Dialogue is hard for a lot of people. Something I was told back when I went to college was that dialogue was my strong point. And this is something that can make you or break you as a writer.
Sometimes it’s what you say. Sometimes its what you don’t say. People have a funny habit of not saying what they mean. And then you try to use what you’re saying to refer to what you’re not saying!
I used the example before of “How’s Mother?” “Mother is… being Mother.”
What’s not being said is “why are you asking about Mother? you know the problems she’s always creating! Leave it alone!”
Well, see, I’ve given you a whole backstory without elaborating on it in just two short sentences that don’t answer anything.
I’ve also created a promise, that requires the eventual payoff – we have to see Mother creating problems or meddling, and you’ve got to see the eventual blow up between siblings, mother to learn her lesson, and the divisions in the family to finally be healed.
I also didn’t answer the question. All that was done in two sentences, and a total of six words.
This is what we all need to strive for with our dialogue. Strive to say the most without saying it and using other words to say it.
Plan it. think it through. As we learn this, we get better at it.
