Writing Exercise: Dialogue

No groaning allowed!  For some reason, whenever we talk about dialogue at my writing workshops, people moan about it.  I think you're missing out on a vital part of your writing if you don't practice this important story element.  Here are a few thoughts, as well as your monthly assignment...

I might be a little odd, but dialogue is just about my favorite component of writing a story.  When you write narrative, you are describing the scene and the characters, and that's fine.  But when you insert well-written dialogue into your tale, you're able to display a broad range of emotions in your characters that narrative just can't accomplish.

There's a tired old cliche in writing classes that says, "Show, don't tell."  It means that the best thing you can do for your reader is to give them just enough information so that they're able to figure things out for themselves without you having to tell them.

That's where dialogue can move things along.  In the Galahad book series I use dialogue between the characters to convey information about their feelings and intentions.  Dialogue can really drive the drama in a story, in a much more powerful way than narrative prose.  It's not even necessary to include statements such as "he said angrily."  You should have created dialogue that SHOWED your reader that the character was angry, without having to TELL them.

Your assignment for February is to create two fictional characters, and to develop a scene that is almost all dialogue.  You can mix it up with some action, but keep the focus on their exchanges.  See how much of the story you can deliver through the clever dialogue, without relying on narration of the scene.  Get inside the heads of the characters, feel what they feel, and see what words come flying out of their mouths!

Have fun with this, and, as always, feel free to post any comments or questions.

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