In my previous article regarding Dialogue, I talked about how Dialogue acts as a development point for the characters within your story, I also gave out two examples of prompts that relates to this.
I also Explained How Dialogue also can advance the plot of the story. This article is a continuation of the mini-series that I have just began on dialogues, if you Haven’t read the first one I do suggest you go through part one because as I said this article is a continuation of the last one. I have provided a link below to part one so check it out. Are you ready? Good then Let’s Go!!!!
Dialogue Brings Forth New Vantage points.
As I said in Part One Dialogue advances a story’s plots in many ways, one of the ways is that it allows the writer to create a whole new dynamic within the story without losing the readers interest. It will always be virtually impossible to go through an entire paragraph where the writer explains everything in detail. Dialogue can “Cut things Short” by making the characters explain things for them. By doing this a writer directly moves the story forward and also indirectly creates a relationship between the character and reader. (Makes the reader fall in love with the character.)
Example A
John took a seat next to Allan, He sighed, it was time to tell him everything; About why he loves Julie, and why he stormed out of the hall, how it all started when she showed up in his life. And so he did.
Example B
John took a seat next to Allan.
“Allan… “He sighed, holding on desperately to his jacket as if it would safe him from the swirling current of emotions that are threatening to break through his cool demeanor.
“tell me why” Allan let out a frail whisper, he wanted to understand him.
“It’s always been her, I never told you before but….” John paused “I…”
“You what John,”
“I love her, I’ve loved her since Paris, I’ve loved her before the Emails, I’ve loved her before the fame and the people. To me it’s always been her it’s always been Julie…. And it will always be her. So I … I .Am. Not. Sorry. I can never be sorry for loving her.”
Okay now let’s break down the two examples shall we. From the top of my head I wrote down two examples of a scenario. The scenario being Two best friends are in love with the same girl, one of them finds out and needs to explain why he loves the girl (Julie).
Example A is basically a show and tell, the writing comes off as impressive but it lucks the most important thing and that’s emotion and direction. We only find out that John loves Julie and is trying to explain it. Just that nothing else.
Example B shows A Dialogue Between the Two friends; This Dialogue explains the situation through the lens of its characters. We can tell that john is nervous, and regrets nothing, he comes off as a romantic man and decisive because he does not want to say sorry for something that he does not regret.
The story also brings forth some questions. Something clever that would advance this is if I would have held back and didn’t reveal what happened in Paris, making it a mystery (Like Marvel does with the story of Black Widow and Hawkeye in Budapest.)
Dialogue Brings Characters to Life.
A good writer knows how to make their readers fall in love. If you can master this, then you already are a good writer. We read books that have three dimensional characters (I will be writing about how to write Characters with dimension in future so stay subscribe)
From Example B above, even without knowing the full story or who john really is. I deliberately didn’t hint at their appearances for a reason. It’s a person’s personality that counts. John comes out as being brave and a hopeless romantic for not giving up on the girl of his dreams. He won’t apologize because he believes he has done nothing wrong. With this I have shown that John is: -
Cares for his Friends
Loves Julie with all his Being
Is frightened of the outcome
He feels things deeply.
He and Julie have a deep History together.
Without even knowing it, when we read through the dialogue somewhere in between you forget that there is even an Allan and you pay attention to John, you think of John, you understand John.
Dialogue Gives You Information and So Much More.
Like I said in the beginning of the Mini-series, Dialogue is a great way to manage the amount of information you are willing to give as a writer. When I wrote “holding on desperately his jacket as if it would safe him from the swirling current of emotions that are threatening to break through his cool demeanor,” You get to find out about Johns Emotional state, without even saying it or even using the word nervous.
Join me Next time to discuss the dialogue Don’ts, what not to do and avoid when writing your dialogue.
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Dialogue really adds color and extra fun to stories we hear and see.