Writing 09 - Write Dialogues
In Upper Primary English classes you will be asked how to write good dialogues. In the movie,
My Fair Lady, the various dialogues that transpire between Professor Higgins and Eliza Doolittle, between Professor Higgins and Alfred Doolittle or between Colonel Pickering and Eliza Doolittle prove the point that dialogues are very important in any story. Just imagine a situation where there were no dialogues in the movie and you will realise just how important dialogues are!
Dialogues in a movie determine the type of character each one is. Dialogues in a movie set the pace. A film just races along, all because of superlative dialogues. Dialogues should mirror real life situations sparingly and make use of real life settings as supports. Dialogues should be short and punchy and provide enough information to keep the reader’s interest in the story going. Dialogues should be used in conjunction with action and not as an alternative and, more often than not, internal thoughts are also a part of dialogue.
A good dialogue writer takes care to see that dialogues follow established conventions such as proper formatting and proper punctuations. Dialogues can be used in a story to effectively distinguish between characters and develop each character’s personality through delivery of dialogues attributed to them which establishes their race, creed, language, dialect, morality, background and appearance. In effect, dialogue is a tool to help characterisation.
Good dialogue writing always gives just sufficient information and not the full information. Some of the activities that one needs to follow to help writing good dialogues are to read voraciously and study keenly how people talk and converse. Writers must realise that dialogues cannot replace 100 percent real life conversations because in real life conversations non verbal cues are very important and it is almost impossible to provide those in writing. Take the quiz that follows and be on the way to learn more about writing dialogues.