The Power of Dialogue
Listen to every word.
Listen all the time and everywhere.
Take in the rhythm of the conversation; become a champion eavesdropper if you want to write realistic dialogue.
Bestseller Maeve Binchy freely admitted that she was a compulsive and expert ear wigger and we all know her dialogue was superb.
Other people’s conversations nearly always seem more interesting. I know of one writer who has gone past her stop on the commuter train more than once because she got so engrossed in a conversation going on across the aisle.
In my job as a journalist, I am lucky I get to listen to people talking all the time. It is only by listening that you tune in to the person. It’s often not what they say, but the way they say it. You tune in to the music of the voice, pick out the nuances in the speech.
There are many rules around dialogue, but I believe in listening to others talking is the best teacher. Have you ever heard anyone impart so much background information that they don’t stop for air, or an upset child explain in detail what is wrong? I didn’t think so.
Does the person weighed down by grief manage complete and perfect sentences?
Exactly, that person stops and stutters as grief overcomes.
We are all different and the way we speak and express ourselves is individual. For some it is the loud and brash; for others, the delight is what remains unsaid or implied.
I first learned of the importance of the descriptive powers of language as a young journalist covering a trial in the Circuit Criminal Court of a man charged with breaking into an elderly bachelor’s house on a bleak and harsh mountain. The pensioner was terrorised and robbed of his life savings.
The elderly man survived the attack and was able to go into the witness box and give evidence.
He spoke in a soft accent of his farm and his parents who had farmed the land before him. He had thousands in bank notes stuffed into a mattress because he didn’t trust banks.
When it came to the night of the break in, the elderly man gave his evidence in a measured way.
Asked how he knew somebody was in his house he said: ‘I felt the cold of the wind blowing up the stairs and I knew somebody had opened the back door.’
His use of language was beautiful and descriptive and was a sharp contrast to the words of his attacker who beat him up that night.
That farmer spoke his truth. Good dialogue isn’t just what people say, it about how they say it. The writer must listen to how people former their sentences. A young person is not going to talk like an elderly person and a child is not going to spend a long time explaining.
The challenge in my latest novel The Irish House in relation to dialogue was the different age groups of the characters including a teenager and a child and the fact that the main character was an American.
The Irish House
In The Irish House, New Yorker Marianne comes to Ireland after the death of her beloved grandmother Collie Keane. At the reading of the will she finds out she has been left Collie’s home, Kilteelagh House in Co Wicklow and must take custody of her cousins age 15 and 5 years.
Marianne has one year to make it work at Kilteelagh House. The challenge is overwhelming there are many who want to see her fail.
But then, once a month, a letter arrives from Collie, written during her last illness, giving her grand-daughter confidence in herself as a mum, encouraging her to notice the seasons as they unfold at Kilteelagh House, and exhorting Marianne to take her chances in life.
With the help of local handyman Jack and a band of women who support her when times are low, Marianne learns the true meaning of love and friendship.
When her grandmother, in her last letter, makes one final request of Marianne as the year ends, is she ready to step up to her biggest challenge yet,
Here is an exchange at the reading of the will
What the hell are you doing here?’ a well-dressed woman who was sitting beside the solicitor’s desk asked loudly.
‘I was invited,’ Marianne said quietly.
‘Really? Is that what we should have done when Mammy was dying, invite you?’ Katherine Ferguson said, standing up to emphasise her point. Her husband, Steve, put his hand out to stop her, but she slapped it away. ‘You’re not welcome here, Marianne. You didn’t see fit to come to Kilteelagh when I needed help, when your grandmother was ill and dying, and you didn’t see fit to come when she was taking her last breaths. You sure as hell are not wanted here now.’
Savour the one liners
We know dialogue can be used to introduce tension. It can also provide an opportunity for some much needed humour.
Savour the one liners and the snatches of gossip you hear on the tram, on the train , on the bus or in the supermarket as couples bicker over luxuries and children pester for all things sweet. These are the lines that will come back as you write your fun dialogue.
On a practical note, I find it very helpful to use the read aloud function on my laptop and listen to my dialogue. I close my eyes; if the conversation does not sound real or it doesn’t paint a picture, it is time to rewrite.
Happy listening and writing.
Ann.
(c) Ann O’Loughlin
About The Irish House:
Beautiful Kilteelagh House in Ireland, with its avenue of trees and its acres of wildflowers, was somewhere Marianne thought she’d never be again. At least, not without her beloved grandmother Collie. But when Collie passes away, she has just one request – for Marianne to leave behind her glamorous life in New York and to raise Collie’s orphaned granddaughters in the wild Irish countryside. Heartbroken and determined to fulfil her grandmother’s dying wish, Marianne has no choice but to say yes…
All Marianne and her cousins have left is each other, and letters from Collie that keep arriving from beyond the grave. They become a lifeline for Marianne, and she soon realises that her grandmother still has a lot to still teach her. And after a chance encounter with gorgeous local handyman Jack, Marianne wonders if Collie believed being back at Kilteelagh House would help her find love, too?
Soon, Marianne can’t help but begin to fall in love with this place that is so full of memories, of secrets, and perhaps even a little bit of Irish magic. But then out of the blue, a letter from Collie arrives that changes everything…
Will Marianne ever be able to decide where her heart truly belongs? Or will she have to run away from the only people who have ever truly understood her?
An absolutely heartbreaking and heart-warming read overflowing with Irish charm that will make you laugh, cry and hold your loved ones close. Perfect for fans of Susanne O’Leary, Cathy Kelly and Kathleen McGurl.
Order your copy online here.
