Writer to writer: From think to ink - Gail Carson Levine 2014

Use your words
Character building

So far we’ve delved into three mainstays of character development: action, thoughts, and feelings. Now for the fourth, speech. Writer Amy G. commented on the blog, “How do you write believable dialogue that is unique to each character’s personality?”

You and I have different ways of speaking. Everyone does. I use some expressions more often than others; so do you, but not the same ones. I may speak in exclamations, you in questions. I may fly from topic to topic. You may stick to the point. I may repeat myself until you want to scream. You may leave out important details. These options don’t exhaust the possibilities, which are legion.

Here’s an early-in-the-chapter dialogue prompt: As you go through your day, notice your own contributions to conversation, what you say, how you say it, what you repeat, what you keep to yourself. Pay attention to what causes you to speak and what shuts you up, because silence defines a character too. Later, when you’re by yourself, write about what you discovered. Include any fragments of dialogue that you remember. The next day, observe the speech of others. Write about those discoveries, too. If you’re inspired, use what you found out in a new story. Then save it. Save it all, whether you write a story or not.

We’re talking beings. Throw a few strangers together for more than a couple of minutes and somebody is likely to speak. Let’s imagine a group of campers and Marianne, the counselor instructing them in rock climbing on the first day of camp. Marianne probably feels she needs to give some directions. That’s dialogue, and how she does it reflects her personality—her character. If she’s kindly, she may reassure the campers. If she’s severe or in a bad mood, she may scare them. Or she may think that terrifying her charges is funny. Alternatively, she may be flighty and veer off into memories of past climbing adventures instead of conveying important information. Her omissions may put everyone in danger, an example of dialogue contributing to plot.

Will, a camper, could be timid. The climbing scares him. Depending on other aspects of his character, he may reveal his fear in dialogue or pretend it doesn’t exist in different dialogue or hide it in silent teeth gritting. It’s up to you.

Beth, another climber, could have a series of questions for Marianne. Val can be given to putting herself down out loud, as in, “No way am I good enough to climb this cliff.” Christopher may be nosy and angling for gossip about each of his companions.

There’s more to dialogue than words. Perhaps Marianne speaks so softly that the campers ask her to repeat herself until they give up, which may result in disaster on the mountain. Or she shouts her words, as if everyone else is deaf.

A fifth camper, Theo, could be superfocused. He interrupts often, without thinking about it, possibly without being aware of his rudeness. He wants what he wants, and he doesn’t care what anyone else has to say on the subject. Beth, who thinks she knows everything, can also interrupt—same behavior, different reason.

Their natures issue forth in dialogue.

And in writing. One camper may be blogging about the climb. Each of them may be required to write home at the end of every day. How they express themselves will tell the reader something about them. So will their text messages to friends, which may be even more revealing. And their journals can be most revealing of all.

For example, Val could boast about climbing the mountain when she writes to her parents, but when she texts her friends, she’s back to self-deprecation (the self put-downs), and when she blogs, she doesn’t mention herself but describes everyone else’s exploits in comic detail. Her journal entry is about how much she dislikes Christopher and how bad the camp food is.

Character is exposed not only in what Val writes but also in how she writes it. She may express herself on the page exactly as she sounds in speech. Or not. Her writing can be stiff and awkward or flowing and complex or filled with slang. There’s as much variety in a character’s writing as in her speech. Val may have a huge vocabulary, which she hides when she speaks. We can tell the reader in narration that her handwriting is impossible to read or that it’s neat and careful. She can be a terrible speller or a good one.

Writing time!

• Invite some friends over, or try this with family. Give each person a character description. Suggest a situation that’s fraught with trouble and have them act it out in character. For example, your pals or your family are trapped together in the bottom of a mine. Or they have a school assignment to write together about endangered species, and half their final grade will depend on it. Or they’re going against one another in some kind of competition. Don’t you be one of the characters. You’re the observer, writing notes, jotting down dialogue. You can stop the action whenever you want and ask a character to repeat a line that went by too fast.

• Josie wants to do something that is certain to turn out badly. Two of her friends are trying to talk her out of it. Make up the foolhardy act. Decide whether or not the friends succeed—or whether she persuades them to help her do this crazy thing. Write the scene. Turn it into a story, using the consequences of the discussion.

• Devin has just begun his apprenticeship to a magician. Write letters from him to his parents, his sister, and his best friend. Write an entry in his diary. Have him read a page in one of the magic books that the magician has written, which you need to write too. Let Devin discover a packet of letters to the magician, and show fragments of a few of them to the reader, which means you have to write them as well. In these various writings, hint at future trouble. If you like, keep going with the story.

Have fun, and save what you write!