9.1: What is the Purpose of Dialogue in Your Fantasy Novel?
Everyone knows that a good novel should have a decent amount of dialogue between the characters, but why? There are several important reasons for including dialogue in your fantasy novel. To show rather than tell .
more interesting for the readers as well.
To let your audience get to know your characters.Another reason that dialogue is really important is that it lets the readers get to know the characters. To see how they interact with others, how they cope with different situations and the kind of language they use exposes them and allows the readers to feel an intimacy which would not be felt if the author was just narrating. Through the words and language a character uses, the reader gets to know their characters and their personalities.
When we discussed how to write a good story it was shown that creating conflict and tension is a key part of any good plot. Using dialogue is a great way to build tension and drama between characters. It could be gossiping amongst friends, an argument between partners, or shouting during an epic battle scene. It all goes towards making the scene and the action more interesting and more realistic to read.
A smaller point is that dialogue creates white space on the page which gives readers a little break from time to time and makes the text more appealing. Page after page of solid text can be intimidating. When flicking through a prospective next read, dialogue and white space in between solid paragraphs is more likely to tempt the reader to go ahead and buy the book. Also when they're looking for quick excerpts to read, it is often parts of dialogue they will choose.
9.2: How to Perfect Your Dialogue Writing Skills
The first thing to remember when adding dialogue is that there needs to be a setting. Where are your characters and what are they doing? People rarely just stand and talk. They might be washing the dishes, having a cup of coffee, browsing through a magazine. What is going on in the background? Are there other people present, background noises, etc.? It's important to build up a realistic environment in which the conversation is going to occur. When you need to get a big chunk of information across it can be tempting to let your characters talk for too long. In real life it's unusual for anyone to speak for long periods so try not to let this happen in your novel either. You can break up long speeches by getting the other characters to acknowledge, agree or disagree, or ask questions from time to time.
Dialogues need to be realistic but not too realistic. Record some different conversations and then listen to them. No doubt they are full of ums and ahs, some stutters, some mispronunciation maybe, and self-correction, as well as slang and swear words. If you add all this to your dialogues in your novel it will just become too distracting to read. A certain amount of ums and ahs etc. are fine but don't go overboard in your attempt to make it realistic. Silence is also very useful in dialogue. An unanswered question or refusal to respond is a much better way to get the point across than telling the readers that a character doesn't like to talk about a particular subject. Don't be afraid to let your characters simply not answer. It's a lot more powerful than letting them say something vague or non-committal.
One error that many writers make is to write all their conversations from the start to the end. This is unnecessary and adds additional speech which is tiresome and boring.
'Hello!' 'Hi, how are you?' 'Not bad thanks. And you?' 'Yeah I'm ok.' 'Ok well bye then.' 'Yeah see you soon.' 'Take care.' 'Bye!'
It gets really boring very quickly, it doesn't tell the reader anything about the characters and it does nothing for the story. Cut straight to the interesting points of the story and leave before it gets boring. The reader will assume that the characters were polite enough to say hello and goodbye and all that malarkey. Something else which should go without saying really is to make sure your punctuation skills are up to scratch when it comes to writing dialogue. Whether you're going to send your work to publishing companies, enter it into competitions, or publish it yourself as an e-book, it's essential to have good spelling, grammar and punctuation in order to come across as professional and for people to take you seriously.
9.3: Writing Dialogue to Fit Your Characters
Each of your characters has a different profile and personality which you spent time lovingly creating. Writing dialogue for your characters is where all this hard work pays off and you get to show off their different traits. However, sometimes an author can be so intent on getting the particular point across that they forget everything they've invented about their character. The dialogue becomes wooden and unrealistic and is more your voice than any of your characters. You can have fun with your characters' conversations and you should do. Look at the profile you built for them; how educated they are, what their social background is, how old they are, what their personality is like, if they are male, female or something else, etc. All of the elements you put together to create your characters will determine how they speak and what they say. Depending on their personality some might like to chat more than others, some might come across as abrupt and some might have a specific word or catchphrase they use a lot.
