Dialogue is real speech but better

Everyone recognises good dialogue when they see it. But few people can write it.

Here’s a quick guide to really good dialogue:

• Does it give the appearance of real speech without the repetitions and inconsistencies of life? If you’ve ever recorded a real conversation, you’ll know that people speak in circles, they repeat themselves, they often talk nonsense … what we want in dialogue is the appearance of speech without the tedium of all that circular repetition.
• Is it energetic? You can energise dialogue by interrupting it, by having people not listen to each other, not ending sentences.
• Is it provocative. Does it surprise other charcters? Does it surprise, intrigue or delight us?
• Does it “show” us something or confirm something about the characters? This, in the things they say, they way they say it, and even the things they don’t say.
• Is it necessary? Does it convey something we need to know? Does it develop our characters or take the story forward?
• Is it economical? We don’t want long swathes that tempt us to skip.
• Does it convey a reality and a past bigger than the narrow plot objectives of the scene? Characters have lives beyond the page. If we hint at a larger existence, it makes them more real and complex.
• Is it witty? Obviously it doesn’t always have to be – but it can give dialogue a real lift.
• Is it appropriate for the character uttering it? Does it show their unique voice, background, personality?

This is just a guide, obviously, but it does contain the most important elements contained by some of the best dialogues ever published.

For more detail about writing good dialogue, sign up for one of our online writing courses or join our Johannesburg based Writers’ Circle Course.

Jo-Anne Richards is the author of four novels. Her latest is My Brother’s Book, published by Picador. Order it from Kalahari.net

Her first novel, The Innocence of Roast Chicken, was published by Headline in London, shortlisted for the M-Net Book Prize and nominated for the Impac International Dublin Award. The book was chosen as a Dillon’s Debut in the UK, to be showcased as “an outstanding first novel”. She has published short stories in five collections.

She lectures in journalism and writing skills at Wits University, besides running workshops in literary skills, narrative journalism and Romance writing. She supervises Masters students in the Creative Writing Masters programme at Wits.

She is co-founder of allaboutlove.net, a website dedicated to good reading and writing. The site publishes novels and short stories, and runs interactive online writing courses in romance writing. It includes a basic lesbian romance writing course – thought to be unique.