The Three Requirements of Dialogue
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As writers of the macabre, we know how important it is to wrap the fantasticelements of our stories with as many truths as possible. Perhaps this is what makesdialogue such an interesting beast. It serves to add a layer of realism to our stories, yetto be convincing, dialogue must ring true and feel natural without being as meaninglessand chaotic as everyday speech can be. In essence, we are attempting to take thespoken word and convert it into coherent symbols in order to create a sort of virtualization of the truth. And, yes, there is a whole lot of room for error.There are dozens of styles and effects you can use to improve your dialogue, butoften enough authors get so concerned with the stylistic aspects that they forget whatdialogue is supposed to do, which is:
Reveal character
Build tension
Advance plotJust like in real life, much of what you learn from a character is revealed through
dialogue. In fiction, good dialogue becomes the character. It shows the character’s
motivations, intelligence, social status, and personality in such a way that readers can
draw their own conclusions about the character without having to be told. It’s n
otenough to say someone is good or bad. As authors, we must show it, and good dialoguedoes just that.Take this passage from
A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens for example:
“Every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips, should be boil
ed
with his pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.”
Dickens doesn’t say that Scrooge is mean
-spirited and hates Christmas, butrather he implies it through a conversation between Scrooge and his nephew. Theeffect works so much better than just saying that Scrooge hated Christmas and thoughtthat anyone who celebrated the holiday should die.Dialogue should also evoke foreshadowing, which is essential, especially inhorror, in building tension. Good dialogue should keep the reader wo
ndering what’s
going to happen next by providing those subtle hints of things to come. The benefit of using dialogue to build tension is that your characters can respond to a situationemotionally, letting the reader know what is at stake for the characters, thereby keepingthe reader emotionally involved, too.
Look at the opening lines to E.B. White’s classic
Charlotte’s Web
:
“Where is Papa going with that ax?” said Fern to her mother as they were setting
the table for breakfast.
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