© 2005 DEG International • All Rights Reserved •
Want agents to wine and dine you at the Ivy for lunch?

Want to hang out with Brad Pitt?

Hit the keyboard, sure.

But how can you get an ear for how people talk
if you never leave your keyboard?

Characters need to sound real. But real people do not speak in
complete, formal sentences.

Go to a public place, such as a
mall or outdoor café, and listen to the way that people actually
converse.

More important, notice the differences in the way people
talk.

Listen to:

A teen-age couple who've just discovered "true love";
Construction workers as they shoot the breeze
and eat their sandwiches;
Teenage girls at their favorite cosmetics store;
A tired mother with her children;
Tourists marveling at sites you've seen since childhood;
A couple who seem miserable with each other;
A pack of skateboarding boys.

Key Notes:

Listen for the cadence of their speech, their slang,
and their unstructured, informal tone.

Every word that your characters say needs to fit a
specific purpose.

Simply moving the story forward
isn't enough.

It must also reveal nuances of their
character, reveal a tiny bit of their backstory, and
suggest their relationship to the character their speaking
with.

Life isn't fair - or equal!

In every relationship, there's someone who leads
and who follows. When two contemporaries of either
sex are speaking, one always has it slightly over
the other.

The next time you see two such individuals conversing,
take careful note.

Who has the upper hand?
How is it articulated?
Through tone of voice or through something they seem to exude?

And, if this is the case, imagine how you'd describe it on paper.
What is great dialogue?
When a character says something in a fresh, clever way;

When characters express a unique sense of humor;
When infuriated, envious, angry, or just jealous
characters convincingly seem to keep their cool, uttering
dialogue to enemies that make them seem as if butter wouldn't
melt in their mouth;

When dialogue leaves something unsaid, something that can
be expressed by the character's emotions;
When the words are so crisply suited to each
individual character in the book one can guess who's
speaking without looking at the character's name.

Here are some tips that can help!

Examine each block of dialogue for the following:
Is your dialogue "on the nose?" (meaning, do the characters say
exactly what they mean, or do they couch their dialogue in a more
innovative and calculating format).
Imagine describing your story and characters to a friend,
and then erasing all "he said/she said" from your book before letting
your friend read it. Ask yourself if you've differentiated the characters clearly enough by dialogue alone so that your friend could guess who was speaking by their slang and the way they phrased their conversation.
Reread each unit of dialogue and ask yourself if it's
something you'd believably overhear on a street corner.
Passed muster? If so, congratulate yourself and
start looking for your title on the best-seller's list!

Marisa D'Vari is the author of "Script Magic:
Subconscious Techniques to Conquer Writer's Block."

© 2005 DEG International • All Rights Reserved •
Email Marisa D'Vari for complimentary reprint info