Dialogue ought to be written by your characters. If you’ve
got good characters, they will say what they think and all you really need to
do is listen to them and transcribe what they say. Once you’ve got the basic
dialogue down, you can polish it up a bit, adding descriptions sparingly and
only as necessary to avoid possible confusion.
But keep in mind that a conversation can easily turn in
directions you don’t want it to go and in doing so it can take a novel off
course. This is where characters are rather like actors. They respond to the
other person spontaneously and in character, but there’s nothing wrong with
calling “Stop! We’re getting off topic here. Go back. Take it again from ….”
Nor is there anything wrong with knowing what the outcome of
a dialogue ought to be. It’s legitimate to start a conversation with the
knowledge “this is where x and y clash so violently that they say things they
will later regret.” Or “this is where x learns about y’s vulnerabilities.” If you
have developed good characters, you will only need put this out there and they
will give you the actual lines – absolutely in character.
Characters talking with one another is, furthermore, far
more effective that any narrator talking about what characters think or
feel. Letting the characters speak for
themselves is much more entertaining, authentic and exciting. After all,
dialogue alone make a play, and theater is an older, arguably more effective, art form than novels.
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