Dialogue is more than speech. It is expressive. So to differentiate between the characters use stance, different tones and volumes, facial expressions, turn your head slightly to the side to show the different characters or use different stances and body language, use of facial muscles, pitch and tone and volume.
Interior Dialogue reveals what the character is really thinking as opposed to her spoken words.
- Arguing with the forces of nature, another person.
Examples: telling a story from different viewpoints. The Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks. The witch, the hero, the villain etc. - Characters that each speak in dialogue but not to each other.
Examples: Edward Albee’s “Who is Afraid of Virginia Wolf” - Conversation between two or more than one characters. Keep it simple. Too many characters make for confusion and take away from the movement of the story.
Function of Dialogue:
- To move the plot forward, express conflict, emotions, adding interest through dialect mixed with action.
- Keep it simple. Too many characters make for confusion and take away from the movement of the story.
Do’s and Don’t’s of dialogue
- Do not dump too much information at once.
- Do break up dialogue with action or narrative.
- Don’t over use Dialogue tags. (He said, she said.)
- Do watch slang, profanity and stereotypes.
- Do use sparingly to build characters but will offend if over used.
Thank you to Jere Pfister for these tips on creating dialogue.
