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Dialogue Dilemmas
One of the most exciting things about good dialogue is getting visual. One of Shakespeare’s greatest talents was his ability to fire the imagination with dialogue. Every line of prose powerful and packed with 'mental cinematography'.
In the contemporary novel or story the reader is already saturated with countless images from film and TV and so needs an 'instant fix' . This is immediate and a sort of narrative gratification. So dialogue needs to be as stimulating as physical action. The popular courtroom drama is all about confrontational dialogue. Evidence and counter evidence. Crime scenes are graphically described and witnesses contradicted. The OJ Simpson trial commanded such media attention and extraordinary viewer figures. Why? Most of the dialogue was pretty heavy and dull. The real interest was waiting for the inevitable sensational 'exchanges'.
If you want to hear 'nothing' dialogue you can get it free on CB radio. Supermarkets or wedding receptions. People do not want to read a bunch of ‘small talk’.
Dialogue is about what is happening here and now.
But this is my point. If you gave the OJ Simpson court transcripts to people to read about the trial would they bother too?
'Reality shows' are a clear contradiction in terms. But the dialogue is just endless hours of meaning less junk-chat. But then somebody will have some 'confrontational dialogue'. A levelled criticism. A disagreement. Some gossip or rumour. Some abuse. An issue. Verbosity. A gathering storm.
That is what all those idle viewers are waiting for. If you watch Eastenders (this is not an advisory) all the dialogue is about a stressful situation that turns into 'verbal volleyball' A conversation on collision course. All that bickering. Cross purposes. The difference is that there are accompanying images that match the dialogue. You don't have that sensory luxury in your book so you have to compensate with 'painting your picture' with your dialogue. Put the expressions clearly on the faces of your characters.
Do not be misled.
Dialogue does not have to be the conversation between constant warring characters. You can use 'co-operative dialogue' that 'plays ball' some of the time. But a dash of ambiguity or a paradox should at some stage start to appear. Dissent should never be far away. Like a good joke. Its how it is told not the punch-line.
Timing is very important.
The reader needs to find a pace. Dialogue should be well paced and in a almost musical rhythm. If dialogue was a concerto then you are the conductor. You know which bars need to bring in the strings and which to bring in the horns. When to add the smash of a cymbal or the the thunder of the kettle drum.
The whole idea is that dialogue should be a sensory experience. Like "The Flight of the bumble bee" sounds just like the title. Your dialogue must portray its own images.
There is nothing more irritating than too much dialogue. A whole page of inverted commas is a 'put off' to the reader. Like wise too little in between superlatives or over-done word smithery is uncomfortable too. You have to find a lyrical quality in your writing to breathe life into it. Give it wings. To take your reader from one end of the dance floor to the other.
Soap opera scripts are about conflict not idle chat.
It is a bit like learning a new language. Conversation is generally very boring. Most of us spend half the day talking about things before or after the event that are of no consequence. The most interesting dialogue you have is with your family, friends or colleagues 'during a plot'. A quarrel. Differences. Oddities. Freak accidents. A clash of personality. Dialogue is not about what is about to happen or after it happened. Its about what going on right there and then. here and now. I cannot stress this enough.
Dialogue is not stuck in that rut for nothing. Dialogue can create many different images. It is not repetitive.
Let me illustrate.
If you watched a DVD and somebody kept rewinding it at the crucial part it would annoy you, right? Dialogue does not retread it steps.
Dialogue is a series of clues of what is going to happen next, or echoes of the scene you are writing about. Dialogue and spoken words are completely different. Two way conversation as a 'record' does not tell you much about the people necessarily. It does not move the story along or create suspense.
For instance.
"Hey, Mike, how are you doing?"
"Oh. pretty good."
"Are you sure? You look a bit jaded. Is everything all right with Connie?"
Straightforward dialogue. Readable maybe, but what is missing?
Try this
Peter: "Hey, Mike, how are you doing?"
Mike: "Oh, pretty good."
Peter: "Are you sure? You look a bit jaded. Is everything all right with Connie?"
Mike: "I said, I'm OK, now back off."
That extra line opened up a can of worms. Already the reader is trying to keep ahead of the story and find some 'closure' or reconcile events in their 'kept busy' mind.
They are asking themselves.
What happened to Connie?
What happened to Mike?
Is something going to happen to Connie?
Is something going to happen to Mike?
Has Peter done something to offend Mike?
Why is Mike so impatient?
What is troubling Mike?
The reader has a thousand visuals in his/her head wrestling to find a conclusion or problem solve your mental picture that you have imprinted on the readers mind.
Dialogue should be 'trimmed to the bone'. Concise. Avoid too many 'word whiskers' "Uh", “Errr", "Ummm", "Ahhh".
Likewise superlatives and double positive/negative inferences are treating the reader like they are stupid. Dialogue is a treasure hunt where you don't give away the answers to the clues between speech-marks until the end. And even then you don't have to tell them!
The less said the better for high impact.
But flying in the face of all that is written about 'what makes good dialogue, it must be said that there are no hard and fast rules. I have often dared to contradict the above in my pieces.
So my advice would be inadmissible in a court of law, but I would stand up when sentenced as they snap the cuffs go on and scream at the top of my voice,
"You will never take me alive you bastards, and I hope you and your family go to hell!".
See what happened there? Did you feel it? That last line was a bit of my own dialogue to make sure you weren't getting bored.
Rules are there to be broken and to find your own style might require breaching such advice. Dialogue is often used to open a chapter because if it creates a picture in the readers mind it will compel them to read on.
Dialogue is a skill that is about corresponding a mental sketch with the reader.
Dialogue should disarm. Make the reader inquisitive. Already postulate a question in the readers mind.
Excellent dialogue should neurological create an undetermined 'flashback'. Or better still, a 'flashforward".
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