I honestly thought I wrote this blog entry before. I think I’ve referenced it before. Have I referenced it before? Maybe I have. 

I’m also old and you know how memory fades with age. Though, for that idiom to be true, it presumes I had a memory to begin with. 

Regardless, here we are! Today I want to discuss dialogue.

Now, it’s no surprise that I love dialogue. If you’ve read any of my writing, then you’ll see how much prominence I give it. And if you haven’t read my writing… then what are you doing here? Hurry, order one of those fine books from the store and give it a peruse! I promise you won’t be disappointed. Unless, of course, you were hoping to find something without dialogue. In which case, you will be disappointed. Because there will be dialogue.

However, why would anyone want a story without it?

Perhaps they mistakenly think that dialogue is boring. That reading about a “bunch of talking heads” isn’t interesting. But they couldn’t be further from the truth. Dialogue is actually the glue which holds our stories together. 

Now let me flex my psychology degree for a moment.

We are, at our hearts, a social species. We have developed the profound art of communication and language. As avid writers and readers, we clearly treasure the word dearly. But what is prose but simply the word committed to page? People, after all, will “write how they talk.” Which is a future blog post, don’t you worry. However, this instinct is natural. Speech comes instinctively to us whereas writing is a skill which must be practiced, taught and learned. Conversations key into important areas of our brains, activating a multitude of neuronal clusters. Most everyone enjoys a good conversation with friends and loved ones. If the COVID pandemic has shown, cutting ourselves off from one another and depriving ourselves of conversation has far-reaching and long lasting effects.

But even more than this fundamental aspect of the human experience, dialogue simply lends itself far more to writing than action.

Action scenes are hard. I’ll cover them another day. But if you’ve tried to write a chase, gun fight or clash of armies, then you know how difficult it is to condense such a chaotic event to a linear narrative. Even great writers struggled with this aspect of writing. Don’t believe me? Crack open The Hobbit and try to really pay attention to the Battle of Five Armies section. Then you’ll see what I mean. 

Dialogue, however, is so easily and elegantly captured on the page. Between two speakers, it flows beautifully and intuitively. More than that, dialogue really gives you an opportunity to express characterisation while building tension. Don’t believe me? Check out Pride and Prejudice or watch 12 Angry Men. 

Dialogue is also hard to write. 

I consider it a crucial part of our stories. This naturally flows from my belief that all stories are about characters. But when we discuss tension between people, it doesn’t have to be a physical contest. In fact, motivations are often easily expressed through word. A speech, after all, is just as much an action as a punch. And it can hurt just as hard too. 

The key to successful dialogue is nailing both characterisation and desire, though. We learn who our characters are precisely by the actions they take and the words they choose. Both are important. Even if they don’t match. Especially if they don’t match!

So, I suggest you try to work in dialogue whenever you can. Lots of exposition and context can be conveyed through conversation. This opens up additional opportunities to express personality and perspective. 

And nothing is more exciting than seeing two people who see completely opposite sides of an issue clash. I’d say it’s just as engaging, if not more so, than seeing two people cross swords. Both require quick cuts and desperate defences. But one works far better on the page than the other.