One Thing That Works For Me with guest Anne Victory: When Improving Dialogue

 

Happy Monday, dear Seeker villagers! My apologies for posting later than normal - you think you have everything covered and then someone emails wondering where today's Seekerville's post is. ARGH. lol.

Today's guest for this month's One Thing That Works For Me series is Anne Victory, a freelance editor who is here to share a technique that will help you improve your dialogue! Please welcome Anne with me!

Improve Your Dialogue with One Technique

Quick! Name the one part of your story that drives your plot forward, creates conflict, and paints a better, more accurate picture of your characters than narrative ever can.

If you guessed dialogue, you’re absolutely correct. Dialogue can show the type of person your character is, how they’re feeling at a particular moment, what their motivations are. It can set the mood of a scene, deliver information to the reader regarding events that occurred off the page, advance the plot. Done well, it is one of your best techniques for creating immersion for your readers.

But there are those two little words—done well. It’s no wonder that many agents and editors have gone on the record and said that dialogue is the first thing they look at when deciding if they want to represent an author or acquire a manuscript. Dialogue connects readers emotionally with the characters. While good dialogue can take a story to the next level, bad dialogue is like a spaghetti sauce stain on a white shirt; it’s painful, it’s obvious, and it ruins an otherwise great outfit. 

There are a lot of aspects that go into writing dialogue, from the mechanical to the creative. But the most important thing after making sure it’s strengthening your characters, delivering information, or moving the plot is that it reads well. Good dialogue is an imitation of how people speak in the real world. It’s everyday speech stripped of the umms, errs, likes, you knows, and boring small talk. In my experience, the quickest, most accurate way to ensure that your dialogue doesn’t sound like some kid haltingly presenting a book report in front of the class is this: read your dialogue aloud.

Hearing your dialogue, not just reading it silently, will pinpoint those areas where you need an action beat to provide a pause; where you should have a contraction (or take out a contraction to provide emphasis); where you’d think, “Dear God, shut UP!” if it were a real person talking; where you want to roll your eyes; laugh out loud. Basically, hearing your dialogue as opposed to just reading it helps you decide if it rings true. 

Another quick trick is to have your computer read your dialogue for you. That’s right—Microsoft Word has a text to speech function that you can add to your ribbon. It’s definitely not perfect (we’ve all heard the tinny computer voices and cringed) but it can help you put 100 percent of your concentration on how the dialogue sounds. Here’s a quick walk-through on how to set up that feature: MakeMicrosoft Office speak or read aloud - Office Watch (office-watch.com)

Alternatively, if you just cannot get past Microsoft James (or whichever voice you chose), you can do recordings of your own voice reading the dialogue. A great app for that is Loom.com, or you can just record yourself on your phone. 

Whichever method you choose, the important thing is to actually hear your dialogue, to listen to how it ebbs and flows and if, at the end of the day, it engages you and immerses you in the scene or if it’s awkward and off-putting. Dialogue will make up anywhere from 30 percent to 50 percent of your manuscript—you owe it to your readers and your story to make sure it’s pulling its weight. Dialogue is meant to be spoken, after all, and heard. It’s no surprise that listening to it is one thing that will help you ensure yours sparkles.

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Freelance editor Anne Victory specializes in romance, urban fantasy, and cozy mysteries. Her boutique editing business, Victory Editing, offers a full range of services from developmental editing to Oops Detection®, formatting, and a NetGalley co-op for e-ARC distribution. She provides clients, many of whom are NYT and USA Today best sellers, with a full editing team while giving them the convenience of a single point of contact. And, finally, she’s the chief cook and bottle washer for her husband, a boisterous spaniel who loves to wear dresses, two cats, and two birds.

For more tips on writing and freelancing as well as classes and other resources, be sure to check out Victory Academy.

Authors, what questions do you have for Anne?
Where do you struggle most with dialogue?

 Grab this freebie too:
How to Tighten Your Dialogue in 3 Simple Steps | Victory Editing