Dialogue: Say It Like You Mean it by James Best #storymakers class notes

Dialogue is important to a story, to moving the plot and giving us insight in the characters, etcetcetc

"People may or may not say what they mean...but they always say something designed to get what they want." 

First Draft

1. Stop worrying about tone! 

Tone is created backwards. Characters, plot and world building ALL precede tone. 

Prose + dialogue = tone (Genre writing does not have a set tone)

2. Place holder dialogue is your friend! 

Sometimes you need to understand more of the story more fully before you write dialogue.

        "I'm confronting you about that one thing you did earlier," says BFF

        "I say something snarky," says sister

        "I say witty words," says bro

3. Write the intention

    Intention is what the character would say if their brains didn't edit what they wanted to say out loud

• If you don't know what the character would say, write what they should say until you replace it later
• Motivations shouldn't be simple, but not too complicated
• Objectives and motivations are not the same thing
• Objectives can change with the 'acts' of the story; motivations WON'T change
• Each act should answer OR complicate motivation
• main characters motivation is revealed in prose
• All other characters revealed in dialogue

4. Speak your lines out loud

•     Natural speech is in iambic rhythm
•     People rarely speak in full sentences
•     Check your speech patterns
•     Vary characters vocabulary
•     Stilted dialogue is NOT a sin
•     Different dialogues are different rhythms
• anger = staccato
• Persuasion = soft tones

5. Warm up your skills

• Practice dialogue by reading
• Read plays in the period you're writing
• Write scenes
• Write a 10 minute play

6. People suck at talking (HAHA)

    Realistic dialogue is a trap

    There is no such thing as realistic dialogue. 

    There is no universal speech

    Small talk is wasted words; it takes away from real moments

7. Cliches

Don't Use Cliches! BORING

Overused metaphors trigger NO response in the brain, therefore, they will not elicit excitement in readers

8. Metaphors

Are your greatest ally. Use the words in a new way

Metaphors are not just a tool of prose. It's expected in prose.

Metaphors can be used in dialogue

If a line sounds off, most likely you have a meter problem

All back and forth in dialogue should feel like a movement inside a piece of music