Some Thoughts About Dialogue, a Post by R. Clint Peters
- R. Clint Peters, Author
- Nov 26, 2014
- 2 min read
Several weeks ago I took a look at the reviews posted on Amazon for The Alberta Connection, a Ryce Dalton novel, my first professionally published novel. It was a revelation I’d rather not think about.
I was surprised at the numerous reviews of less than 5 stars. Actually, the average was 3.5 stars. Yea gads, what had I done? Or not done??
It didn’t take too long to find out. I didn’t know how to write dialogue, either external or internal. I had my characters chuckling, smiling, laughing, and grunting. Apparently, my readers don’t want my characters chuckling.
Elmore Leonard, in 10 Rules of Writing, offered the following:
Never open a book with weather.
Avoid prologues.
Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.
Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said”…he admonished gravely.
Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose.”
Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
Don’t go into great detail describing places and things.
Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.
In the Top 8 Tips for Writing Dialogue, Ginny Wiehardt wrote:
Don’t provide too much info at once. Don’t make the dialogue obvious to the reader that they’re being fed important details. (See #8 and #9 above.)
And, don’t overdo dialogue tags. Veering beyond “he said/she said” only draws attention to the tags. You want the reader focused on your brilliant dialogue, not your ability to find synonyms for “said”. (See #3 and #4 above.)
After reading several less-than-positive reviews, I came to one big conclusion: I needed to learn how to write dialogue and I needed to learn how to show, don’t tell.
Actually, in first few chapters of The Alberta Connection, I broke five of the ten rules Elmore Leonard had outlined. Although the first chapter was labeled Chapter 1, it was a prologue that broke rules 2, 8 and 9. And my dialogue legitimately broke rules 3 and 4, and possibly 6 and 7.
When I was asked by my publisher to re-edit my first two novels, I went back to the reviews and focused on what the bad ones were saying. I then used that information to complete and re-edit two other books (The Michigan Connection, #3 of the Ryce Dalton series, and The Minnesota Connection, #4 of the series), which I plan to submit to my publisher before the end of 2014.
So, what have I gained from this exercise? First, I think I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t work when writing dialogue, based on what my readers have told me. Second, I have something to focus on while finishing the re-edits of #3 and #4 of the Ryle Dalton series. Sometime after Christmas, I will dive into the writing pool once again, and focus on #1 and #2 of the series.
If you have thoughts to add to the discussion of dialogue, please send them to theauthorsclub@gmail.com. Obviously, your name and ideas will be posted on The Author’s Club blog for all to see.
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