writerslessons

Dialogue is an essential part of fiction writing, with the occasional exception of a short, artistic piece that omits dialogue. For the most part, however, you will need to know how to realistically portray individual speech patterns, word choices, and styles. 

One problem common to authors is when all the characters sound the same - and they all talk just like the author. Obviously, strongly nuanced characters are easy. People from a backwater town in the South, or who live the high life in a mansion with a personal jet, tend to talk a certain way. But the ‘average’ characters can be a bit trickier.  

Take a look at your dialogue in something you’ve written. Do you have two or more characters who sound exactly the same when they talk? If you took away everything but the dialogue, would a reader be able to tell when the speaker changed?  

Granted, some people have similar speech styles. But your characters will be stronger if you can show their unique personalities through dialogue. Accents are an easy way to solve the problem, but it might be unrealistic to expect every character in your work to have a completely different accent.  

So how do you show your characters’ uniqueness? Maybe a couple of characters sound similar, but one has a certain phrase that he uses frequently. (I’m sure you know a few people like that.) Or maybe one character is a bit more formal and uses fewer contractions in her speech. Get an idea of what the character is like, and imagine having a conversation with him. What words does he use? Is his voice lazy? Perky? Obnoxious? How does he emphasize things when he’s excited? 

As you develop the character, you’ll get a better idea of how to show the character’s unique personality style through dialogue.  

Happy writing!

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