Characters and Dialogue

I’m a member of a Loose Id group hosted by one of the Loose Id senior editors, Georgia Woods. She writes some very helpful lessons and has graciously allowed me to post them here for everyone to read. Thanks Georgia and Loose Id!

Enjoy! I hope it helps you as much as it helps me.

~Jane

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Characters and Dialogue

What is the most important thing to remember about characterization
and how your reader sees your characters?

It’s show not tell – your character should always reveal who they are
and what they stand for by action and dialogue, by what they do and
what they say, not by telling.  Your characters also have to be “real”
in that they are both human and rounded, not cardboard cutouts.

One of the first things you do in your book is establish your
characters and their conflicts, show their human side, what they need
to overcome, and show them as sympathetic but human people.  You can
have this tough killer-type alpha male that in the beginning seems
like a stone cold killer, then show him moving a kitten out of the way
of a battle and show a small hint that all is not what it seems.

Or you can have a heroine that is shown in prim and proper business
attire, every hair in place, coldly firing multiple people in a
business, cutting pay, etc., then have her turn to walk away and
someone glimpse a tear on her cheek when she thinks no one is looking,
so the reader gets a glimpse of who she really is, and that she’s not
as “cold” as she seems.  then not only do they feel sympathy for her
and the position she’s in, they want to know what caused a nice person
to be in that situation to begin with.  Then they want to see her get
someone special who understands her and loves her.  It intrigues them
to see what happened, what caused it, and what will fix it.

It is crucial for the reader to connect to the character and care
about them.  You have to make sure the things you reveal about that
character are acceptable to the reader.  They have to have flaws and
special qualities, skills and talents, things they do well and things
they don’t, in other words act like real people
The basis for all fiction is conflict, so every character should have
conflicting ideas and thoughts, every book has to have conflict, every
part/scene has to have conflict.  The very best stories are created
from situation where someone has to work very hard and almost lose
everything in order to get their happy ending.  And the characters
have to be seen by the reader to deserve it.  They have to go through
hell, admit and face up to their shortcomings, which is never easy for
anyone, and come to the place where they are willing to give up
everything to have that thing they need more than anything else, and
that’s love.
You also always have to have failure a very real possibility, and the
consequences to be extremely dire.  Who wants to read a story about
mundane daily occurrences?  Yes, letting the car run out of gas has
consequences but we’ve all done it.  But what if we run out of gas
while flying down the road with a car full of mafia killers behind
us?  Much more important.

I think the best stories happen when you have characters who are not
only challenging an exterior conflict, like a bad guy, but who are
also challenging themselves, their own ideas of who they are. And the
best scenes are where those characters confront a darker part of
themselves, and then make a choice.  Or maybe they have to give up
something, some part of themselves they felt was important, but then
they learn something, or someone else, is more important, and they
have to let go of that part.

I also believe if characters are perfect, they are boring.  We don’t
care about people who get everything they want without having to work
for it.  But we almost always care about the underdog.  Being the
underdog in a fight is not the same as being stupid, even if the
underdog knows they are going to lose.  Those circumstances make up
some of the most powerful characters.  There are things out there that
we’d go into battle for even knowing we are going to lose, and those
are the things that people want to read about.  I mean, how many have
heard about mothers standing up against unbelievable odds to protect
their children?  Even knowing they’ll lose, they have no choice, and
there are very few who would not feel for that mom and be rooting for
her.

So what if you have a great story, but the character is not working?
Or what if the characters are great, but the scenes feel “off”, the
plot and the way you have the characters working out their problems
isn’t working.  You have to figure out why it’s not working.  Is it
because they don’t have multiple sides?  Or they seem one thing but
are really another and you aren’t letting that other side show?  I
think if you go back to what it is you are hoping to accomplish with
that character, and then look at how you are setting the character up
to do that, you will at some point see why it doesn’t work.

