Dialogue - 12th August 2010

I was right, this blog was definitely getting repetitive and bogged down (or should that be blogged down?) with formatting issues and the relationships with retailers. Time for a change.

I’m going back to the submissions arena again, but this time on a completely different tack. Instead of looking at the shortfalls of certain submissions and trying to use those to generalise and educate from a specific example – let’s look at the things your manuscript has to do in order to get the all important approval of the first person who’s desktop it crosses. This is either the submissions editor or someone (“a reader”) who works for him/her.

Obviously, as per the previous entries here the first hurdle is to send the submission in the format and manner specified or requested. Do what it says on the submissions page is a reoccurring mantra but not the focus here today.

Assuming you have demonstrated the necessary intelligence to cross that hurdle – the next one is the key elements of your book. Does it have a story? A coherent plot? Is it written in the correct manner for its genre? (This is one I’ll return to in a later post) Are the characters interesting? Is it balanced? (Again a return point) and is there enough dialogue?

Often wonder, why in so many classic books, the moodiest, darkest character seems to talk to themselves a lot? The mad scientist who’s plotting to take over the world, mumbling as he works, or talking to his pet cat as he strokes it.

There’s a reason – the author needed some dialogue in order the make the scene work. Okay, it’s a classic device and not used so much these days, which is probably a good thing, but it was invented and used for a very good reason.

A story without dialogue is usually very boring. Think about it, how many novels have you read where there isn’t a single piece of dialogue in the entire book? I can’t think of any - and I read voraciously if somewhat eclectically. How many short stories? Not many I bet.

For many writers starting out, not all by any stretch of the imagination, but many, writing dialogue is a black art, one they fear they will never master – so in order not to expose their weakness they leave it out. I’ve lost count of the times in writing groups, I’ve sat there and heard the comment (let alone made it myself) “this piece really needs dialogue to work”. For the novice writer, dialogue can seem torture.

Then, when they think they’ve got it – the same writing group comes back with “it doesn’t sound natural – your heroine wouldn’t say that!” or the even more damning one “a twenty year old doesn’t talk like that today, maybe when you were twenty ....” That last one cuts deep, it hurts.

That’s the point you see, a commissioning editor, submissions editor, call them what you will, expects to see natural dialogue expressing interaction between the characters. So, how do you write natural sounding dialogue?

Ooohhh . . . That’s the rub.

It’s not easy, but then the author’s craft is not easy, not easy at all.

Here’s one very worthwhile exercise. Think of a story idea, and then tell the ENTIRE story in dialogue. Every bit, in dialogue. No stage directions, no descriptive narrative, not even a single “he said” or “she said”. Don’t try and cheat by wrapping the narrative up as a speech by one of the characters, that defeats the objective and is cause for a fail. Not worried about length, or writing to a target word count. Just write the story as a dialogue. The WHOLE story, a beginning, a middle and an end. Don’t have everyone calling each other by name in order to explain who is talking; you don’t do that in conversation after all.

Keeping the dialogue natural, resisting the temptation to lecture or speechify is a very difficult high wire act.

Trust me – it’ll be worth it.

For those of you who can already write bright, natural dialogue – sorry, I’ll get back to moaning about formatting and retailers tomorrow.... LOL.... or not....