Great Novel Conversations
During the past several weeks in my blogs about editing novels, I have been about dialogue and this week I am continuing on this theme. This week we’re going over an important aspect of dialogue that actually relates to every aspect of the novel and that is, it must be interesting enough to keep the reader engaged. I know I have mentioned this before, but this is so important, I have designated an entire post to this subject.
Why Are We Having This Conversation?
When writing a conversation between characters, it is important that these conversations draw your readers along through the story and move the story forward. Every conversation in your novel must have a point that draws the story forward or that conversation should be eliminated from the story. When editing your dialogue, be conscious of what you want to achieve. What information o you want to pass to the reader. Do you want to get the reader get to know one or more of your character better? Knowing dialogue’s purpose beforehand allows you to direct your conversation.
Be sure that your dialogue sounds like real people talking. Ask yourself as you edit, “Does it sound like a real conversation or does it sound contrived.
Determine the correct topic for the conversation. What goals do you want the conversation to accomplish? Determine if this is the right place in the story to have this conversation or would it be better to have it earlier or later in the book.
If two people are just getting to know one another in the story, try to find things that they have in common interest that the reader would also find interesting. Discovering common likes and dislikes opens up a bond between two people. It harnesses the human touch to one’s relationship.
Maintaining Reader Interest During Monologues
Keep the theme of the conversation interesting to the reader. If you find that a conversation between characters is getting boring, cut. If you find that your reader is likely to skip over a portion of dialogue, delete it. (that goes for any portion of your novel. If it isn’t moving the story forward or keeping the reader engaged, cut it.)
Create Empathy in Your Reader for your characters, especially the POV character. Create a conversation where the reader will put him or herself in the shoes of the people in the conversation.
To help avoid what appears to be a monopoly, have your characters listening to and validating the other person thereby creating a dialogue. Rather than leaving one long passage, break it up with another character’s reaction to what the other character is saying.
Clarity, Please!
Allow your characters to show action and use their senses between sections of dialogue. If the one character misunderstands the other, allow the character to be misunderstood and make the conversation seem real. In addition, you can have characters ask for clarification to show the character’s interest in the topic. This also shows if the character is paying attention. If not, show it in the dialogue.
By creating dialogue that is realistic, your reader will better identify with what is being said and will create a better reading experience.
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Author Cygnet Brown 
Your blog is like a Writing Primer. I wish I could force some writers on HP to read it. 🙂
Thanks! My goal is to create enough content to write a book about the subject!