Revision Friday: Dialogue

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I'm neck-deep into revising my WIP. I'm going over all my dialogue, because it's one of the "fastest ways to improve your fiction," according to James Scott Bell in chapter six of his book,Revision and Self-Editing. 

Bell does a wonderful job of breaking dialogue into eight essential characteristics. One of these is to make your dialogue full of subtext. He explains that dialogue should be like an "iceberg",the part we read on the page and the part underneath the surface. There should be layers beneath the surface of story,character,and theme.

1- What has happened in the story so far will affect the present. This is the back story...whether it's presented in the story or not it should effect the dialogue.

2- It's important to "know your character's deep background-the events that shaped her from childhood on." In Susan Collin's, Hunger Games,we don't fully understand why Katniss is so curt with her mother until later. 


3- Often writers say that theme doesn't emerge until much later in the writing process. So once your themes have shown themselves you can go in and tailor your dialogue. Then when the reader discovers the theme, the conversation is more meaningful in retrospect.

Bell, James Scott.Revision and Self-Editing:Techniques for Transforming Your First Draft into a Finished Novel.Ohio: Writers Digest Books,2008.

So now you know what I'm busy working on. What's on your plate today?

Discovering Dialogue

The best advice I ever received about dialogue was from my first creative writing professor. He said that you have to hear dialogue, really listen to the rhythms and cadences of speech to effectively write it.

What's the best way to do that? Go somewhere you can listen to real conversations.  Listen carefully. Listen to different types of exchanges. Parent, child interactions. Conversations between teenagers. Do they finish their sentences or do they truncate them?

    Once you get the feel of multiple speeds and rhythms then it is time to start writing them. Sit or stand close enough that you can write down what words they use. How often do they repeat themselves? Do they take turns, going back and forth or is it less predictable?There are words that have developed from texting that have made their way into everyday conversation. Do you know what they are and what they mean?

By doing this often enough, writing conversation will become much easier.You'll start hearing your characters conversations in your head and effectively write it so it sounds authentic. I have pages of conversation that I have recorded.  I've learned that it is really rare for a sentence to be more than 6-7 words. Usually, if someone goes over that the other person will inevitably interrupt. Language evolves and changes quickly and if we want to stay abreast of how people talk we need to always be listening.

Have you ever eavesdropped on a conversation? What did you learn? Has it helped improve dialogue in your writing? How?