As a fantasy writer you have a lot more to think about in terms of where your characters have come from and how that affects their writing. They may be from some made up kingdom in The Middle Ages, or perhaps from a strange planet in another universe. You'll have to think carefully about what kinds of words and type of language would be used in your chosen setting and make sure you stick to it consistently. In many fantasy novels authors like their characters to come out with words and phrases you might
find in a book by Chaucer but they rarely manage to pull it off. It's best to leave it out altogether than make a half-hearted attempt by adding the odd 'Hark', 'yonder' and 'anon' mixed in with modern language. Of course if your characters come from another planet they will most likely speak a completely different language.
However, unless you want to spend hours inventing a new one as well as popping to university to study linguistics for a few years, you're better off sticking to English. Other things to watch for when you're dealing with characters or creatures from unknown lands are using swear words and blasphemy that may sound out of place. For instance using 'God' or 'Christ' to portray surprise or shock isn't very convincing when your setting is not on Earth. Some of the characters in George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones say 'Gods' instead of 'God' because they believe in multiple gods. This is the kind of subtle but noticeable addition to your characters' language that will make the whole setting seem more real. But certainly if your novel is in a medieval land, avoid using modern slang as it will just sound strange.
Another thing fantasy writers tend to do when writing dialogue is to make all their characters say twenty words when three would have done. Overly flowery speech gets monotonous to read and besides, not everyone would have spoken that way. You could let an extremely intelligent wizard get away with showing off a bit with long words and such, but a humble peasant boy is unlikely to be able to converse with the same wit and eloquence.
9.4: He Said, She Said
It's common for new writers to want to start or finish every piece of dialogue with he said, he asked, he pondered, or a million other fancy words to use in placeof said. These are known as dialogue tags and they can get extremely distracting and annoying for the reader. It's far better to just leave the dialogue alone apart from where it might be unclear as to whois talking.
You should also be able to convey emotion within the dialogue and not need to explain it by using tags such as 'she exclaimed happily' or 'he mumbled awkwardly'. Writers like to adverbs to their tags but they are usually unnecessary. Someone mumbling would usually sound awkward and we should know from the character and what she said whether she was happy or not. The only dialogue tags a writer really needs to use are 'said', 'asked', 'replied', 'shouted', and possibly 'whispered' and 'sighed'. A few more are acceptable but you should take heed as this is one way you could come across as a real amateur writer.
It's tempting in the fantasy genre to make characters say things dramatically or exotically but we can do this without using dialogue tags paired with adverbs. Compare the excerpts below: “But that's the wrong spell!” the wizard cried hysterically. “No, no, it's written right here; How to bring a cat back to life” his apprentice retorted flippantly.
“But you're making the spell above; How to destroy the entire universe!” the wizard roared frenziedly.“Oops!” murmured the boy meekly, “What should we do then?”
“But that's the wrong spell!” cried the wizard as he entered the room.“No, no, it's written right here; How to bring a cat back to life.” The wizard's apprentice rolled his
eyes and continued stirring the contents of the cauldron.
“But you're making the spell above; How to destroy the entire universe!” “Oops!” murmured the boy, “What should we do then?”
You can see that the second example reads much more fluidly without the use of excess dialogue tags and adverbs but the meaning and feeling still comes across just as effectively.
Module Summary
Lessons Learned
Dialogue is a powerful tool which can be used to bring your characters to life, add tension and drama to your story, and take away the need for too much backstory. It's important to know your characters and creatures really well in order to create realistic and authentic dialogue for them based on their history and personality. Fantasy writers should be extra careful that they don't use language inappropriate for their chosen or created setting, and that they don't give their characters clichéd medieval phrases mixed with modern language. There are several techniques to making sure your dialogue sounds as natural as possible and listening to recorded conversations will help with this, as well as acting out your written dialogues to gauge how real they sound. The use of dialogue tags should be limited to when necessary to
distinguish between which character is speaking.
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