Quick Fiction Fixes – Read plays and scripts for better dialogue
by Camy Tang
We’re all busy, whether working full-time or chasing/chauffeuring kids around all day. Yet we’re also writers, striving to get our words on paper and then polish it to a sparkle. This column gives quick fixes for fiction manuscripts specifically for busy writers. Pick and choose what works best for you!
Read a play or a script to inspire you to better dialogue
My friend Mark Goodyear made a great point that one way to learn to write good dialogue is to read good dialogue, and one of the best resources are good plays. Specifically, the Tony winners, since aren’t those the best plays written in America?
If you go to his blog post about it, he gives the website of the Tonys and how to search for plays to read.
Plays can be found in your local library. They might also be in the drama department of your local high school and available for loan, so send your child on a recon mission. Another good resource is online stores where you can buy cheap used copies (which you can then flag and mark up with notes).
Look for dialogue that moves you, then look through it again to discover why. Look at pacing, sentence rhythm, word choice—especially word choice specific to certain characters. Judicious use of sentence structure and sentence length also make up good dialogue.
Good dialogue is emotionally charged—what makes any particular section of dialogue more powerful? Analyze it with your writer’s cap on, not your reader’s cap. Is it the specific words used? The length of the sentence—or maybe the shortness of it? Is it the timing of the line of dialogue, where it falls in the conversation?
Once you analyze good dialogue, you’ll find you’ll be more critical of your own writing as you work on your dialogue scenes. You’ll be more careful about word choices and more aware of pacing and rhythm.
