Continuing a little more with the theme of narrative texts, as we know dialogues contribute to the basis of this type of texts, but taken to the field of fiction and story creation, dialogue is an instrument to reduce the presence of the narrator and highlight the characters' own voice, that is, it gives the latter the possibility of interacting directly with them.
Dialogue moves the action forward, if a character reveals a secret, a powerful motivation, an explicit feeling, it will make the other character react in a certain direction and in turn the reaction will provoke a new reaction. That is why I consider dialogue to be the main resource to move the story forward.
Dialogues are an essential part of many novels. Thanks to them, the action is perceived in real time and conflict is generated, among many other things. It will help to define the characters, to give them personality. It must be natural, trying to be as accurate as possible to reality. It should also respond to the character's way of being; a peasant cannot express himself as a teacher, nor a painter as a merchant, among all that people usually say to express their thoughts and feelings, the writer must make a selection.
We can find three styles:
- First the direct style, where the characters express themselves directly, without interference from the narrator. Dialogue lines and annotations are used. The annotations appear with declarative verbs (to say, to answer, to ask, to explain).
- Second, the indirect style where the characters do not speak directly, but express themselves through the narrator, who plays an active part. Nexuses are used (he said that, he told that, I ask what).
- Finally, the free direct style, the narrator reproduces the thoughts or statements of the characters. Declarative verbs are not used for them.
In that sense, the interaction makes the rhythm of the story flow faster, more dynamic. It will always be more tedious to read a whole paragraph of the narrator explaining step by step what a dialogue can tell in a few lines. It offers information that the reader often intuits unconsciously, such as the relationship between the characters, their personalities, their moods. But it also provides specific data about the plot, of course, all the information provided in the dialogue must be justified.
We must take into account that a summarized story, without seeing in front of you what happens, second by second, without hearing the different characters, without knowing their reactions, is much less enjoyable. So when we introduce a dialogue, that's what we are partly trying to do. We are showing the reader everything that is going on in the story and the reader is mesmerized, waiting for the next line of conversation, the next action.
However, in addition to the benefits they bring, dialogue also involves a number of problems that need to be addressed. As a general rule, we can say that any dialogue that can be eliminated from a narrative without changing the meaning or losing information should be eliminated. The aim of this is to avoid dialogues that are empty of content, because rather than contributing to the text, they hinder the development of the action and the narrative. A good dialogue brings a series of benefits. It brings credibility to the text, can outline and specify the plot of the written work and offers nuances of the characters. The words of the protagonists make the reader identify with them.
In conclusion, it can be said that literary dialogue is present in many genres of literature. In narratives, among the characters who are the protagonists of the stories is the essential component, it can also appear to a lesser extent in poetry. It can even be used to produce scenes of everyday life using formal, colloquial structures or it can depart with aesthetic interactions from what would be an informal conversation. This is a very powerful resource for a writer to give agility, liveliness and realism to a story.
Does dialogue motivate you in every story you read?
P.S.: I am taking a course on the creation of novels, and I decided to share with you through my publications, the knowledge I am acquiring. That way we can learn together.
Dear readers, your opinions are very valuable to me, I will be very attentive to your comments. Thank you for investing your valuable time reading my post, best regards.
Disclaimer: I would like to let you know that English is not my mother tongue, I may even make some mistakes in the elaboration of sentences in my posts. Feel free to correct me attentively. It will help me in my learning process.
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