Dialogue

``Let's Talk About Dialogue,'' he pontificated.

Dialogue has to sound like speech, but it can't be a mere transcript; most people don't speak precisely or concisely enough to serve the writer's needs. Good dialogue has several functions:

• To convey exposition: to tell us, through the conversations of the characters, what we need to know to make sense of the story.
• To convey character: to show us what kinds of people we're dealing with.
• To convey a sense of place and time: to evoke the speech patterns, vocabulary and rhythms of specific kinds of people.
• To develop conflict: to show how some people use language to dominate others, or fail to do so.

Each of these functions has its hazards. Expository dialogue can be dreadful:

``We'll be in Vancouver in thirty minutes,'' the flight attendant said. ``It's Canada's biggest west coast city, with a population of over a million in the metropolitan area.''

Dialogue can convey character, but the writer may bog down in chatter that doesn't advance the story.

``When I was a kid,'' said Julie, ``I had a stuffed bear named Julius. He was a sweet old thing, and whenever I was upset I'd howl for him.'' (Unless Julie is going to howl for Julius when her husband leaves her, this kind of remark is pointless.)

Dialogue that conveys a specific place and time can become exaggerated and stereotyped:

``Pretty hot ootside, eh?'' remarked Sergeant Renfrew of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. ``Good day to get oot of the hoose and oot on the saltchuck, eh? Catch us a couple of skookum salmon, eh?''

Dialogue that develops conflict has to do so while also conveying exposition, portraying character, and staying true to the time and place:

``Gadzooks,'' said Sergeant Renfrew as he dismounted from his motorcycle. ``Wouldst please present thy driver's licence and registration, madam?''

``Eat hot lead, copper!'' snarled Sister Mary Agnes as she drew the .45 from within her habit.

Some Dialogue Hazards to Avoid:

• Too much faithfulness to speech: ``Um, uh, y'know, geez, well, like, well.''
• Unusual spellings: ``Yeah,'' not ``Yeh'' or ``Yea'' or ``Ya.''
• Too much use of ``he said,'' ``she said.''
• Too much variation: ``he averred,'' ``she riposted''
• Dialect exaggeration: ``Lawsy, Miz Scahlut, us's wuhkin' jes' as fas' as us kin.''
• Excessive direct address: ``Tell me, Marshall, your opinion of Vanessa.'' ``I hate her, Roger.'' ``Why is that, Marshall?'' ``She bullies everyone, Roger.''

Some Dialogue Conventions to Consider:

Each new speaker requires a new paragraph, properly indented and set off by quotation marks.

``Use double quotations,'' the novelist ordered, ``and remember to place commas and periods inside those quotation marks.''

``If a speaker goes on for more than one paragraph,'' the count responded in his heavy Transylvanian accent, ``do not close off the quotation marks at the end of the first paragraph.

``Simply place quotation marks at the beginning of the next paragraph, and carry on to the end of the quotation.''

Use ``he said'' expressions only when you must, to avoid confusion about who's speaking. You can signal increasing tension by moving from ``he said'' to ``he snapped,'' to ``he snarled,'' to ``he bellowed furiously.'' But the dialogue itself should convey those emotions.

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