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24 de junho de 2013

10 Chaves para Escrever Diálogo em Ficção (e 2 Exercícios de

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Diálogo)

Foto
original de Dimitris Papazimouris , licença Creative Commons

Chave 1: Diálogo é uma expressão de caráter

Diálogo é a impressão de como as pessoas falam na vida real, mas na verdade muito mais interessante, com
mais movimento para a frente. O diálogo é um dos principais elementos da narrativa e precisa ser bem usado.
Crédito de imagem: Beppie K , Creative Commons License

O diálogo é uma expressão de caráter, antecedentes, educação, localidade e circunstância. Ouça como as
pessoas falam e você verá que quem elas são e a situação em que se encontram influenciarão o que elas dizem
e como elas dizem isso.

Chave 2: podar conversas reais para criar um diálogo

realista
A maioria dos manuais de redação concorda que, embora você deva ouvir as pessoas e imitar padrões de fala,
não deve usar conversas verbais. O escritor Aaron Elkins dá um exemplo de uma conversa real que ele gravou:

- Você sabe como, mas ... algumas manhãs, no minuto em que você entra pela porta ...

"Toda manhã."

"Sim, é assim que eles, o jeito deles, o jeito que eles ..."

"Não, não é. Não é o ...

“Sim, é, é. Porque se você, a menos que você "

"Não, uh-uh, absolutamente não."

Embora preciso para a vida real, seria um diálogo terrível para a ficção.

Se você não deveria usar conversas reais, como você escreve um diálogo realista?

Aaron Elkins explica: “O diálogo realista tenta capturar o sabor da fala real, mas o faz seletivamente.
Repetições de palavras, hesitações, gaguejos e becos sem saída devem ser eliminados impiedosamente. Assim,
muitas das convenções educadas. ”(Página 136 - veja o final do post para fontes e outras leituras)

William Noble faz o mesmo ponto, dando um exemplo de como as pessoas realmente falam e como é um bom
diálogo. (veja a página 259)
Crédito de imagem: Michelle Thompson , Creative Commons License

Como as pessoas realmente falam:

"Onde você mora?"

"230 State Street"

Bom diálogo:

"Você mora por aqui?"

"Se você quiser chamá-lo de vida."

Chave 3: Use a Atribuição de Diálogo (também

conhecida como Tags)
One of the key decisions you have to make when writing dialogue is how to attribute it to your characters. A
“tag” is the noun (or pronoun) and verb you use next to a quotation. When it comes to writing, there’s actually
a lot of debate on how you use tags. Having read the arguments, to me it seems that it comes down to the style
you want to write in and the impact that style will have on the reader.

Aaron Elkins explains that there are “three camps” for approaches to dialogue.

Photo Credit: Al_HikesAZ, Creative Commons license

Camp 1: He said/she said. Don’t use any adverbs or fancy verbs.

 “Wonder where his mummy is?” said Harry, frowning.

“Given her the slip by the looks of it,” said Ron.

“Why, though?” said Hermoine.

—Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling

Camp 2: Vivid verbs. Be expressive!

Sample verbs: Snorted, sighed, chuckled, gasped, exclaimed, rasped, hissed, etc.

I couldn’t actually find a book on my bookshelf that used just vivid verbs. Apparently they’re out there, and
I’m just reading the wrong genres.

Camp 3: Some variety, but try not to draw too much attention to it.
Elkins says this is his approach, and that he tries not to use an unusual verb like “whispered” more than once
per chapter.

“Barnabus Wren,” I said impatiently, “why do you shake so? Have you seen a ghost?”

“No,” he confessed, “but all the talk is that you have, Keturah.”

—Keturah and Lord Death, Martine Leavitt

Key 4: Omit Attributions When You Can

If it’s a dialogue between two people and it’s clear who is speaking, you can get away with giving attributions
every five or six lines.

Screenshot from Pride & Prejudice (2005)

“It is your turn to say something now, Mr. Darcy. I talked about the dance, and you ought to make
some sort of remark on the size of the room, or the number of couples.”

