Instead, we’ll skip all the cleverness (that wasn’t) and just talk about dialog. Whew.

Dialog is probably my favorite thing to write. I love conversations, and how they can either show a character hiding things, or sink you right down into his soul. In fact, in nearly all my books, dialog is where I begin (writing). I write a scene where my characters are exploring something exceedingly emotional. I also love to write in first person point of view, and so my written dialog is a little more telling than if we had to depend only on the words inside the quote marks. Because my narrator will tell us (readers) things she may not say out loud.

But in any case, I love to start (writing) a story somewhere in the middle, with people saying some things and hiding others. Maybe the things they don’t say are just as important to the conversation. Maybe I should remember that and apply it to my life. (I’m feeling all metaphysical right now. Must stop that.)

Here are some non-Rules to consider.

DIALOG DO:
Let your characters express their prejudices, their backgrounds, their desires through conversation.

DIALOG DON’T:
Don’t let them state their prejudices, their backgrounds, or their desires. Show me, don’t tell me. “I am a lapsed Jew.” vs “Do you thing Bubbie would be offended if I brought this ham to her Seder party?”

DIALOG DO:
Let their conversations make their connections. Let them discover things about others (and themselves) as they talk.

DIALOG DON’T:
Never let your characters dump lots of “backstory” information in a conversation. A little is fine (“Did you know he is my cousin?” ) but a lot is death. (“Many years ago, my mother’s twin sister, crazed from the ill-effects of lead poisoning from eating paint in their grandmother’s attic windowsills, had a tryst with the guy who aerated their lawn every summer. When she disappeared, no one imagined that she’d return in seven and a half months, slightly wider about the hips, and resume her life. But she never spoke again. Several years later, a family with a little boy moved in near her, and the small boy took an uncanny interest in his mute neighbor. He spent every day with my aunt, learning to peel apples in one long, curling strip. No one seemed to notice how much he actually looked like her…” See how that’s horrible? On so many levels?)

DIALOG DO:
Let your characters say things you would never say. I’m not talking about profanity, here. I am not a profanity kind of girl. But I’m also not a confrontation kind of girl, but I let my characters be offensive and confrontational now and then. I let them be unkind and disrespectful, which I rarely am (out loud).

DIALOG DON’T:
Just don’t let them say anything _____-ly. Only Ms. Rowling is allowed to do this. No one else. If you want me to know that Sam is speaking slyly, let her say a sly word or do a sly action or, better yet, cause me to EXPECT slyness from Sam. If Jerry speaks joyfully, for heaven’s sake, make his words joyful. His hands can fling about. But if you write the word “joyfully” in your manuscript, pray for a trusted friend to scratch it into oblivion. Also, on a related note, when Sam says something, just tell me she said it. No matter what your seventh grade English teacher told you, “said” four thousand times is much less distracting than “exclaimed” “uttered” “pronounced” “claimed” and “stated.” Because duh.

Good enough place to start? Excellent. Carry on writing, please.