Creative Effective Dialog

Creating Effective Dialog

Dialog is conversation on the printed page. We engage in conversation many times throughout a day; yet when we develop a story, the dialog is one of the most difficult elements to master. An important requirement in writing dialog is to intimately know and understand your characters – the antagonist, the protagonist, and all minor characters, no matter how unlikable they are. How do they think? What is their goals and motivation in each scene? What is their overall outlook on life?

All dialog needs to move the plot forward in some way or it is useless and detracts from the intent of the story. Dialog should provide new information to the characters, reveal new obstacles that the viewpoint character must overcome to achieve her goal, or remind the characters and readers of their goals plus accelerate the emotion, increase the suspense, and make the situation more urgent for the characters.

While good dialog is essential for a great story, it is only one leg of a three-legged stool. Dialog, narrative, and action must be balanced to create a three-dimensional feel for the reader. Certainly, there are scenes in all of our stories that work best with only narrative or only action or only dialog, but emphasis on the other elements of fiction in the following scenes will return balance to the story and engage the reader more effectively.

The most effective way to integrate setting into a story is to use all three of the fiction elements: dialog, action, and narrative. Weaving these elements together helps the setting form a background for the story and not over power the plot line. One important aspect to remember is that care needs to be taken not to use narrative to describe the setting when you can have a viewpoint character interacting with the setting in a lively discussion with another character.

The goal in writing dialog is to engage the readers to feel what our characters feel and see what our characters see.

Writing Opening Paragraphs

Many authors feel that it might be simpler to write a novel without an opening paragraph. Perhaps if they could just start at the bottom of page two and hope no one noticed. Some authors have tried this method and continue writing their story until an attention-getting paragraph pops into their head.

The importance of the opening paragraphs cannot be overstated. The first one or two paragraphs set the tone for the entire book. The story starts in the first paragraphs – not two or three pages down the road. They introduce the main character, point of view, setting, mood, and sometimes the story conflict and generally follow the “W Rule”:

·         Who?

·         What?

·         When?

·         Where?

·         Why?

The primary and often only goal of your opening paragraph is to grab the reader’s attention and make him or her want to keep reading. Fiction often starts in the middle of some action that will immediately grab the reader and make him or her wonder what is going on.

Methods that can ‘hook’ your readers include beginning with a shocking, bold statement or fact, beginning with a rhetorical question, showing the main character with a problem, or setting up a situation that leaves the reader with a question.

Many writers start their hooks way before their story actually begins. However, the most effective openers begin at the highest, most dramatic moment and the story develops from there.

Some authors will spend considerable time on their openings only to find that when they get to the end of the book, the book has changed in such a way that the opening no longer works. Writers should not be afraid to use an opening as a jump-start to their story but they should be equally un­afraid to toss away those first few openings in search of the perfect opening. Many writers go through an evo­lutionary process with their openings, often finding their true opening buried within the existing story.

The cliché “you only have one change to make a first impression” best sums up the importance and impact of the opening paragraphs. It should be both the first thing and the last thing an author considers before submitting a manuscript to an editor.