MFA Collective A creative writing magazine written by students in creative writing programs.

Some people, and some craft books claim that dialogue is more difficult to write then narration or action. Personally, I disagree. Writing dialogue has always been something I was good at. I think the trick is to have a good ear, and to have a good imagination for the way people communicate in a given situation. No craft book can teach this. But there is some very useful information about dialogue, more importantly, the mechanics of dialogue, to keep in mind.

The number one rule with good dialogue, is that it needs to be strong enough to function on its own. Often we think that we need to attach a character attribute, which bluntly states what the dialogue should have expressed. Example:

“You can’t be serious,” she said in astonishment.

The reader does not need to be told that she was astonished. Writing this way comes off as amateurish because it shows that the author is not confident enough in his/her writing, and feels the need to explain what should be expressed dramatically. The emotion belongs in the dialogue, not smuggled in through speaker attributes.

I say “emotions,” because this is most likely what we as writers are trying to express when we misuse speaker attributes. The other major reason to avoid this habit, is because applying these emotional tags at the end of a piece of dialoge will take the reader out of the direct scene, even if only for that brief pause. It is a distraction and will break up the flow of the action.

This is why “said,” is almost always the correct verb, as in “He said,” “She, said.” Said, is read in complete transparency, meaning it will only serve the function of letting the reader know who is speaking. This is extremely important to understand. The only reason for speaker attributes, is so that the reader knows who is speaking. All other information should be unnecessary, as in the obvious example of:

“I’m sorry,” he apologized.

You might have the urge to look at a page full of “he said,” she said,” and be nervous that you need to find a way to get rid of them. First, it is not as bad as it may seem. Readers do not pay attention to these things, only the writer does. But, if you want to break up the monotony of a scene cluttered with “said” attributes, one way is through beats.

“Beats,” are those little bits of action interspersed through a scene, such as a character walking to a window, or putting on his glasses. You could use them to remove a “said” or two, but be careful as this will certainly backfire if used incorrectly. And example that would work might be:

“Don’t even think about going out tonight,” she said.

He walked toward the door, pushing her out of the way. “Don’t wait up.”

The above example was able to rid itself of “he said,” by using a beat. This can work sometimes, but often it is best to get rid of the fear of using so many “saids,” and just go with it.

One thing to avoid completely, when looking for a way to replace all the “saids,” (if you still feel you have to) is adding awkward direct addresses inside the dialogue, in order to convey who is speaking. Example:

“Now Diana, you know better then to ask me that.”

Generally, people don’t talk that way, addressing each other directly. All these so called “tricks,” like the above example, only fool the writer. Readers know better and can spot it as lazy writing, or worse, hack work.

While editing, you might try to take a highlighter and mark every place an emotion is mentioned outside of the dialogue. Try to remove it, and if the dialogue is not better without, you might reconsider rewriting it so that it is strong enough on its own. As with everything else, balance is the key to everything.

“Good luck,” said the writer of this article to whoever has read it.