Every character has a reason for being in the story, and if the
character is not accomplishing what they were meant to do, there has
to be a reason why.  maybe that character has the wrong personality to
do the thing the story is asking him to do.  Maybe you have a couple
who aren’t clicking, who are not working out.  How do you know when
you’ve picked the wrong girl?  My suggestion would be to get down to
why you picked her as his match.  Look at his motivations and his
goals and what it is he needs, not what he thinks he needs, and see if
maybe you have set her up as someone who doesn’t fit those needs and
goals.  If they aren’t butting heads, it won’t work.

It’s like the character in an upcoming book I’m editing about a
warrior woman – she’s alone for so long because none of the men are
worthy of her.  She doesn’t exactly say it with those words or that
attitude, but I know what she means.  I believe it would be impossible
for me to love a man I can’t respect and look up to, and if I can kick
their butt, sorry, I’m not interested.  Most women would feel the same
way.  But say you have a woman who is a better warrior paired with a
man who is a wizard with awesome powers and intellect, but whom she
doesn’t seem to respect because she can win a physical battle with
him?  How would you work them out?  Maybe you have her being the
physical one and him being the brains one, which can lead to
resentment on both sides, and also some delicious conflict.  Maybe he
needs stronger magic to counteract that physical weaker stance.  Maybe
something needs to happen where she sees all the passion and physical
power in the world is useless without direction and control.  There
are all kinds of really cool directions you could take a story about a
man teaching a very strong woman about control.

Okay, dialogue…

The biggest thing about dialogue is that in fiction, actions speak
louder than words, but the dialogue is the life of the book. That’s
where you see a good book become great, and where you can also see a
good book get killed by bad dialogue.

Angela Knight said something one time that kinda stuck with me when I
read it… it’s that we as writers are actors in our own heads, we’re
putting on plays in our heads, then typing them onto paper to share
with others.  So as we’re adding dialogue, remember to have your
“actor” constantly asking “What’s my motivation?”  Why are they saying
what they are saying and when they are saying it?  Your word choices
can sound like lazy drawling chitchat over the coffee, but every
single word shows something about that character that’s important, and
you can’t forget that.

Words are extremely important – word choices are crucial, and
expressions can do your characterizations a huge disservice or hit a
home run.  For example… You have a group of people who witness a car
accident.  Every single one of them saw the same thing, but the way
they express it will be different depending on who they are, what they
do, and even where they were raised.

I might say, “Wow, that pickup knocked that Lexus into next week!
Reckon anyone’s hurt?”

One of my detective buddies might say, “Hmm…the number one vehicle
ran the signal and hit the number two vehicle.”

A child might notice colors and shapes and things they are used to
picking out.

A cowboy might say, “That yokel just ruined a good pickup truck – git
a rope.”

They need to speak naturally, and their dialogue must be written
taking into consideration who they are.  You must also take who they
are into consideration when writing their body movements, stance and
posture.  An ex-military man might stand ramrod straight, and be
expected to be a bit anal about his things being in the correct place
and in good repair.  A cop might be slow to join into conversation,
wary when it comes to meeting new people, and very conscious about his
surroundings.  A female computer tech might have her eyes immediately
drawn to whatever computer or other technology is in the room, and
might be a gadget freak, etc.  A female medical professional might
notice things about someone’s looks that others wouldn’t, like the
fact their color is a bit bluer than normal or their breathing was a
bit fast, might pay more attention to someone’s comfort and notice
when they are upset first.

So remember – characters are more than their sum parts.  Characters
should be like real people, they have past sorrows and triumphs, past
friends and losses, lessons they’ve learned, training they’ve been
through, and all of it has added up into the person they are in the
story.  You as an author are not going to be telling their whole
history – that would make for a boring book.  But you can never forget
that all of that history makes them who they are, it affects how they
react, how they see the world, how they speak, and you must let those
things show in order for them to be believable.

Georgia Woods, Senior Editor, Loose Id

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