He smiled, and assured her that whatever she wished him to say should be said.

“Very well. That reply will do for the present. Perhaps by and by I may observe that private balls are
much pleasanter than public ones. But now we may be silent.”

“Do you talk by rule, then, while you are dancing?”

“Sometimes. One must speak a little, you know. It would look odd to be entirely silent for half an
hour together; and yet for the advantage of some, conversation ought to be so arranged, as that they
may have the trouble of saying as little as possible.”

“Are you consulting your own feelings in the present case, or do you imagine that you are gratifying
mine?”
 “Both,” replied Elizabeth archly; “for I have always seen a great similarity in the turn of our minds.
We are each of an unsocial, taciturn disposition, unwilling to speak, unless we expect to say
something that will amaze the whole room, and be handed down to posterity with all the eclat of a
proverb.”

“This is no very striking resemblance of your own character, I am sure,” said he. “How near it may
be to mine, I cannot pretend to say. You think it a faithful portrait undoubtedly.”

“I must not decide on my own performance.”

—Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

Key 5: Mix in Action or Thought

Image Credit: Vyacheslav Bondaruk, Creative Commons License

One of the most powerful dialogue tools is to include actions and characters thoughts, mixed in with the
dialogue. This can actually be used as a replacement for dialogue attribution. Or it can be used to add a “beat”:
when a person is speaking, sometimes you need a pause between parts of what she is saying in order to add
emphasis or show a passage of time, and an action beat can be a perfect way to do that.

“Let’s go to the bow.” I tugged on Elle’s sleeve.

She made a face. “I said I’d meet the others from lunch by the pool.”

I hesitated, darting my eyes between her and the receding deck.

“You go.” Elle gave me a gentle push. “Just be sure to meet us for dinner at seven, okay?”

—A Change of Plans, Donna K. Weaver

This example uses a mixture of tags and action:

“Does that server look familiar?” Marasi asked, turning and watching him go.

“He must have served us last time we were here,” Lord Harms said.

“But I wasn’t with you last—”

“Lord Harms,” Waxillium jumped in, “has anything been heard of your relative? The one who was
kidnapped by the Vanishers?”

“No,” he said, taking a sip of his wine. “Ruin those thieves. This kind of thing is absolutely
unacceptable. They should confine such behavior to the Roughs!”
 —The Alloy of Law, Brandon Sanderson

Key 6: Limit Your Use of Adverbs in Dialogue Tags

Most writing experts agree that you should use adverbs in dialogue tags as rarely as possible, because it
distracts from what the speaker is saying and it can often be more useful to provide an actual action the speaker
performs (“Ryan flinched”) than give a modifier about how they’re saying something (“Ryan said
flinchingly”). (see Chiarella, pages 141-2)

Of course, every single book I looked at for examples used adverbs in the attributions, but seemed to do so
very selectively. Here’s an example of good adverb usage:

Again there was some silence as Mitchell Sanders looked out on the
river. The dark was coming on hard now, and off to the west I could
see the mountains rising in silhouette, all the mysteries and unknowns.

“This next part,” Sanders said quietly, “you won’t believe.”

—The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien

The key is asking yourself, can someone actually verbally say something in
this manner and is this the very best way to say it? If the answer is yes, use
an adverb. If the answer is no, change it to an action or a description. For
example, “he said quietly” is physically possible to do, and it’s a useful
adverb. But as Tom Ciarella points out, “she said quaintly” is not truly possible to do—she might be a quaint
person or dressed in a quaint way or be looking at a quaint portrait while saying something, but there’s no real
way to say something quaintly.

Key 7: Interject Silence or a Change of Subject

Sometimes instead of coming up with a direct verbal reaction from your character it’s better to use silence, or
have your character change the subject. Tristi Pinkston writes that “Sometimes the absence of dialogue says
more than dialogue itself.”

Image Credit: Francesco, Creative Commons License

Pinkston gives a nice example of revealing things about a character through what she chooses not to say and
deflecting a question:

“What happened to Greg?” I asked.

