Now let’s look at the last bits of writing Character voice. We touched on speech patterns, and that’s really where people fail to grasp dialog.
There’s also the rhythm of people’s speech. People talk in fits and starts, long pauses.
We don’t write our dialog that way, because it will irritate the reader.
We don’t write our dialog that way, because it’ll irritate the reader.
Listen to those two sentences. I contracted one word, and the rhythm of the sentence changed. This is a key to making a difference between your protagonist and your support character.
Try writing a Gilligan’s Island episode, but change all the characters. Gilligan with Ugarte, from Casablanca. The Skipper with Captain Queeg of The Caine Mutiny. The Professor with the Professor of the 50’s Sci fi movie THEM. Mr. Howell with George Bailey of It’s A Wonderful Life. Mary Anne with Dorothy Gail from Wizard of Oz.
Listen carefully to the ESSENCE of what makes the dialog sound like George Bailey. How would George Baily suggest buying off head hunters with a roll of fifties? How would Ugarte respond to being on a raft surrounded by sharks only ten feet from shore? “Skipper!”
How would Captain Queeg order Gilligan as played by Ugarte to get back to shore? Would it be the bellow we’re used to from Allan Hale Jr.? or would it be the stern demand Humphrey Bogart would have shouted?
What words would Queeg choose? Where would the words fall in that sentence? How would you hear it, reading it? You should be feeling and hearing as you write the dialog.
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These exercises, silly as they may seem, are the best way to grasp the seemingly ungrasp-able. How to take dialog and make it sound like the voice of the character, and not every character sounding alike.
