Dialogue 101

“Don’t use the same word twice,” he proclaimed. “Add variety with synonyms,“ he declaimed. “Enlarge your vocabulary to add interest,” he enunciated.

She shook her head sorrowfully. “You‘re doing it all wrong,” she said.

“How so?” he interrogated.

“The trouble with trying to substitute less-common synonyms for ‘said’ is it just makes your writing look stilted and self-conscious,” she replied.

“So what should I do?” he riposted.

“Add description instead.” She paused, and frowned. “Try to convey something of the emotion or the state of mind of the speaker. That’s the way to add interest to your dialogue.”

He pondered for a moment. “Like this?” He looked at her expectantly.

She nodded enthusiastically. “You’re getting the idea. You just need to practise it more.”

His mouth fell open as he rose to his feet. “I didn’t realize how dramatically effective this could be!”

“OK, now you’re overdoing it.” She waved him back into his chair. “Once you get the flow going, it can also be effective to write nothing but dialogue—no need for explanation at all.”

“Won’t the readers get confused as to who is talking?”

“With only two people, they can keep track of it perfectly well.”

“With more than two—might that be tricky?”

“Sometimes that can work, too. But we’ll leave that lesson for another day...”