A Verbal Dance: Not Quite a Fight
Before starting this exercise read:
"The Children of Dead State Troopers" Keith Lee Morris
"Who's Irish?" Gish Jen
"'You're Really Something': Inflection and the Breath of Life" Charles Baxter
Good dialogue is not at all the way human beings speak to each other—it's an approximation. Dialogue takes human speech and renders it condensed, highlighted, and pointed. Dialogue is extremely useful when you want to show what a character is thinking and want to avoid the leaden "she thought" formulation. Simply bring on another character and have the two of them hold a conversation. Dialogue reveals character—as anyone who has ever seen a decent play knows. It is also good for breaking up long paragraphs and provides an opportunity to use common idioms. The way a character talks—vocabulary, tone, style, and sense of humor—can tell your readers exactly what you want them to know in a "showing" way that narrative can only "tell."
The Exercise
Write a dialogue between two people who know each other, each taking the opposite side of an issue or problem. This should be a verbal dance, not a shouting match. The issue you choose should be something immediate and particular (like whether to spend money on a vacation or put it in the savings account) rather than abstract (terrorism will be with us for a long time). The speakers should be equally convincing. That is, you, the author, can't load the argument on one side or the other. Make each person distinctive in her oral style, for example, in vocabulary and tone. Keep in mind that the subtext what the conversation reveals about the speakers' relationship to each other is as important as the manifest text. For example, in the what-shall-we-do-with-the-money conversation the subtext is about which of the two speakers has more power—and is willing to exploit it.
3-5 pages
The Objective
To learn to use dialogue to reveal character and human dynamics and to understand that speaking style says as much about a person as her behavior does. Incidentally, you should also recognize that dialogue should not be used for the following: for lengthy exposition, to furnish your stage, as a substitute for action, and as a vehicle for showing off your own vocabulary and education. A false line of dialogue can ruin an entire scene.
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