Writing Characters: Creating Authentic Dialogue

Dialogue is so fun to read but can be perplexing to write. Question tags, “‘she said’ versus ‘she replied’ versus ‘she asked while typing away at the keyboard,’” deciding what punctuation and tense to use and so on.

Despite any confusion, authentic dialogue is essential to a story. It involves crafting conversations that feel natural and true to each character's personality. Dialogue is a powerful tool for revealing character traits and advancing the plot.

How to write authentic character dialogue

To create authentic dialogue, immerse yourself in the character's mindset. Consider their background, personality, and current emotional state. Pay attention to speech patterns, vocabulary, and unique quirks that distinguish their voice. Dialogue should serve a dual purpose: conveying information and revealing character nuances.

Dialogue must also be suited to the setting of the story.

An example of this is C.J. Sansom’s Shardlake book series. The story is set in 16th-century England and takes place during the reign of King Henry VIII. Matthew Shardlake, our protagonist, is a lawyer with a disability that sees his back bent at an angle. He often gets drawn into murder investigations and the plot follows the resolution of these cases.

As expected, the dialogue in Sansom’s Shardlake reflects the story's time. “Doublet,” “codpiece,” “dowry,” and “vainglory” are a few of the words used in the book series that you won’t find in more contemporary novels. Exclamations such as “Jesu,” “God’s wounds,” and “Pox on you!” are quite common. It is also not uncommon to find that words have slightly different meanings and are spelt differently.

Matthew Shardlake's words reflect his education and his profession. As a lawyer, we read Shardlake talking about contracts, legal proceedings, land agreements and inheritances.

The discrimination towards Shardlake’s disability is also displayed via dialogue. By the harsh words and gestures used by people to describe the lawyer, we see the bias people of that time had towards disabled individuals. Throughout the book, we see Shardlake called a “hunchback,” “crookback,” “bent back,” “humpback,” and a “bent spider.”

Painful and inflammatory as the statements are, they are a true reflection of the mindset of individuals at that time. This is what good dialogue should do. Convey information, reflect character nuances and be suited to the setting of the story.



What not to do when writing dialogue

Dialogue should not be forced or overly expository. When people talk, they don’t talk like they are making pronouncements. They pause to reframe their words, they stutter, and they are interrupted.

They whisper. They shout. They murmur and mumble. Sometimes, they are silent and it is their silence that does the speaking. 

Dialogue should not be stilted or unnatural and it should align with the personality and background of your character.

Summary

Good dialogue should be authentic, and suited to the character and the setting of the story. Dialogue should convey information but not be overly expository. Dialogue should be easy to follow, not stilted and unnatural.



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