Phillip Williams - Author
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I want to talk today about dialogue.
It's a challenge I'm facing at the moment because I just love a book that can make conversations seem real. It's so easy to fall into the rhythm of something like below: "What's that you have, there?" asked Mr. Y. "Just a report I'm about to hand in to the boss." Mr. X replied, showing him his report on last week's sales figures. "I've just run the exact same report" Mr. Y. responded. "Oh, dear." said Mr. X. "Yeah." Mr. Y replied. See... not particularly dynamic and as I am sure all authors/writers would agree, I really don't want readers switching off simply because of bland dialogue. So I've been doing what I do best. Research! Yes, that old chestnut again. It should be an aspect of everything you endeavour to do and I cannot stress that enough! "Dialogue is easy, It's what you've been doing almost every day, most of your life" - Josip Novakovich Very good point Mr. Novakovich. Execution, on the other hand is a different matter. A lot of you might be thinking along the lines of 'well, you could use different words instead of said... like whispered, shouted, chortled, etc. to add flare'. You would be right in suggesting that. However, I learned about that at age eleven and it's time to step it up a notch. So, how else do you dress it up? From articles I've read, and books that I've read myself, it lies within setting the scene. Dialogue is part of it but shouldn't be relied on solely to tell the entire story. For instance, silence is sometimes even more powerful. Consider this: "What's that you have, there?" Mr. Y asked. "Just a report to hand in to the boss. How about you?" Asked Mr. X, showing him his report on last week's sales figures and nodding towards Mr. Y's file. Mr. Y. didn't respond. He glanced at his own document, it was the exact same information. He ran his fingers through his hair. He had just wasted an entire afternoon, his boss was going to be livid. "Oh, dear." said Mr. X. "Yeah." Mr. Y replied through gritted teeth. This is already showing much more because Mr. Y.'s silence adds emotion and adding a little context. Now, going back to what I said about setting the scene. It's important that dialogue is contextual. Dialogue doesn't occur in a blank space, it is spoken and influenced by many external factors like where it is being spoken (you speak more quietly on the train or in a library than you do on a busy street, for example). Like so: The office was sweltering, it was forty degrees Celsius outside and the large office windows were acting like a greenhouse. Mr. Y had the task of running the report for last week's sales figures and he had already spent an hour and a half compiling the documents. The air conditioning unit had been out all morning. An engineer had been called but there was no way they could get one to come out on such short notice. Mr. Y could already feel the beads of sweat starting to collect in the small of his back. Now he was stood at the printer which was old and slow. He swore under his breath. He really detested Mondays. At least the end of the day was drawing near, only a couple of hours and he could finally get out of this hell-hole. At least his bosses would be off his back until at least Wednesday after he handed them this report. There was a light at the end of the tunnel. Mr. Y collected the report from the printer, headed over to the desk and started stapling. He tilted his head and saw that Mr. X was coming along the corridor clutching a thick envelope. Mr. Y nodded in acknowledgement. On a personal level, he couldn't stand Mr. X. He was such an ass-kisser at work, a real pain in the neck but Mr. Y had to be civil. "What's that you have, there?" Mr. Y asked. "Just a report to hand in to the boss. How about you?" Asked Mr. X, showing him his report on last week's sales figures and nodding towards Mr. Y's file. Mr. Y. didn't respond. He glanced at his own document, it was the exact same information. He ran his fingers through his hair. He had just wasted an entire afternoon, his boss was going to be livid. "Oh, dear." said Mr. X. "Yeah." Mr. Y replied through gritted teeth. His fingernails starting to pierce the flesh in his palm. Mr. Y is not having a good day. Also, notice that I ended the prose with dialogue. This is not an unnatural thing to do. It adds suspense... what happened next? Did Mr. Y flip out like an insane person? Did he keep his cool and calmly tell Mr. X that he was given the task, so it should be his report that gets handed in? Nobody will ever know. So, as you can see there is a lot of fun you can have with dialogue. In the end, although the dialogue is showing a conversation, it is not the main focus of the story at hand. The main focus is about how you feel about Mr. Y's turmoil. That's the way I like to write, evoking emotion. I'm sure there is an awful lot more to playing around with dialogue but I'm going to leave that for another blog piece. I can't keep you coming back for more if I give it all to you at once now, can I? #HonestBlogger Let me know your thoughts, anyway. I want to know what you think. Until next time!
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Hi, I'm Phil Williams. Welcome to my blog.
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