Attributions or speech tags
Attribution is the term used to describe who is speaking –
he said, she replied, I answered etc. Some writers feel they need to look for other
ways of saying who is speaking and search the thesaurus to find alternative ways of saying ‘he said’. In fact, the humble ‘he said’ is virtually invisible
in the context of the story. By using an alternative, it can
become conspicuous, drawing attention to itself rather than what is being said.
If your story is littered with contrived attributions it will make it appear
amateurish. You can vary your character’s speeches with equally unobtrusive
attributions such as he replied, he answered, he asked and similar phrases.
Narrative
showing the character doing something either before or after the speech could
do away with the need for any speech tags. Also, sometimes the dialogue needs nothing
around it, as it’s perfectly obvious who is speaking. However, read your work
aloud and listen to the euphony and flow of your words. Adjust with the
addition or detraction of speech tags or narrative as necessary.
Dialogue
is one of the best ways to show the personality of a character and the reader
should know who is speaking simply by what is being said and the way it is being
spoken. However, be careful not to have a whole section which is nothing but
dialogue without narrative or character interaction. The reader does not want
to have to count back to see who is talking.
Dialect
It
can be difficult to write dialogue for characters who come from a region or country with a strong
dialect. It’s easy to get into a quandary
trying to mimic a broad accent, dropping g’s and h’s and spelling words where
the reader has to mentally form the sound in their heads as they read. Not only
is this difficult but it also looks awkward on the page. Far better to research
and listen to the speech patterns and idioms from the region or slip in a word or
phrase that indicates the locality. Be careful this doesn’t come across as clichéd,
however.
Slang
Certain
characters in your stories will undoubtedly need to resort
to slang if they are to sound realistic but be careful
not to use the latest modern day slang which comes and goes year after year. While it
might be the way characters are expressing themselves today, especially younger
characters, by the time your book or story comes out, it could be totally outdated
– and make your work ‘dated’ too. Better to stick to the good old fashioned
slang words and expressions that have been around
for decades.
Additionally,
while it’s not slang, abbreviated words are important in dialogue. A character
saying: “I have been looking for you.” sounds less natural than: “I’ve been
looking for you.” Read your dialogue
aloud and listen to whether it sounds natural or not.
Four lettered words
For
your characters to come across as real people there may be times
when you have no alternative but to use a ‘four lettered’ word. If you feel it
is the only thing your character could say under the circumstances, then use it
with confidence. However, I would add, that in my mind, this would only apply
to adult books, certainly never in children’s or YA books.
For adult
readership, a swear word may be necessary to create impact and show the
character’s mood. However, if you have a character who swears continually it
will quickly become irritating for the reader. Plus, the impact will be lost.
An occasional swear word in a novel can be startling and effective, while a
hundred will become tiresome.
Of
course, if you’re writing fantasy or sci-fi, you can create your own swear
words without offending anyone.
Punctuation around
dialogue
Getting the punctuation correct around dialogue must become second nature to you. So many
novice writers get it wrong or fail to be consistent with their layout around dialogue. Remember that all the punctuation goes inside the
quotation marks. If you’re adding a speech tag, you don’t capitalise the first
letter, even if your final punctuation mark before the closing speech mark is a
question mark or exclamation mark. E.g. “Shall we take the bus?” she asked,
glancing at her watch.
Also
note the comma after the attribution. Start a new paragraph for every new
character speaking or doing something. Check your settings so that you’re not adding
extra white space every time you hit the return button on your keyboard. Adjust
your settings to indent every new paragraph for fiction, unless the magazine
guidelines/style says not to.
If you
know the publication you’re writing for, then check whether they use double or
single quotation marks around their dialogue. If you haven’t a particular
publication in mind, then it’s your choice – whatever feels more natural to
you. However, in my opinion, I would suggest using double because it’s easier
for an editor to change those to single if re-formatting your story for
publication, rather than the other way around.
It’s
easy to make mistakes – all those important commas, full stops, quotation
marks, exclamation marks, capital letters and uncapped letters. Make sure you
have it perfected so that it’s second nature to you when you write dialogue.
Don’t
expect anyone else to put it right for you, it’s no one’s responsibility but your
own. If you don’t master the correct way of presenting your dialogue it could spoil your chances with an editor.
So,
make it second nature and enjoy your dialogue. Enjoy hearing what your characters have to say and let their dialogue carry your story forward.
Today’s Exercise:
As dialogue practice, write a page or two of mainly dialogue
but incorporating narrative, around this scenario: The bridegroom and best
man await the arrival of the bride. The bridegroom is getting cold feet, about
the wedding.
Thank you Rob Tysall, Tysall's Photography for the photograph.
Read more writing tips in my book, Become a Writer, a step by step guide. https://amzn.to/3487fws
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