Young Writers Society

i am having a very difficult time with making my characters say things that reveal things about them. how should they react? what do they say? how is their wording important/effective?


Help!

My first suggestion is to observe people. Take a little notepad and go sit somewhere like a mall where you easily observe and listen to people and take notes on how they speak, how they use their bodies and stuff to communicate.

The words are important especially in writing, but you should alos be looking at the non verbal communication cause it can be much louder.

It would also help to read some novels. I'm not sure who has the best dialogue, but I know reading really helps improve your skills. Hope that offers some help.

In relation to what Adam said, there's a really awesome quote:

Statistics show that 58% of our language is body language. 37% is paralanguage (tone of voice.) That leaves only 7% for actual words.

Actually, I'm not sure if it's a 'quote,' but it's still interesting.

Just listen to people. You're a writer - you're allowed to eavesdrop.

~JFW1415

Like JFW said, most people speak through body language. Adam has the amazing suggestion of listening to real people - and you should - but not too closely. If you wrote like people spoke, it would be terrible.

"Well, okay, so I was at the mall, and then it was like... so I was walking to this store, the uhm.. .uh... clairs! and there was this kid and he was like.. just standing there and uhm, uhm... and then he said."

You get my point. It's horrible, haha, but we all talk like that. If you're looking for how to characterize in dialogue, my first point would be, that some people have ways of speaking that others don't. Have you read The Great Gatsby? Jay Gatsby practically has the nervous tick of saying, "Old Sport," to people. You also have characters with accents, although you can't go too over board with that.

Since I am not entirely sure what you are wanting help with, I am having trouble explaining myself. I don't claim to be amazing at dialogue, but a lot of people say I am. I actually am supposed to write a whole thing on dialogue for a YWS Bible but, heh, that has yet to happen. I think reading would be a great help too you, and read plays as well. Since plays/scripts consist of mostly dialogue, everything is told through dialogue. Every bit about the character shows, for the most part, through the dialogue.

I have an article on dialogue that I wrote: viewarticlebody.php?t=18787

And there is also a usergroup on dialogue, though it hasn't been too active in a while. I hope this helps!

Oh, don't say that. Writing dialogue the way people talk is not only a good idea, but your obligation. There's nothing worse than reading a story where characters deliver speech the way people write poetry. I just look at it and say: "who the hell speaks that way?" If your character is a little boy, he needs to sound like a little boy. If your character is a thirteen year old girl, then she needs to speak using "like" and "totally" and "you know" and "I mean" or however thirteen year old girls speak.

Also: I cringe when people deliver speeches about their feelings and such out of the blue. Real people don't do that. And if they do is usually awkwardly, and badly articulated. You need to look at what you write, and see if it feels authentic. To the characters, to the world, to you. That's when you write good dialogue.

Now, if you want to deliver information using dialogue, it's simple. No, you don't just have the guy say it. You don't have the character say: "I am scared." Or, "Boy, do I hate jews." You have them speak to someone, and through that covnersation, you start to reveal attitudes and opinions.

For example, I wrote something which I'm pretty proud of not too long ago. Two thugs are going over to get rid of a body. I wanted these characters to be ignorant, and have the prejudices and hatred people over here have, and I wanted them to feel it the way people over here do. I live in Peru, by the way. I also wanted them to a bit nervous. So I had one of them playing around with the radio, that didn't work, punching it, frustrated. And I had him asking questions he already knew the answers to, about the thing they were about to do, and he spoke constantly interrupting himself, with lots of "..." and "--" and the Spanish equivalents to "you know", "I mean", and all of those sort of slang connectors to show that he is just really nervous and unsettled. I had the other guy answer his questions, acting annoyed and have him speak to the other like he was better than him. The first one asks a question, the other one goes "What do you mean, you don't know what we're supposed to do? We just have to go in, take the body and dump it somewhere. It's not that freaking hard." So, now you see this guy thinks he knows it all.

And then they speak about how the body they're getting rid of died, and wonder how one guy ended up in another guy's house so late at night, and they start to wonder if maybe they were gay. And they speak about that with paranoia and disgust, but with certain amusement (which is the way most people treat homosexuality in Peru). And they're not saying "Oh, I hate gay people." They're saying: "And why the hell does our boss have such friends?" And then they speculate on whether the boss is gay.

You have them speak in a way it reveals the way they feel without them actually saying so. Watch movies by Quentin Tarantino whom writes the best dialogue you'll ever see. And read books by Irvine Welsh. You'll see that you don't have to have the characters speaking in metaphors and declaring their love for each other constantly, for the dialogue to be deep and interesting.

Icaruss is definitely right.

However, you still need to be careful. Make the characters sound real, but reading:

"Oh my god, he's like, so totally cute, and I like, totally want to - oh my god, look at that! I so want to...shit, I forgot my homework! I'm like so dead!"

Is boring, and annoying, though how some people speak.

Basically, read it out loud. (And make sure everyone has different voices! No one speaks exactly the same.) If it sounds right, it probably is. We grow up hearing how people speak, so it does come naturally. Reading out loud is amazing - our ear will know what needs tweaking (though your brain may not always know how to tweak it. )

It's all 'bout the ear.

~JFW1415

I think that you can add accents to reveal their characters and all that. Throw in the occassional "Ja" for a old German man, "y'all" for maybe a young Southern woman and lots of street talk for gangsters--no matter the race.

Also, distill the dialogue. Do it formally and all that--proper grammar, blah, blah. Then let your character mess it up, put it in the character's voice. An example of good dialogue is To Kill A Mockingbird or the Princess Bride. Study those.

you could add stuff like

"How could ya do this ta me!"

or you could do this.

"I-I..." I stopped, to think for a moment. "I just wanted to protect you!"

If you wrote like people spoke, it would be terrible.

No...it'd be realistic. That's a concept...listening to real people talk and then completely ignoring the fact that REAL people said it. If your setting is a modern day city, and your character is a teenage gierl living there, that piece of dialog would be perfectly acceptable. Just make sure your dialog fits the time period.

JFW1415 wrote::"Oh my god, he's like, so totally cute, and I like, totally want to - oh my god, look at that! I so want to...shit, I forgot my homework! I'm like so dead!"

I would just like to say we dont all talk like that, though alot do.

My suggestion would be get to really know your character, everyone has their own way of saying things. Once you get to the point where you know how he/she would react it gets pretty easy.