Dialogue, to me, is the fundamental key to making or breaking a story. Description is great, character is important, but the moment the dialogue fails a scene is when the story falls apart.
Here are some key strategies to dialogue a better chapter:
Outline first
Nothing comes easy without preparation. Maybe it’s a scribble on a notepad or a thousand word document about the contents of the scene/chapter. Whatever it is matters to the overall quality of what is coming out of your characters’ mouths.
Every component you bring to the table before sketching out your dialogue adds that much more to the final product. Knowing where they are in the story, knowing the stakes, foreshadowing threats, everything can be determined before starting.
Here is a recent chapter outline I finished for a future project:
Chapter Five
– The Bunker
– Ben and Morgan meet with Alison Adler.
– She has just received word of a dead drop being used that hasn’t been touched since 1982.
– A DSA dead drop.
– She goes through the history of the department, how in those days agents didn’t have a specific home or base of operations. They worked outside the law, all to better serve their fellow man. They created these dead drops to stay in touch, especially when things went awry.
– And they always did.
– The pair question who would have access after all this time.
– Adler shows them the image of Wesley Fuller, leaving the scene.
– He was the first DSA agent on record, his partner lost on one of their early cases back in 1972.
– She opens the letter left at the drop.
– “I need help. He’s come back and I need help.”
– Both agree to be the ones to answer the call.
Laying this all out allows me to feel my way into the scene better. What knowledge needs to come through in the dialogue? What can remain in the description to limit the amount of exposition?
I also call this my beat sheet. This lists every beat I need to hit when I’m scripting. It determines the setting, the placement of the principal characters and where they end up at the final moment of the scene, propelling them and the narrative forward to the next chapter.
Finding an entry point
This can be tricky business in some cases. Enter too early and you’re rambling until you reach the meat of your scene. Enter too late and everyone is screaming at each other rather than building the tension.
For the outlined chapter above, I come in on dialogue. Alison Adler is already into her case for Ben and Morgan when the scene opens. Why jump right in? Why not let them show up and greet her?
Because it’s boring. It offers nothing for the reader who really want this story to pop at this point. It’s a pacing no-no, in other words, and would drag the entire chapter down.
Another good reason, and one always to keep in mind, is character based. Adler wouldn’t bother with a simple greeting. Rather than hello, this is exactly where she would start her conversation. Knee-deep in exposition, rather than waste anyone’s time – including her own.
Keep it character based
It’s easy to fall into a pattern. Using the same breaks, the same nuance for each character’s voice. What happens, however, is that pretty soon a character is pretty much a placeholder instead of a three-dimensional player in your drama. Everyone sounds the same, has the same accent, the same snark and it becomes boring for the reader.
Change it up.
In the scene above, Ben plays up his snark as often as possible. That’s who he is. Morgan reins him in, the consummate professional. In Adler’s case, she’s newer to the series at this point and the audience needs to figure out who she is almost as much as I do. So she gets more focus. She starts the ball rolling and provides more information as a way to allow some character to flow into the words.
She breaks into conversation more, meaning she’s impatient. Why? Well, she has a project running in the background that she’s more than happy to tell you about but won’t because they’re all too busy with this new situation.
Little things can go a long way in dialogue. A slight hesitation could mean a sign of nervousness. A callous remark could point to a character disconnected with the situation. Every nuance, every line of dialogue, is a chance to add character. Sometimes it can be overdone.
Read a Gambit comic from the 90’s and you’ll know what I’m talking about. (Oy, that accent!)
Play around with the elements…
Nothing is set in stone with writing. There are always ways to improve a scene. Enter later or earlier. Add a background character to liven up the conversation.
See how different interactions change the dynamic of a scene if it seems too stiff. Or if you’ve lost control, go back and see if you can tighten it up and keep the character’s on target.
There’s nothing better than finding a character’s voice through dialogue and it can add a ton of potential to your novel.
Thanks for reading.
