Fun business first.
We have two winners in our 3-page critique
giveaway!
*drumroll….*
Congratulations, Honorary
Warriors Tori K. and Christy K.! Thank you so much for entering and helping us
celebrate our 20,000 views. We will be in touch soon!
Now, onto a little Revision Warrior-ing:
My take on authentic voice in dialogue…
Right now I'm working on strengthening voices in my dialogue. My current WIP, which is a middle grade fantasy stars a pair
of best friends and a younger sibling. They share many, many scenes together. Keeping
their voices distinct is paramount. The younger sibling is a touch easier, but
the best buddies—I need to check on them from time to time.
These are the techniques I’m using for dialogue as I go from
scene to scene:
1) First pass—just get the dialogue out. All I’m doing on the 1st draft of a
scene is getting out their dialogue, making sure each character is hitting the
points they need to say.
2) Second pass—customize. After the conversation
has been blurted out, I go back through and
customize. My MC’s name is Tobin. This pass I scrutinize the lines and think, “Is
this how Tobin would say it?” Then I go back through for the supporting
characters.
3) Third Pass—READ ALOUD. Here’s where I get a good
dose of, “Is this authentic sounding?” People don’t speak like instruction
manuals. Real conversations are usually to the point, full of incomplete
sentences, and often, grammatically incorrect. That’s okay! Run with it. You
know the tone of each of your characters Trust it.
Do you have any go-to tips for dialogue? Please share!
Yay to the winners!!! :) And, you're absolutely right about real conversations being full of incomplete sentences and grammar errors! Since I write YA, I'm always listening to teenagers whenever I'm out and about and boy howdy! I don't think I could write exactly how they speak, but a little dose of it here and there in dialogue makes it sound authentic and not robotic. Great tips, Rina! :)
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