Creating Dialogue in Fiction

All fiction writers know that a strong story shows more of the elements of its story than it tells. This is important to draw a reader in and keep him or her reading until the end. A fiction writer wants his or her story to be dynamic and interesting enough that the reader wants more and would like to read more of that writer's work. The tricky part is knowing exactly what is considered showing and what is considered telling.

One very important aspect of showing your reader who your characters are is the dialogue you give them. Their voices speak loud and clear to your readers about internal conflicts they may be going through. They can also convey their belief system and their moral character through their conversations with the other characters. What they say mixed with what they do will determine the validity of each of them. The question remains, however, as to how this dialogue can be constructed so it comes across as genuine and believable.

The first thing to remember about dialogue is that it needs to sound like a person is really talking. It is a good idea to read all of your conversations out loud to yourself to make sure they actually do sound like a normal conversation. What sounds great in your head just may sound completely unreal when spoken out loud. You will recognize clichés a lot faster when you read your writing out loud, also.

When beginning a conversation between two or more of your characters, keep in mind exactly how you wish these characters to be portrayed. It is a good idea to do a character sketch on each personality portrayed in your story before beginning. This will help you develop the proper dialogue for each of your characters. Keep these character sketches filed with all of your research and other pertinent information you need while writing your story.

Know exactly how your characters are feeling during their conversation. Keep a running tab on changing emotions. You don't want a happy college graduated growling at the university dean who hands her her degree. Save that for the college graduate that suffered sexual harassment at the hands of the dean. Keep the dialogue in keeping with your character's emotions. An old man that has had his farm taken away from him is not going to go into beautiful poetic prose about the sunset behind the tree line he used to own.

Make the actions match the dialogue, unless your character is hiding something. You don't want a blushing bride who is beaming about her beautiful dress to be slumping her shoulders. Of course if your husband, who is returning from a business trip and is trying to hide an affair, he may not be as excited about the $5,000.00 bonus check his company gave him, as he would be if his conscience were clear. Therefore, it is important to remember that all the elements of your story should be taken into consideration as you write the words that will be coming out of your characters' mouths.

Dialect can be a very strong tool in identifying personality traits of a character. However, it is consequential to remember not to overdo dialect. You very may well know someone who sounds exactly like the person you are trying to portray, but your readers are not going to be happy about having to translate his or her meanings. Lace your dialect with proper spoken words and it will be just as strong an indicator of your character as his or her actions.

A good rule of thumb is to let other writers read your work. Find people who love writing as much as you do, but are not going to be biased about your work. Let them read your work and ask them for suggestions. Be willing to take constructive criticism in a professional manner and you will be on the road to perfecting the art of creating dialogue.