Dialogues – Make the characters speak

I will rescue the world from mysticism and tyranny. Dialogue spoken by Spartan’s King Leonidas. Focus on this and think who can say this? Who is capable to rescue the world? Who has confidence to be able to do this? Who will even bother to do this much? 

This could be none other than protagonist.  Write dialogue to expose characters personality. Write as if they themselves have spoken that. To give the real edge to the scene, many writers don’t hesitate even the language in which that dialogue would have been spoken. Chetan Bhagat has written transliteration in many of his books.

Observe the society, some people have habit of repeating specific words during their conversation. Some have different dialects. Some mix their native language with other language. Every story have various characters belonging to different location and socio-economic status. Decorate your story with these diversities. E.g. Many of Chowkidaars named Bahadur are Nepalese and speak ‘Sh’ for ‘S’ as in ‘Han Shab’.

Don’t just describe the character by its physical appearances, enhance him to look real by the way he speaks. Try to give every character his own unique style. Many writers write dialogues to possess their own personality rather than that of their characters’. 

Write down the complete scene and read the dialogue loud. Does it sound appropriate for the character who is supposed to speak this? The selection of words and style of speaking should match with character’s personality. A professor will not use local language cheap slangs whereas a taxi driver will certainly. A sober rich person will never waste time discussing the souring prices of vegetables; a group of chauffeur will seldom discuss Sensex. 

The writer should have a grip on human psychology. He should demonstrate the extrovert and introvert characters by the choice of words they use while speaking. Read ‘Men are from Mars and Woman are from Venus’ to understand the different viewpoints both men and women perceive things.

Imagine, what would a child say if he doesn’t want to go to school? Probably, he will pretend to feel stomach pain right in the morning and will say: I have severe stomach pain today. That means real life people don’t exactly say what they really want. Create your character to communicate in the same manner. 

There are situations when writers don’t exactly write what real people might say. Consider, you are talking over phone and you repeat many time: ‘what else?’; ‘all well?’; ‘what else?’; ‘all well?’ during the conversation. People repeat sentences while in a conversation but writers mention them only once. 

Dialogues help reader to know about the characters and hidden expositions which are needed for him in order to understand the plot and events of the story. 

Dialogues make the story memorable. Have proper research to make them perfect. Carry on research and rewrite them to sound real.  

Seeds of thoughts:

1)      Write 10 dialogues that only protagonist can speak.

2)      Write 10 dialogues that only antagonist can speak.

3)      Write 10 dialogues that only sidekick can speak.

4)      Write dialogues where your wife wants you to understand that she will not cook food for you tonight or your husband doesn’t want to take you for shopping.

- Amit Roop