 Viv stepped over to the window and pulled back the curtain, staring down to the street below. I
wondered if I should break the silence, but she finally said, “Let’s go out to dinner. I want a good
steak and some mashed potatoes.”

–Tristi Pinkston

Note: I write more about pauses in dialogue in my post 10 Keys to Writing Story Beats in Novels.

Key 8: Test your Dialogue

As a cardinal rule, you should always read your dialogue aloud. It might look good on paper, but before you
speak it, you’ll have no idea what it actually sounds like.

Image Credit: Paul Graham Raven, Creative Commons License

It’s also a good idea to look at the dialogue of an individual character across the entire novel, to make sure it’s
consistent. It takes time, but it’s worth it.

Key 9: Look for Inspiration from your Favorite

Authors
The Romans used imitation as a way for students to learn oration. It’s a great way to learn writing techniques
as well. Open a book on your shelf to a random page, and analyze how the author uses dialogue. It may also be
useful to analyze dialog in the genre you’re writing in.

Image Credit: QQ Li, Creative Commons license

Key 10: Consider what Each Line of Dialogue Adds to
the Story
William Noble gives five things he thinks good dialogue should do:

“characterize the speaker;

establish the setting;
build conflict;
foreshadow;
explain” (page 261)

Each line you include should have a very clear purpose. But
you can’t just force dialogue on your characters to meet your
own ends as an author–it has to be dialogue that works for your
characters and their desires. One of the most useful pieces of
advice for writing dialogue comes from Kurt Vonnegut: “Every
character should want something, even if it is only a glass of
water.” When your characters are talking, as a writer you
should be very clear on what each character wants, even if
they’re not openly sharing that with each other.

Whether it’s adding to characterization, to plot, or to

foreshadowing, every line of dialogue should forward the story.
Make it count!

Image Credit: Daniel Pozo, Creative Commons License

Dialogue Writing Exercises

Image Credit: Oliver Hammond, Creative Commons license

Exercise 1:

1. Choose 2 characters. Have one of them start a dialogue with a line that implies some conflict, such as “I
told you to buy cheese…” (You can even do the exercise with that exact line.) Now do a rush write. As fast
as you can, write 6 to 10 lines of dialogue between the two characters. The catch? You can only write
dialogue – no attributions, actions, etc.—just the words they are saying.
2. Consider what it is each character wants, their background, their distinguishing characteristics, and how
these things will impact what they say and how they say it. Revise your dialogue (still just the words they
are saying) to better reflect your characters.
3. Add tags or dialogue attributions. He said/she said, or fancier verbs if you choose. But don’t overdo it.
Instead of tags you can add an action or thought. Or you can create a beat in the midst of a statement by
adding an action.
4. Look at the dialogue you’ve written, and make sure every word counts, that everything the characters say,
and everything else that you’ve added in, really contribute. Cut anything that doesn’t.
 5. Compare your original dialogue with your final version.

Exercise 2:

1. Write a sort dialogue between three characters. It can be about anything you want and should be at least 6
lines long. The only verb you can use is “said.”
2. Rewrite the dialogue using only vivid verbs.
3. Rewrite the dialogue using no normal attribution tags. Instead, let us know who is talking by including
actions and descriptions of characters.
4. Now rewrite your dialogue using whatever combination of tags and action you think will make it work
best.

Sources and Additional Resources on Writing Dialogue

Chiarella, Tom. Writing Dialogue. Cincinnati: Story Press, 1998. Print.
Elkins, Aaron. “How to Write Convincing Dialogue.” Writing Mysteries: A Handbook by the Mystery
Writers of America. Ed. Sue Grafton. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 2002. 129-138. Print.
Noble, William. Three Rules for Writing a Novel: A Guide to Story Development. Forest Dale: Paul S.
Eriksson, 1997. Print.
Pinkston, Tristi. The Write It Write Series: Dialogue Dynamics. Tristi Pinkston, 2012. Kindle Ebook.
Trollope, Anthony. “Chapter Twelve: On Novels and the Art of Writing Them.” An Autobiography. Web.

