When I first started writing legal briefs a couple of decades ago, almost every brief started with the phrase “Comes now the plaintiff/defendant….” As legal writing evolved, legalese (rightfully) lost ground to readability. But to this day, when I start the first draft of a brief, whether I write the words or just think them, that first draft starts with that phrase. I have no intention of keeping the phrase, but those first four words give me a formula that settles any nerves I have about what I’m writing and helps me get over the mental block of deciding how to start. It is a routine that comforts me.
With every brief I have finished – and by finish, I mean it is written, proofread, edited, and edited again – the very last thing I do before filing it with the Court, even if I’ve done it throughout the writing process, is go through the brief one last time and check that every single one of my cites is still valid. I think it’s good luck to do so. So, checking the cites that one last time is a ritual.
In my creative writing, dialogue is something I am still struggling with. It doesn’t come naturally to me. I have to remind myself that dialogue in fiction should be thought of as a “greatest hits” version of the dialogue we hear around us every day. If you don’t believe me, count the number of “ums”, pauses, “likes” and various other filler words you hear in the normal conversations around you and then imagine seeing those same conversations in print verbatim. Worse, imagine having to read those conversations. (If you are in the legal field, you already know lawyers do that every time we have to read a deposition – testimony taken by a court reporter outside of court. Trust me; it can make reading and listening difficult.)
Dialogue not only needs to be a “greatest hits" version of real-life conversation, but it also needs to be broken up periodically. Dialogue tags (“Sally said,” “Eric shouted,” “William asked”) help keep the reader straight on who is speaking. But an individual’s routines and personal rituals also can break a large block of dialogue into digestible chunks. For example, if two of your characters are discussing the latest murder in the kitchen at breakfast, one of them might be fixing coffee during the conversation while the other person is toasting a bagel. Both activities call for short actions that can be interspersed with the dialogue to set the pace and flow you want your characters’ dialogue to maintain.
What suggestions do you have to help break up chunks of dialogue and make your work more readable?
Great reminders about dialog. I like it best when sounds like real conversations.
ReplyDeleteI find dialogue is most effective when both the words and the actions have value to the story. Any scene needs tension. That can come from the dialogue (external or internal) or from the physical actions or external events, or best from all of them.
ReplyDeleteI like to use action beats at least as often as dialog tags. "She lifted the knife." That not only identifies the speaker, it moves the story along. I also try to remember that readers tend to skim over "said," and while it's not totally invisible, it doesn't attract attention away from the flow like other tags. When you need the extra, like "she whispered," fine, but otherwise using "said" frequently to let the reader know who's talking is not a bad move.
ReplyDeleteI love writing dialogue and sometimes open a novel with it. Dialogue is not conversation. It's meant to reveal character/personality, explain a situation and/or move the action along. I loved reading how all legal briefs once opened. It reminded me of when stories began "Once upon a time."
ReplyDeleteI agree with Marilyn! Once upon a time...
ReplyDeleteMy characters are usually eating, drinking, or walking the dog during dialogue passages. Lots of mug-lifting, sips of coffee, spearing cherry tomatoes, and all the trash dogs grab on their walks.
Terrific analogy. I like the way you link your day job to your writing. Dialogue comes to me easier than writing description, etc. I probably should be a playwright instead of a novelist.
ReplyDeleteWith a background in journalism, dialogue usually comes pretty easily to me. It's the description that makes me fret. Never did a whole lot of descriptive writing in the journalism world!
ReplyDeleteWonderful, Nancy! I like to break my dialogue with bits of business rather than he said/she said, but dialogue does come easier to me than narrative.
ReplyDeleteThank you also for the laugh, through undersigned counsel!