Dialogue, part 2

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Dialogue: a
direct method of
characterization
Review:

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Three Types of Dialogue
 Direct
 Summarized
 Indirect

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”Poor Devil” by Charles Baxter
 P. 76: “She’s saying that it’s strange, but the very
sight of me causes her sadness—a complicated
sadness, she informs me, inflecting the adjective.”
 What type of dialogue is this?

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And this?
 P. 77:
 “But before she can really get started, I interrupt
her. “Sorrow,’” I say. “Now there’s a noun from our
grandparents’ generation. Nobody our age uses
words like that anymore except you...”

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And this?
 P. 80:
 “You probably didn’t know it,” he said as she took
his picture, “but I’m an aristocrat.”

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Direct dialogue
 Used for direct action
 Non-expository
 Conveys more than the actual words said
 Shows the reader the character

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Summarized Dialogue
 Condensed
 Part of the narrative
 Helps move action along
 Fills one character in on events that have happened
 Should not be used to gloss over important
exchanges in a story

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Indirect Dialogue
 Reported by another character
 Creates the feel of direct exchange
 Similar attributes to summarized exchanges

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All together!
 Using all three methods of dialogue creates variety
in the text
 Eliminates long pages of direct indented dialogue
 Combines the telling and showing of character
interaction

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Dialogue Mechanics
 Direct dialogue uses quotation marks.
 Each speaker uses a new paragraph
 Quotation marks within punctuation
 Use basic talking verbs for dialogue tags (said,
says); dialogue tags should be invisible.
 Use actions rather than modifiers to characterize
emotions.
 Avoid distracting vernacular; focus on word choice
and syntax.

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“Hills Like White Elephants”
 Written by Ernest Hemingway in 1927
 Among its other features, it’s a good example of the
use of direct dialogue in which more is meant than
is said.
 If you’ve read it before, don’t give away what’s
happening.

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Writing Exercise
 Think of a dramatic situation between two people: a
diagnosis, unrequited love, a crime, a great loss
 Now write a conversation between the two people in
which the actual situation isn’t explained but is the
backdrop for their interaction. How can the dialogue
mean more than it says?

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Wednesday, Feb. 13 class
 There is an active shooter drill on campus on Feb.
13. It will be over before we meet, but I’m not
assigning homework or reading. We will write in
class and work a bit more on the other methods of
characterization together.

Dialogue, part 2

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Dialogue, part 2

Editor's Notes