All writers have a weakness

No, I don’t mean that craving for chocolate and cold coffee.

I mean that one thing they struggle with, that doesn’t come easy, that feels like an entangled nightmare every time.

My weakness is dialogue

Okay, so that’s the main one.

Endings and overwriting take second and third place. Yet they’re both relatively easy to resolve in the revision stage. Okay, I might have to rewrite an ending multiple times and maybe even then not get it ‘right’ if by right I mean right according to the accepted advice.

But dialogue isn’t so easily managed. Why? Because dialogue appears throughout the story.

My main problem with dialogue?

I don’t mean that tricky business of cutting to the chase, removing the clutter of everyday chatter.

I’m a great mimic of people talking on the bus. But my characters don’t discuss Aunt Mildred’s embarrassing flatulence, or Uncle Bertie’s operation.

It’s that everyone has their own unique signature way of speaking

Some of that uniqueness is down to rhythm, use of pauses, speed and accent. But writers are advised not to go too heavy on accents. That’s just as well cos I’m piss-useless at writing in phonetics. I even have trouble writing those ‘ah’, ‘oh’, and ‘eke’ type exclamations.

Why doesn’t everyone talk like an Oxford don? I could handle that.

It’s that trickiness of making everyone sound different

Do I give my main characters special words and phrases that they, alone, use? I mean, someone might use ‘I mean’ a lot.

A lot, that’s part of the problem. Am I right? You understand? Okay? Fine. Brillig! (sorry, that one’s mine)

But to use these phrases a lot gets… wearisome.

Contractions

But everyone contracts, even Oxford dons.

Ah, but there are two common ways to contract in English though mostly seen in the negative: I’ll not do that, I won’t do that; he’s no idiot, he isn’t an idiot.

To use the style of contraction is fine if you’ve only two characters. In Saramequai I have fifteen frequently occurring characters, plus loads of minor players, a few walk-ons and a handful of cameos.

Culture-defining aspects of speech

It does help somewhat if I give these characters culture-defining aspects of speech. There are two different cultures in Saramequai, plus another that sits between them, kind of hybrid.

One culture says ‘think’ while the other says ‘believe’, cos one’s all in the head while the other is in the heart or soul.

Then there’s the use of ‘one’ v ‘body’, as in anyone, someone, anybody, somebody.

There are loads of ways to distinguish two cultures in this way.

But that doesn’t help with the main task of making every character sound different.

Phrasing helps

By which I don’t mean to alter the subject-verb-object order which typifies the English language. Annoying, Yoda-talk can be. But the use of dependant clauses and repetition. The use of fragments, too, can be useful.

Then again, someone might have a habit of asking questions. We’ve all come across those types, haven’t we.

There are ways of doing this. I just have to get my head around it.

Dealing with dialogue during revision

Just think of the confusion, the escalating errors, the mounting despair if I simply read through the text and alter as I come to the character. Stake money on it, I’d miss out loads.

So how do I do it?

The long way.

Yet that’s also the thorough and immensely relaxing way.

Create a table

Two columns. Endless rows

Cut and paste from the main document to the table, each line of dialogue against the speaker’s name.

Now it’s easy to work with each character, one at a time.

Time consuming?

Yes. But oh so satisfying.

And that’s where I am with Saramequai at the moment.

Thank you for reading.
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