N is for Narrative

Writing conversations can be tricky - and their are a number of points of style and usage you should keep in mind.

The first is getting the text to read like the spoken word sounds.   "I have not." might look OK, but "I haven't" sounds better. Routinely search your text to turn 'I will' into 'I'll' and so on.  'Can't' might not be a proper word in the purist's lexicon, but in narrative it is far superior to 'cannot'.

Secondly, beware of using dialogue to tell the reader what the protagonists already know.   I shall make up a bad example so you know what to avoid:  "Hello Samantha, my wife of 25 stormy years.   Are you still doubting the wisdom of taking that management position when other better qualified candidates now have to report to you?"   OK - a bit over the top, but we all fall into the trap of getting people to tell each other things they both know to fill the reader in on what it is going on.   It often works well - just make sure it works well when you actually use the technique.

The way we write dialogue has changed over the years.    Again, I'll make up a piece in the style that was in vogue in the 1930's and 40's:

"Are you angry with me?" Samantha asked nervously.

"I am absolutely furious with you!" David snarled contemptuously.

"Oh.   You are not going to beat me?" she whispered piously.

"I shall cut you to shreds!" he roared angrily.

The new style is to cut out all words that could be synonyms with "said" and to cut out all those -ly style adjectives.  And, if it helps move the plot forwards, to give some descriptive text so that the reader can work out the emotion for himself or herself.

The above exchange could, nowadays, be written as:

"Are you angry with me?"   Samantha pressed herself against the chair back in front of her, and tried to keep the tremor in her leg in check.

"I'm absolutely furious with you!"   David tore the offending letter in half, smashed it into a tightly packed ball and flung it into the fireplace.

"Oh.  You're not going to beat me ,,,"   Words said in a hushed whisper, so quiet he was not supposed to hear them.

.He stood up, strode across to the mantel and picked up the riding crop.   He turned and faced her.   "Beat you?  I'm going cut your hide to shreds for this." 

I don't offer the second version as a masterpiece of literaly style: it is just a case study to show the differences between the old way and the new.

However, sometimes you simply have to have a "he said" or similar, just to remind the reader where we are in the to and fro of an exchange of ideas when it is not blindingly obvious who is saying what.   And when we have a three-way, or more, dialogue, we are simply forced to identify each speaker in turn.   But evern then do try to avoid the adjectives if you can,  If you want to be in the modern style, that is.    And even the modern fashion will change over time:  another good reason for reading the works of other authors.

Do take very good care if you write historical pieces of a serious nature.   I once had a Cromwellian soldier say "I don't know".  You would not believe how many contacted me to say that  one of
Cromwell's troops could not have possibly said that.   "I know not" was the syntax of the day and "I don't know" did not evolve until a century or more later.   If you want your dialog to ring true to all readers, you need do your homework first.   There is a huge army of linguist purists out there.

Finally, the best advice I can give is read your dialogue aloud - yes, really - read it aloud (but out of the earshot of others).   You will quickly spot verbalizations thatt do not right ture.    And that is about 95% of the battle. 

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