  Drama
This week: The Drama of Dialogue Edited by: lizco252
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 Dramatic Dialogue
Writing dialogue between my characters is one of my favorite things to write. It's like watching a heated ping-pong battle between friends ~ or enemies, for that matter ~ and all from the comfort of my own head. It's an inner spectacle, filled with drama, shock, poignancy, and revelation. But writing dramatic dialogue that your readers can relate to can be tricky. If you stick to the he said/she said or the she said/he replied tags, it can come across as a little boring, not to mention repetitive. It can also increase your use of adverbs, those pesky modifiers that can bog down your dialogue with useless words, usually ending in -ly. And we all know how one of the greats feels about adverbs:
"I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs, and I will shout it from the rooftops. To put it another way, they’re like dandelions. If you have one on your lawn, it looks pretty and unique. If you fail to root it out, however, you find five the next day . . . fifty the day after that . . . and then, my brothers and sisters, your lawn is totally, completely, and profligately covered with dandelions. By then you see them for the weeds they really are, but by then it’s — GASP!! — too late."
~Stephen King~
When I first started writing many, many moons ago, I was a serial abuser of the adverb, but once I became aware of the problem, it wasn't difficult to modify my writing behavior, although it did take a little effort, because old habits can die hard, and I still catch myself in offense today. Eventually, I learned to express dialogue through the drama of the actions and emotions of the scene and the characters.
Which do you think conveys a scene more dramatically:
"Your bag is by the door, so is your purse and your keys," Mitch said. "I put them there last night."
"What would I do without you?" Annabeth replied lovingly.
"It remains a mystery," Mitch responded warmly.
"OK," she said firmly and grabbed the paper. "Quick look at the paper, then I'm off! Anything I should know?"
"Nope. Same junk, different day." Mitch replied absently. "I gotta run. We're finishing the xeriscaping at Ms. Cavanaugh's today."
Annabeth flipped through the newspaper. "Good luck. Don't let her keep a good boy down."
Mitch laughed happily and said, "Whatever. Hey, do you have any cash? I need to buy the guys lunch today."
~OR~
"Your bag is by the door, so is your purse and your keys," Mitch said. "I put them there last night."
Annabeth relaxed and blew him a kiss. "What would I do without you?"
Mitch spread his hands. "It remains a mystery."
"OK," she announced and grabbed the paper. "Quick look at the paper, then I'm off! Anything I should know?"
Mitch looked down at his watch. "Nope. Same junk, different day." He patted his jeans pockets to make sure he had his wallet and his keys. "I gotta run. We're finishing the xeriscaping at Ms. Cavanaugh's today."
"Good luck. Don't let her keep a good boy down." Annabeth's tone was mischievous as she flipped through the newspaper.
"Whatever," Mitch chuckled and pulled his wallet from his pocket. "Hey, do you have any cash? I need to buy the guys lunch today."
For me, adding drama to dialogue, through the emotions and actions of the characters, is far more engaging, because the reader can relate to them. We can tell that Annabeth has love for her husband because she relaxes and blows him a kiss, and we can see that Mitch is absent when he speaks, because he's looking at his watch and searching for his wallet. Framing dialogue within action and emotion draws the reader into the scene and into the lives and quirks of your characters as their story unfolds. It feels more personal, more intimate to the reader, as if they're the proverbial fly on the wall, an unseen witness to the lives and happenings of your characters.
 In Closing
Effective dialogue is the tool that brings your characters to life. It's their voices spilling out onto the page, grabbing your reader and compelling them forward into the story. If it becomes too clunky, cluttered or mundane, it can cause your reader to lose interest in their fate ~ and no writer wants that! 
~The Wytch  |
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Drama: December 30, 2015 Issue [#7391]
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