Dialogue – Break It Up For More Impact

Writing dialogue is something that takes a bit of practice. It is easy to become incredibly absorbed in it, but that isn’t necessarily a good thing for the reader. To give your dialogue more of an impact, break it up for the reader.

It happens at every party. There is always the pontificate. No, not the Pope. Instead, I’m talking about the person who blathers on to no end. Even if they are speaking on something interesting, the interest factor drops as they go on and on and on and…well, you get the idea. This is the same effect your dialogue can have for a reader if you are not careful.

Dialogue is necessary for most stories. Not all, but definitely most of them. Dialogue servers the purpose of informing the reader regarding what is happening as well as fleshing out the views, personality and attitudes of the characters. Obviously, it can do more than this and does, but this is the basic idea.

Dialogue is an important tool, but it should not become a crutch for a writer. It should be used sparingly. Why? The overuse of dialogue does two things. First, it confuses the reader. After a while, it may be more and more difficult to determine who is saying what and the points that are being made and countered. Confusing the reader is generally not a good move.

The second problem has to do with the nature of dialogue. Focused, sharp dialogue strikes like lightening in a story. Lengthy, back and forth dialogue could dull a diamond. Simply put, it is boring and tends to create lulls in the story. Top writers can pull it off, but even then it tends to create a spongy part of the story that may give readers an urge to skip ahead a bit. Again, this is not good from the writer’s perspective!

I am not advocating that you should cut your dialogue for the sake of cutting it. Instead, I suggest you give it a close read. Are there sections of it that add nothing to the story? They should be deleted unless you are being paid by the word! They add nothing to the story and the reader will notice indirectly. Why indirectly? They’ll get bored and put the book down. You are in real trouble if that happens.

To make your dialogue sharp, cut out the fluff. Now sharpen it up even more. Cut it up with scene updates. Generally, I try to stick to no more than four or five short statements before updating the scene [evil locksmith surreptitiously changes locks in doors to throne room, etc.]. It might like: Character 1 says something, character 2 responds; bird flies by window, character 1 says something, character 2 admonishes character 1, locksmith does his evil deed and so on. Obviously, you want to put a bit more thought into it, but breaking up dialogue can really keep the story moving along and make a difference.

Dialogue can be a strong or weak point to your story. Ditch the fluff. Sharpen it till it cuts diamonds. It’ll keep your reader hooked into the story.

By: Tom Ajava

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Thomas Ajava is with NomadJournals.com - makers of writing journals for writers and readers alike.