Writing Realistic Dialogue.

 

Creating realistic dialogue can be challenging. But it can also be a lot of fun.  

 

We get to break a lot of rules. Think of it as getting revenge on your high school English teacher who gave you a D in composition. All those red inked circles, notes, and arrows made your term paper look like a Mississippi road map. There were dangling participles. Your sentences ended in prepositions. And there were those darned comma splices.

 

So many rules to a language that can’t keep its vowel sounds consistent.

 

Yes, I know I just wrote a sentence fragment. I did it on purpose.

 

Effective dialogue is based on how people talk, not how we write.

 

Our thoughts are grammatically incorrect. The same goes for our conversations –even with ourselves.

 

In real life, people often speak in sentence fragments.

 

DRIVER -“Which house we looking for?”

PASSENGER -“The blue one with the red door.”

 

Depending on the scenario and the character, it’s even ok to use the queen mother of “no-no” contractions.

 

GUY ONE –“I need a ride, bad!”

GUY TWO -“Try looking at the buy-here pay-here car lot.”

GUY ONE -“Ain’t no way I’m doing that.”

 

The tough part for us is including those copy points vital to the client. We’ve all heard ads where that kind of data is written into a dialogue.

 

PERSON 1 –“What’s their number?”

PERSON 2 – “It’s 555-555-5555. That’s 555-555-5555.”

PERSON 1 –“It’s 555-555-5555. Correct?”

PERSON 2 – “That’s right. 555-555-5555.”

 

To get around that, I let the characters create the story. They have a problem and are looking for the solution. A narrator provides the copy point details.

 

MOM 1-“My kids spend way too much time on social media.”

MOM 2-“Mine used to.”

MOM 1-“You took away their phones?”

MOM 2-“No, just created a healthy distraction.”

MOM 1-“How’s that work?”

MOM 2-“Mind Craft Story Creation at Central Library.”

ANNCR: Let your kids discover their own ability to create with Central Library’s Mind Craft Story Creation. Mind Craft helps transform their imagination into life through the craft of story writing. And their work is published in our monthly newsletter distributed to thousands of readers. Learn more now at Mind Craft Story dot edu.

MOM 1 –“I’m so proud! Look! The only things that kill robot zombies are brussels sprouts.”

MOM 2 –“Anything’s possible with Mind Craft Story Creation.”

 

There are exceptions.

 

Think about someone who is telling a friend about a conversation they had.

 

“So, he goes ‘what do you think you’re doing?’ And I’m like ‘mind your own business. Then he really gets mad and goes ‘why don’t you just get out of here.”

 

We all know people who use go or goes in place of say or says. It’s how they talk. It’s real. It’s also very irritating.

 

It doesn’t take long to develop an ear for dialogue. Yet, it does take some practice developing an eye for effective dialogue. No different from painting or sculpting, it takes practice.

 

What you and I do is art.

 

And art imitates life.

 

Sincerely

Mike -The Reel Architect.