Spicing Up Dialogue

William Cowper wrote, "Variety's the very spice of life." But for writers the spice of every scene is conflict. Conflict makes scenes interesting to readers because it creates tension, uncertainty, and suspense about the outcome.

Scan most any modern story, and you'll find...dialogue. Often the main action of scenes occurs in dialogue. That's because writers, particularly those of character-driven stories like romance, chic-lit, and women's fiction, use dialogue to reveal character, develop plot, and convey backstory. It's a powerful tool when wielded skillfully. But to keep a dialogue scene from deteriorating into a "talking heads" exercise in reader boredom, the writer must remember that the characters' reason for having any conversation is to shape relationships. That means change, and change of any kind creates conflict (which produces reader interest).

The more difficult the characters' conversation, the more interested the reader will be in experiencing it. It helps to make a dialogue scene difficult for the characters if the writer has an understanding of the unique opportunities for conflict within the three levels of every conversation.

Level One

Sometimes nothing else will suffice but a good, old-fashioned argument. This is when the conflict is explicitly expressed in the characters' spoken words.

Example:

"Turn right at the stop sign," Kylie said.

Jake slowed the car. "I thought we were taking the package to the post office?"

"We are."

"Then we have to drive another block, and turn left."

"That's the long way. We're taking the short cut."

"What makes it a short cut if it goes in the wrong direction?"

"It's not wrong. Turning right avoids the road construction and saves five minutes."

"It's not common sense to turn right when the post office is left."

"Fine. Be stubborn. It'll still take an extra five minutes."

Focusing on facts, intents, and laying blame, the characters each believe the other is the problem. "You're unreasonable." "You're gullible." "You're domineering." "You're self-centered." This creates conflict because telling another character to change puts him on the defensive and makes him resistant to change.

The characters stake out their territory in a Level One argument based on what they know, and the assumption that's all they need to know about the situation. In reality, point of view is subjective. Everyone notices different things and imposes different interpretations on them. Everyone is influenced by their past, and has learned to apply different "rules" of right and wrong.

Example:

A character growing up in New York City might learn that verbally standing up for herself is the "right" thing to do. If she moves out west, her personal conduct rule may create conflict with another character sharing Thomas Carlyle's motto: "Speech is silvern, Silence is golden."

Level Two

The second level of any conversation involves feelings. Feelings can be suppressed or expressed, but they won't go away or be ignored. They either burst out or leak out. They make it hard to listen and creates havoc with a person's self-esteem.

Often dialogue scenes harvest most of their conflict from Level Two and the six basic human emotions: sadness, anger, joy, fear, disgust, and surprise. These feelings mask themselves in many disguises. Attributions, characterizations, judgments, accusations, and problem-solving are favorite hiding places.

This is the world of body language and tone of voice, when "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me" (Isaiah 29:13). Think of long pauses and unexplained aloofness or indifference. Characters may become brusque, touchy, belligerent, derisive, or respond more forcibly than is justified.

Example:

Jake nodded toward the bright island logo emblazoned on Kylie's T-shirt. "I thought Bermuda was where your ex-fiance dumped you for another woman on what was supposed to be your honeymoon. Doesn't wearing that all the time bother you?"

She pinched the fabric and plucked at it, hard. "It doesn't bother me at all." The savagely twisted spot belied her reasonable tone. "I'm a big enough person to not let something as insignificant as a shirt affect me."

He caught himself gaping, and swallowed. "I can see that."

Level Three

At its deepest level, every conversation involves self-concepts and identities. A self-concept ("I am a _____ person.") is designed to answer the three concerns common to everyone: competency, goodness, and worth.

When a conversation challenges a character's self-concept, he will likely respond with denial or exaggeration. The difference is measured by hope and fear. A person hopes he's competent at what he does, is morally good or justified, and is worthy of love. On the flip side, he fears he's absolutely none of those things. Reality lies somewhere in the middle.

A writer benefits from becoming aware of the characters' identity issues and how the characters are likely oversimplifying them. (Example: "I have terrible judgment about men." "I am the hardest worker at my job.") Clinging to a narrow self-concept, a person may stifle a potential bad reaction from another person to avoid accepting culpability in the situation—and possibly having to adjust his self-concept.

Example:

Kylie leaned across the table and touched his hand. "Admit you can't live without me."

Jake shrugged, resisting the urge to turn his palm up and link his fingers with hers. He broke the contact to reposition the glass next to his plate. "I admit it."

"So, what do we do about it?"

He looked away from the hope glowing in her eyes. "Nothing."

"I don't understand."

It was painfully simple. The idea of marriage sent cold chills down his spine. But he couldn't confess that to her. She might feel his reticence reflected a lack in her, when the lack was really in him. He couldn't stand to fail at another relationship. It would hurt too much. "We're too different," he said instead. "I can't fit into your lifestyle, and it's not fair to ask you to try to fit into mine. You'd feel stifled inside of a month."

The line of her shoulders stiffened. "In other words, I should feel grateful you don't want to marry me?"

All Together...

Frequently, the three levels of conversation overlap each other in the same scene, though often one will dominate the others. For variety, rotate the dominating level from scene to scene. Mix and match to suit the tone and pace of the story.

With a proper understanding of how characters can make conversations difficult for themselves, a writer can cook up dialogue scenes zesty enough to make the most finicky reader salivate for more. All it takes is a dash of conflict.

A version of this article previously appeared in the June 2004 issue of Write to the Heart, the e-newsletter of American Christian Fiction Writers (formerly ACRW).

Relevant Links

American Christian Fiction Writers