The Use of Dialogue in Character Development

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  • #16
    Re: The Use of Dialogue in Character Development

    I think it's pretty simple. Dialogue is essentially:

    Worldview + character traits + regional dialect + education + agenda in the scene.

    A Texan man with a PhD who believes the world is against him, who is argumentative and withholding, and who has a goal of getting you to give him something he wants without giving you anything in return, will speak way differently than a teenage California surfer who wants the same thing from you.

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    • #17
      Re: The Use of Dialogue in Character Development

      I don't think dialogue develops character. I think dialogue is a window into how the character's mind works and a way to get their agenda across in the scene. Character is developed by choice, action, and reaction. This is my opinion. Please don't shoot.

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      • #18
        Re: The Use of Dialogue in Character Development

        I think dialogue is a good way to hear what people say out loud.

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        • #19
          Re: The Use of Dialogue in Character Development

          Originally posted by sc111 View Post
          Your example would be a cool exercise. Depending on the genre, the father lurking the daughter's boyfriend could be written in several different ways.
          you're setting up an expectation - and depending mostly on the theme - you'll create a dramatic scene... obviously he could dislike or favor the BF.

          you could make it that the father is gay and knows the kid has had relationships with men in the past...
          "the bongo room on Tuesday nights has a great D-J."


          the father could be a former cop and read notes of a rape case he was a suspect in and knew he never saw the inside of a jail cell because of an uncooperative witness
          "...you remember Kate Upshaw? She was raped."



          there are a lot of rules to dialog and when and how to use correctly in a scene, but it's more of circumstantial and just examining your favorite movies will give you a lot of insight
          Ricky Slade: Listen to me, I intentionally make this gun look that way because I am smart.

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          • #20
            Re: The Use of Dialogue in Character Development

            Originally posted by sc111 View Post
            ...

            I like rants.
            Some of my comments are deliberately simplified for purpose of example. The "cheats" are good ways to demonstrate immediately how these characters might have different attitudes, voices, and opinions.

            In general terms...

            What a character wants and what motivates them directs their dialogue. Understanding human psychology helps with developing why and how characters speak.

            And yes, a fast-talking New Yorker is a great way to distinguish one character's dialogue from another, as is a slow southern drawl, but those are surface and "easy" distinctions-- in your word, cheats, that don't develop or reveal character, but can provide an immediate distinctive voice. You can't do that with a story where everyone grew up in the same small town. I mean, you could have someone who went away and spent years in NYC then came back home. Like when Madonna moved to the UK and a year later had a British accent.

            I'm adding to and building upon your assertions. Sometimes understanding on the easiest level allows a writer to "get it," which was the case for my writing.

            Originally Posted by finalact4 View Post
            Think about pitting a disorganized, fly by the seat of you pants type up against an OCD neat freak. A priest and an atheist. A die hard southern gun owner and a father whose child was murdered at Sandy Hook. A person who has nothing and a person that has everything.
            Stereotypes? I don't see it that way. OCD is a disruptive disorder that can be debilitating. A Priest is a lifelong commitment to Catholicism. An atheist is a belief, or rather disbelief, in God. A gun owner is someone who believes in their constitutional right to bear arms. A Father whose child was murdered is a human being in extreme grief. Their state of who they are is what distinguishes them from others and dictates how they relate to others. Characters are complex, these are only ONE PART of who a character might be.

            Consider how you might add a twist to PRIEST: (a game a writer can play, if you will)
            What if he is gay?
            What if he doesn't believe in God?
            What if HE isn't a he, but rather a she?
            What if he is a man that loves women?
            What if he is a sex addict?
            What if he doesn't believe in absolution?
            What if he is a killer?
            What if he is a vigilante?

            These aspects of character can provide both external and internal conflict. Each of those Priests above may have a different POV on any given situation or subject in a conversation.

            Character is a composite of several elements. In order to make a character clear on the page, the writer must know CERTAIN things about the character. You don't have to know everything about a character to write distinctive characters. You need to know enough to show how they are distinct from each other and ALSO provide conflict between characters-- this comes from their differences in world views, values, and traits. Maybe five things.

            We don't know everything about Clarice or Lector, we know specific things that drive and motivate their character (actions, choices, statements), that drives scenes, and creates ongoing conflict. We need to know ONLY what is necessary to understand and advance the story. We do not need to know extraneous information that has nothing to do with the story at hand. Sometimes writers include unnecessary information that muddies, stalls, or decompresses story.

            When you pit people with opposing goals, views, values, and filters, it creates conflict. Dialogue reveals who characters are and who they are not. Every story must have conflict. It must be constant. No one goes to a movie to see characters get what they want and one where everyone agrees with each other. Witnessing the struggle is why we go to the movies.
            "Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy b/c you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say." -- Edward Snowden

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            • #21
              Re: The Use of Dialogue in Character Development

              FA4:

              I'd like to clarify what I meant by: a cheat. All writers use cheats. One could argue that the very act of writing fiction in any discipline is one long series of cheats because the writer is controlling the story at every turn.

              The challenge: is it a cheat so seamless that it feels organic or is it a tad too obvious a cheat.

              With that said, I don't disagree with anything you've said above about developing character.

              My point was finding techniques that add to how a character expresses their POV, their want/need, etc. and conflict, as another factor in developing character. And one technique I suggested is basing a character on someone in real life.

              Take the example you mentioned -- a die hard Southern gun nut.

              Years ago one of my clients (now retired) was an ex-Marine born and raised in the deep south who owned two retail stores in Central Florida and signed with me to do his advertising: print, TV, and radio.

              He used to joke: "I'm from LA -- lower Alabama."

              I have no idea whether or not he owned guns but if I was writing the character you described, I would base it on him. How his mind worked (which was fascinating). How he used northerners' biases against southerners by playing up the dumb hick routine to get what he wanted. His word choices, the way he phrased things. All with an Alabama accent.

              I would use it all to write the dialogue of that character. Whereas, without him as my point of reference, the dialogue might lapse into only that which I could imagine a southern gun nut would say.

              That was my point: to enrich the dialogue of our fictional characters, use real people we've known or observed, to write more intriguing dialogue, in addition to everything you've pointed out about character development in your previous two posts.
              Advice from writer, Kelly Sue DeConnick. "Try this: if you can replace your female character with a sexy lamp and the story still basically works, maybe you need another draft.-

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              • #22
                Re: The Use of Dialogue in Character Development

                Totally agree, SC111. What a great line, "I'm from LA-- lower Alabama."
                "Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy b/c you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say." -- Edward Snowden

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