Are
you having fun crafting dialogue for your main characters? I hope so!
Today
let’s look at another aspect of effective dialogue. (If you missed it, click on
Dialogue enriches your memoir—but how can you reconstruct old conversations accurately?)
This
can be enjoyable: Create dialogue that sounds like the person speaking, natural
and unforced, something readers can really hear. Spend time pinning down your
key characters’ unique speaking styles.
Here’s
an example of people who talk with accents taken from Marie Bostwick’s The Second Sister:
I was just about to leave when I heard someone calling my name. . . .
“Lucy? Hey, der! C’mon over here, why don’tcha? Got an open spot here on da end.”
The Wisconsin accent was thick and very familiar. . . .
Clint laughed. “Well, until four years ago, dat was about it. After Dad died I decided t’spruce da place up a little. . . . [The old guys:] Dey kept dyin’ off, don’tcha know. . . .” (The Second Sister)
The
next example contrasts the distinct speaking styles, and even cultures, of three
people. It’s taken from Jamie Ford’s The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet about a Chinese family in 1940s Seattle.
The
older generation, Henry’s parents, spoke like this:
“No more. Only speak you American.”
“. . . I send you to school. I negotiate your way—into a special school. I do this for you. A top white school. . . .”
Henry
and his wife always imagined their son Marty would marry a Chinese girl, however:
“Dad, I’m engaged. . . . She’s inside, Pops. I want you to meet her.”
Henry heard a click as the door opened behind him. A young woman poked her head out, then stepped out smiling. She had long blond hair, and cool blue eyes. . . .
“You must be Marty’s father! . . . I’m Samantha, I’ve been dying to meet you.” She stepped past his hand and threw her arms around him. . . .”
Do
you like the way the author captured and contrasted the speech and
personalities of Henry’s father, Henry, and his fiancée, Samantha?
I
also appreciate Jamie Ford’s respectful way of portraying Henry’s father’s
culture and his generation. That’s important.
As
you draft your memoir, identify the speaking style of each key character.
If
you’re writing about a cowboy from Texas, make him sound like a cowboy from
Texas. Or if she’s from Quebec, make her sound like she’s from Quebec.
How
would the following people speak?
- a Ugandan lady
- an introverted pathologist
- an idealistic first-year teacher
- a person whose mother just died
- a grumpy old man
- a woman with dementia
- a preacher
- a surfer
- a spinster from Boston
- a teenager from Atlanta
If
two people habitually interrupt each other, or if they finish each other’s
sentences, write your dialogue in the same way.
If
a character routinely starts a sentence five times in different ways, work that
into your dialogue. (But don’t overdo it—it can get old.)
If
your character grew up in a slum and didn’t finish high school, how would his
speaking and vocabulary be different from that of a CEO with a Ph.D.?
To reacquaint yourself with distinct speaking styles, Brooke Warner recommends: “Listen to dialogue—around you, on shows, on YouTube if you need to jog your memory of regional dialogue.”
Experiment.
Then set your manuscript aside for a week or so.
Read
it aloud. (Your ears will catch what your eyes overlook.)
Does
it accurately convey the character’s manner of speaking and his/her
personality? And is it respectful of him or her, rather than poking fun?
Does
it sound natural—or is it stiff? Too formal or too informal?
Revise
your rough draft
until you make your dialogue and your characters
come alive.
And
have fun!
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