Writing Dialogue Alabama

1. Consider your character. Many things affect the way people speak: where they're from, level of education, self-confidence level, ethnic or national background, command of the language. The list is pretty long. As you create dialogue for your characters, consider what you know about them and then consider how these factors will affect how they speak to each other. "Voice" is a very important concept in writing dialogue. Basically, each character should have his own "voice" - that is, he shouldn't sound exactly like the next guy (unless you're writing stylized dialogue where that kind of mimicry is the intent). And the way you keep voices unique is to make sure that characters speak according to the many different aspects of their backgrounds.
   
   
2. Keep your ears open. So how do you get a character to speak "according to his background?" Well, again, unless you're using a stylized form of dialogue where people aren't meant to sound like they do in real life, you can figure out how your characters speak by listening to their real life counterparts. Listening, like observing, is a key skill for writers to have. Perhaps nowhere is it more important to put that skill to use than when writing dialogue. You will notice many things about how people talk. Their jobs, cultural background, educational background - all of these things can be reflected in their speech. Evenaudience will affect howpeople talk -a man will talk to his friend one way and his daughter another. Listen to people who resemble your characters and see how they say things and, just as importantly, what they say. A proper church lady, for example, might never use bad language.
   
   Also listen for traits that can be almost universally applied. For example, people in everyday conversation usually speak in relatively short bursts, not big paragraphs or huge sentences. They speak in sentence fragments using contractions (Note: One sure way to write stilted dialogue is to not use contractions). People stammer with "uhs" or "ums" and pauses. They use slang and catch phrases. Listen well and try to recreate what you hear, taking into consideration your own characters' specific traits. Easier said than done, I know!
   
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Author: B. Danesco