First Novel Update: November 11th: Thoughts About Dialog

My first draft is currently at 75,764 words according to the word count on OpenOffice.

I have been writing quite a bit of dialog in this story (big surprise). Part of the issue with this is that it's not always easy to write "realistic" dialog.

As someone with Asperger's I already notice certain details in people's speech. Primarily because there are certain things...verbal tics, if you will...that drive me NUTS.

I hate people saying "umm" or "uh". Can't stand it, and refuse to listen to public speakers that stammer constantly.

Or people that use taglines in their speech like "or whatever."

Or...well, I could go on. But I won't. Because the point is that dialog written in books isn't like dialog that we use in everyday speech. In real life we clip our words, use filler language, and use words that don't really contribute to the advancement of the plot. Probably because our lives are viewed as having plots while generally a novel is supposed to have a plot.

I'm not going to go back and edit for that quite yet but this is a topic that I have to keep in mind when editing time rolls around. I'll need to review a list like this one from fictionwriting.about.com that gives some helpful hints on how to trim dialog so it's readable and...well, readable.

In general dialog should read as if it were being said by real people in an actual conversation, but at the same time should be trimmed of excess verbiage and filler that doesn't serve to advance the plot or emphasize some aspect of the character.

If you have a character that is supposed to be dumb, then you'll end up doing things like adding pauses and "um" and "y'all"; something that many people do in normal course without being dumb, but when it's emphasized in the written form, you turn it into a characteristic of a personal stereotype despite the fact that these things are quite common in everyday folks. Characters that are supposed to be intelligent sometimes show it through excess or complex verbiage that nearly talks over the heads of the readers (but hopefully not completely over their heads or who would want to read that? Authors do still need audiences, after all...)

It's a complex thing to do, creating that balance between authentic dialog and dialog that isn't so transcribed that the reader has to slog through the words and get bored out of their skulls. I don't know if I have any skill with this because I'm still in the first draft; I'm focusing on just getting a basic story completed before I go back and evaluate the dialog.

Personally the only thing that has stuck out to me is that I think I ask too many questions in the dialog. In my head I really see the characters saying this and as I'm working on it I see these conversations coming out this way. I think maybe...just maybe...I am more into getting information by asking questions and don't know if people really do this in real life as much as I do. The first read (which is to say what I'm hearing in my head as I type) sounds fine.

I won't know until I go back to edit, I suppose. Or I have my first reader come back to me with some feedback on the dialog.

That's my reoccurring fear for now; my dialog is either too contrived or not varied enough to sound realistic. But it's a worry to focus on later. Right now I need to get back to writing.