Photo by GregRon Photography
(updated Jan. 31, 2023)
In a recent reader survey, several readers mentioned struggling with dialog, so today I’m pulling from the archive and updating it.
Dialog must accomplish 1 or more of 9 tasks, according to award-winning author Cecil Murphey. Perhaps that’s why it can be so difficult to write.
In real life we learn to recognize the voices of our friends and family.
But how do you recognize the voice of a story character when you never hear that voice?
Too often character dialog reads the same. But it’s important to give each a distinctive voice. But how?
How to Give Your Character a Voice
Consider these qualities about each character as you write dialog:
- Age—is your character a child, teen, or adult? How does that impact the way they speak?
- Place of birth—even in America there are regions that carry accents. Utilize these where applicable. Use dialectal spellings (e.g. y’all) sparingly so as to not make it difficult for the reader to read.
- Education—does your character have a Ph.D. or did he/she barely make it through high school?
- Career—every job has its own jargon, some professions more than others.
- Personality—the class clown speaks differently than the serious student aiming for straight A’s.
- Character’s culture—communication styles vary between western and eastern cultures. Be careful to avoid stereotypes.
All of these elements affect the word choices and sentence structure these people would use as they speak.
Do you know these things about your characters? Keep note of these in a character profile.
In Claiming Her Inheritance, Sally Clark is a 15-year Marine Corps veteran. Her dialog (and narrative) is sprinkled with military metaphors and jargon. Chase Reynolds is a cattle rancher. Chase would be more likely to say, “Belly up to the trough,” and Sally would say, “I’m chowing down.”
Additionally, we can describe the tone of voice, such as shrill, screechy, melodic, monotone, etc. Or even a quality to the voice—think Fran Drescher.
Now go back through your WIP and see how you can make your main characters’ dialog so distinctive that you wouldn’t need dialog tags to know who’s talking.
Dialog Tags and Beats
What is a dialog tag? Also known as attribution, a dialog tag tells the reader who is speaking, but also serves as a type of punctuation.
What is a beat? It is a sentence describing a character’s action or response and is used before, between, or after dialog. A beat serves double duty because it not only shows action it identifies the speaker. For an extensive discussion on tags and beats, read “3 Common Dialog Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them.”
What elements do you use to give your character’s voice personality? What part of dialog gives you trouble? Leave your comments below.