Dialogue Tips

Hello, friends! I'm (Rebecca) stealing the blog from D.L. for just a minute, because his post on formal vs. informal speech in character dialogue inspired me to share what I teach to my students on the topic of dialogue.

As D.L. correctly pointed out, dialogue needs to sound natural, or, what would be natural for your characters. That means, above all, you need to use the language they would use--their diction and syntax--and consider the context of your characters' conversations.

Let's start with some definitions, and I want to note that other disciplines might use these words differently, but we are talking creative writing here, and you're getting Professor Cuthbert with years (and years) of writing pedagogy under my belt (under my blazer?). So, this is the language of the craft of writing--it is the jargon of the creative writing field.

Diction: word choice. The word a character would use in every instance--which is likely not what the author would use.

Lexicon: a person's personal word bank. Not just the words a person knows, but the words a person feels comfortable using.

Syntax: the "choreography" of words in a sentence. This can involve order of words, but also things like grammar and punctuation and even sentence length.

Vernacular: the language of a specific geographical location. (Is it "pop," "soda," "Coke," or a "soft drink" to you?)

Jargon: the language of a career field, a special interest, or an interest-based community. If you watch a medical show, you will hear medical jargon. Cop shows? Cop jargon. If you are not a gamer and overhear two gamers talking to one another about gaming? You won't be able to follow.

Slang: generational language related to pop culture. This is why my father (born in 1941) calls jeans "dungarees." It is why I (born in 1982) will never call something "bussin'." No, I don't know what it means. Please don't tell me.

But here's another interesting thing: language is inherited, and what you inherit runs DEEP. So, even though a person, say, lives in Buffalo, NY, they may call all pop products "Coke" because their parents are transplants who grew up in the deep south. A few years ago, I asked my dad to "reach me down that pitcher" from the top shelf of a cabinet. He said "You sound just like your mother." But the weird thing? My mother's been dead since I was nine years old. And that language--that particular diction/syntax combo--isn't even just from Buffalo. It's from one neighborhood of Buffalo (Cheektowaga, if you want to know).

All of that goes into real people's speech, so why shouldn't you consider this for your characters? And don't forget conversation context--even the same character will speak differently depending on their audience. This is called "code switching," and everyone does it to a degree. You speak differently to your boss vs. your friends vs. people you meet at parties, because these different audiences necessitate different levels of formality, candidness, etc.

Now for the big DO NOT DO THIS. Do not spell out a character's accent phonetically, for a few reasons.

One, it's confusing. Take this: "Beeack." What am I saying? The word "back," spelled in a Buffalo accent. But you know what? I could have spelled it "Bieack" or "Byack." There's no standardization.

Two, It's difficult to puzzle out, and readers are already tired. Yes, there have been studies. Yes, we are less able to focus for long periods of time now. Readers are distracted. So don't make them work hard to even decipher what each word is supposed to be. And for folks for whom English is a second language? Well that's a bit cruel.

Three, it may seem like you are making fun of your characters, and while that in itself can be problematic, it's even MORE problematic if those characters are part of a minority group. Now you sound not just rude but also racist and or xenophobic. Please err on the side of caution and just don't do it.

What can you do to add some phonetics to speech without seeming like a jerk or confusing people? Keep it clear and obvious. Commonly used (but not official) contractions like "kinda," "sorta," "gonna" "wanna," etc., are fine. Most folks know what they mean and they aren't targeting or picking on a demographic. Same thing goes for dropping Gs or Ds in informal speech or first-person narration, with apostrophes: "He was fixin' to scrap it but some ol' geezer from next town over bought it for haulin'." For a particularly beautiful example of this, see Ink Vine by Elizabeth Broadbent. 

You know what else is good? Trust your reader. TELL THEM someone has an accent the first time that character speaks, then trust the reader to remember that and hear the voice accordingly in their heads. Yes, this is one of those instances when telling IS better than showing. So, "Lance had recently moved to Pittsburgh from the Irish countryside, and spoke with a musical lilt Vanessa found charming." Perfectly respectful while also conveying information to your reader. 

Considering all of these things when you are writing your dialogue will make for rich, textured character speech that supports uniqueness without (even unintentionally) being offensive.