How to Turn Your Life into Fiction Step 7: Dialogue

Dialogue is a literary technique where two or more characters are engaged in conversation with one another. In a novel, it’s the oil that lubricates the cogs of the story to turn. When I was younger, I’d sometimes skip whole sections of a book just to jump to the dialogue. I did this especially if the book was gripping, and I needed desperately to find out what happens next. 

Dialogue or narrative?

Narrative, on the other hand, can be defined as a report of related events presented to readers, in words arranged in a logical sequence. 

Deciding when to use dialogue, as opposed to narrative, is a difficult judgment to make. A good novel should have both of these  elements of fiction. Dialogue makes a scene more dramatic, but if a book has too much dialogue, this can make it seem odd, and will soon turn some readers off the novel. 

It can also be difficult for the reader to concentrate on who is speaking, or who said what. I tend to just know when I have to place some dialogue into the text, so my advice is that you tell the most interesting points of the plot in dialogue, and the rest in the narrative form. But it’s all a question of balance.

Dialogue in novels isn’t ‘real’

So we’ve determined that dialogue is very important in a story.  But how do you make dialogue gripping and realistic to the reader?

Some think that recounting the words that they have overheard or witnessed is the best way to write exciting scenes. Sadly, this is far from the truth. If you’ve ever listened to people on the bus – or even better – recorded a real conversation, you will find that people tend to take a long time to say what they mean. People use a lot of unnecessary comments, such as ‘Hmm, ‘What I mean is’, ‘Really’, ‘Aha’. They also repeat themselves and often jump from one topic to the next without any warning whatsoever. 

In a novel, even though the dialogue is the most exciting part, it needs to be measured. The fewer words a character uses, the more weight they carry. On the other hand, adding a few buts and ifs, for example, will change the expressions dramatically. So be very selective with your dialogue. Pepper it throughout the book as if it was some kind of exotic spice. Too little and the novel is bland, too much and it’s unreadable.

Informative dialogue

As well as the spice in your book, dialogue also has several important purposes in the story. 

Firstly, dialogue should be informative. Words spoken by the characters should move the story along by telling the reader what someone is thinking or doing. 

Look at the statement, ‘I love you’. It’s powerful. It tells the reader that the character has deep feelings, or at least he or she wants the other person to believe that they have sincere intentions. 

Show the character’s attributes and motivation

Secondly, dialogue should show both the relationship between characters, but also the speaker’s own inner and outer conflicts. 

Having conflict in dialogue is often necessary to exhibit the relationship between the characters. If the protagonist says, ‘But I love you!’ the sentence conveys the desperation of the character. Here, the ‘I love you’ sentiment is more a plea for empathy. The reader understands that the person speaking those words may have another motive than simply declaring his love.

I hope you can see from these two examples how the reader learns a lot about the character’s motivations through the dialogue you put into their mouths.

We rarely say what we mean

Something which is true both in real life and in novels is that people and characters rarely say exactly what they mean. In the above example, our protagonist is more likely to say, ‘You mean a lot to me', or ‘Your scarf is exactly the same color as your eyes.’ They may even say (or shout) the complete opposite, ‘I hate you!’ Love and hate are closely aligned emotions, so a character may well say the latter but mean the former.

When you are writing dialogue for a novel based on real-life, you need to think carefully about what to include and what to leave out. Instead of thinking of the words the people used, think about what they wanted to convey with those words. Or what they would say while meaning something completely different. Cut out unnecessary words and remember that dialogue is the exotic spice in your novel.

Who is speaking?

Finally, it may seem obvious that the reader needs to know who is speaking the words in your dialogue. But you’d be surprised how blind us writers can be to this type of error. Because we know the story, characters, and plot intimately, we often forget that the reader isn’t as knowledgeable about our novel. My editor often picks out dialogue where I haven’t made it clear who the words on the page belong to.  So please always make it clear to the reader who is speaking.

The most important point is not to use real dialogue and to make sure the dialogue informs the reader of the character’s inner thoughts and moves the story on.

This post is an excerpt taken from my book, Write Your Story: Turn Your Life Into Fiction In 10 Easy Steps. To find out more go here.

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