Read More

(The above post includes more on dialogue, including the Three Beat Rule of Dialogue.)

BY Katherine Cowley CATEGORY: Writing Lesson

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12 Comments

Don C
DEC 19, 2013 @ 12:15:56

These are *great* exercises – thanks! I am a beginner and they really are helping me to write
better fiction. Any suggestions for a workbook for a beginner on fiction writing that has great
exercises like this? Perhaps a book that takes me from zero to a small story?
-thanks
Don

Vivian Phan
APR 01, 2014 @ 12:04:35

Wow! What a great article.

“Fire up your iPads!” Mr. Cossette exclaimed.
“Sure.” I replied.

Vashti Quiroz-Vega
JUL 31, 2014 @ 16:56:09

Hello Katherine! Great article! It is very helpful and informative. I love the examples you gave
and the images. I will be pinning this article in my writing board on Pinterest.

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JAN 14, 2015 @ 02:00:52

Toe levelers arre ued when you hav one extra long toe – usually thhe big
toe or second toe. Misdirection is nnot an easy ttechnique
to pull if practiced poorly. I remember there was a sale,
my mom took me to the Bronx, and for $237 ‘ with the case.

Brenda Woods
FEB 14, 2015 @ 02:10:27

Hi Katherine! Thank you for a great and informative article.

Anny
JAN 18, 2016 @ 12:06:14

“I told you to buy cheese.”

“Cheese? What cheese.”

“I said, two, maybe three times! That we need shredded cheddar and mozzerella.”

“I…”

“Don’t remember? You always ‘don’t remember.’ You always ‘forget’! That’s the same lame
ecscuse you use every single time-“

“Jana.”

“I’m sorry, but sometimes it seems like you ‘forget’ or didn’t even hear me simply because you
weren’t listening. It seems like you never listen. You never hear what I say, and you end up
forgetting.”

“Jana-“

“It’s like what I say doesn’t matter to you!”

 “Jana.”

“What?!”

“Jana, I am the most scatterbrained person on the planet, and I’m sorry I forget so often, but I’ve
only ever forgotten the little things. I hear what you say, and what you say does matter to me. I’m
sorry… I’ll buy the cheese.”

“That’s what you say every single time.”

“Jana.”

“Stop it! Stop saying my name like that!”

“Jana.”

“What?!”

“I love you.”

Deb
FEB 06, 2016 @ 21:20:09

Thank you for a great article and writing exercises. As a beginning writer close to 60 years old, I
have a lot to learn! I signed up to follow your blog. Deb in Coppell, Texas.

Carole Craig
APR 01, 2016 @ 08:33:31

Thank you so much for putting this all together. It has been very helpful.

Margaret C. Morse
JUL 14, 2016 @ 10:10:50

Your article just popped up on my Pinterest screen., although I see it’s been out for some time. I
enjoyed it very much; it was well-organized and thorough. Thanks!

Billy Omeonga
OCT 08, 2016 @ 06:00:45

Thanks a lot for your article, it’s helpful…I just need to write a dialogue book but I am struggling
to come up with more ideas

Angela Kelly
FEB 18, 2017 @ 14:41:23

Realmente bons pontos e exercícios. Obrigado. Amei. Estará acompanhando as sugestões que
você faz. Eu percebo o quão importante é o diálogo para definir a cena, então eu tenho tentado
trabalhar mais em meu trabalho criativo de não-ficção, que é ambientado no Reino Unido durante
o início de 1800 para o assentamento da Pioneer na Austrália do Sul. É um desafio pesquisar
como as palavras teriam sido usadas nas conversas daqueles dias, mas eu não vou deixar isso me
decepcionar.

Sara Raynott
12 DE JUNHO DE 2017 @ 09:56:21

Esses são ótimos pontos. Muitas vezes eu tenho que voltar para procurar coisas como esta ao
editar. Obrigado por colocar isso em conjunto, é útil.

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