GojiBean
Your resident irradiated Kaiju King
Hoyo! GojiBean here!
This will be my final tutorial for the year, and perhaps my final tutorial in general since my knowledge of creative writing basically ends with what I've already shared. Lol.
This tutorial is about how to create truly great dialogue in your writing.
And, in typical GojiBean fashion, I shall explain it in the most obnoxiously over-the-top way as possible with as many tangents as possible to make it look like I'm smarter than I am!!
So, let's get started!
What is Dialogue?
Dialogue, in its simplest form, is simply words that we understand to be spoken out loud by the character(s) on the page.
That's literally it.
Spoken words. Page. Put em' together, and you have dialogue.
It's simple. It's plain. It takes up space, gives expositionary information, and gives a voice (sort of) to your characters.
Easy!
What is Good Dialogue?
Good dialogue, by contrast to generic and plain dialogue as outlined above, is spoken words on the page which provide both a goal and a purpose to their own existence.
In other words, they're not just there.
For example, which of these is simply "dialogue," and which is "good dialogue?"
Example 1:
Mark - "Oh, hey Billy! Nice day, huh?"
Billy - "Hey Mark! Yeah, real nice!"
Mark - "Anything interesting goin' on?"
Billy - "Nah, not really."
Mark - "Yeah? Ah well."
Example 2:
Mark - "Oh, hey Billy! Nice day, huh?"
Billy - "Hey Mark! Yeah, real nice!"
Mark - "Anything interesting goin' on?"
Billy - "... You could say that."
Mark - "Oohhh... Damn. Nice ass on that chick, huh?"
Billy - "Oh yeah."
----------------
Now, this is obviously a rather crass example and doesn't exactly paint men like myself in a good light. But did you notice the difference? Aside from having slightly different endings, Example 2 serves a purpose. The dialogue moves through casual conversation to the point of showing us as readers that Billy's got one thing on his mind. Girls. More specifically, whoever the girl whose ass he's looking at. And he's also shared this attraction and attention with his friend Mark who obviously reciprocates it.
The conversation was moving towards a goal. And that goal was to demonstrate how hormonally driven and focused both men are. While it's not a pretty example, it's a realistic one. And for dialogue purposes, it served a purpose whereas the dialogue in Example 1 did not. It was just there taking up space and giving us something to read.
What is Great Dialogue?
Great dialogue continues the trend of good dialogue, but takes it to the next level and accomplishes all of the following:
- Sets and maintains (or deliberately changes) the tone of the scene
- Creates and wraps up loose ends and tangents
- Ensures every word guides the conversation towards a specific goal/ending
- And, most importantly, it flows naturally from the tongue and doesn't sound robotic or inauthentic
So, let's look at an example. And, as I've done before, I'll reference the master of dialogue and subtext, mister Quentin Tarantino and his film Inglorious Basterds!
The scene in question is the opening scene at the farm with Colonel Landa and the farmer, mister Petit.
It begins cordially with Colonel Landa entering with a smile, greeting mister Petit and his daughters and complimenting all of them on their beauty. The two men sit down with some milk and smoke their pipes at the Colonel's request. And everything seems to be going Petit's way as he tries to navigate the conversation away from the family of Jews hiding under his floor boards. And then, the conversation turns as Colonel Landa asks Petit to fetch him a glass of milk...
Landa - "Monsieur Petit. Are you aware of the nickname the people of France have given me?"
Petit - "I have no interest in such things."
Landa - "But, you are aware of what they call me?"
Petit - "I am aware."
Landa - "What are you aware of?"
Petit - "They call you the Jew Hunter."
Landa - "Precisely. I understand your trepidation and repeating it. Heydrich apparently hates the moniker the good people of Prague have bestowed upon him. Actually, why he would hate the name "the hangman" is baffling to me. It would appear he's done everything in his power to earn it. Now I, on the other hand, love my unofficial title precisely because I've earned it. The feature that makes me such an effective hunter of the Jews is, as opposed to most German soldiers, I can think like a Jew, where they can only think like a German. (Laughter) More precisely, like a German soldier.
And it is here that Landa goes off on a tangent. And pay special attention to the language and phrasing he uses...
Landa - "Now, if one were to determine what attribute the German people share with a beast, it would be the cunning and predatory instinct of a hawk. But if one were to determine what attributes the Jews share with a beast it would be that of the rat. The Fuhrer and Goebbels have said pretty much the same thing. But where our conclusions differ is I don't consider the comparison an insult. Consider for a moment the world the rat lives in. It's a hostile world, indeed. If a rat were to scamper through your front door right now, would you greet it with hostility?"
Petit - "I suppose I would."
Landa - "Has a rat ever done anything to create this animosity you feel toward them?"
Petit - "Rats spread disease. They bite people."
Landa - "Rats were the cause of the bubonic plague, but that's some time ago. I propose to you any disease a rat could spread, a squirrel could equally carry. Would you agree?"
Petit - "Oui (yes)."
Landa - "Yet, I assume you don't share the same animosity with squirrels as you do with rats, do you?"
Petit - "No."
Landa - "Yet, they are both rodents, are they not? And except for the tail, they do even rather look alike, don't they?"
Petit - "It's an interesting thought, Herr Colonel."
Landa - "However interesting the thought may be, it makes not one bit of difference to how you feel. If a rat were to walk in here right now, as I'm talking, would you greet it with a saucer of your delicious milk?"
Petit - "Probably not."
Landa - "I didn't think so. You don't like them. You don't really know why you don't like them. All you know is you find them repulsive."
And it's here the dialogue turns, and the true purpose of this tangent is revealed.
Landa - "Consequently, a German soldier a search of a house suspected of hiding Jews. Where does the hawk look? He looks in the barn, he looks in the attic, he looks in the cellar, he looks everywhere he would hide. But there's so many places it would never occur to a hawk to hide. However, the reason the Fuhrer has brought me off my alps in Austria and placed me in French cow country is because it does occur to me. Because I'm aware of what tremendous feats human beings are capable of once they abandon dignity... May I smoke my pipe as well?"
Petit - "Please. Make yourself at home."
Landa - "... Now, my job dictates that I must have my men enter your home and conduct a thorough search before I can officially cross your family's name off my list. And if there are any irregularities to be found, and rest assured they will be, that is unless you have something to tell me that makes a conducting of search unnecessary. I might add also that any information that makes a performance of my duty easier will not be met with punishment. Actually, quite the contrary. It will be met with reward. And that reward will be your family will cease to be harassed in any way by the German military for the rest of our occupation of your country."
... And so an eerie silence fills the room. There is no music in this scene. Just the ticking of a clock in the background as Landa's smile slowly fades to a look of cold determination.
Landa - "... You're sheltering enemies of the state, are you not?"
Petit - "... Yes."
Landa - "You're sheltering them underneath your floor boards aren't you?"
Petit - "... Yes."
And so the scene moves on as Landa and his men slay the Jewish family hiding beneath Petit's floor boards, save one who manages to flee into the countryside. And thus the scene comes to its terrifying conclusion after a heart thumper of a conversation that seemed so innocent and almost light hearted that one would be forgiven for thinking that it would be a happy ending where Landa would do his search, come close to finding the Jewish family, and then fail in his mission and give Petit the pass we were all hoping for.
But no. Tarantino masterfully allows the dialogue flow from one moment to the next. Landa loves his unofficial title, knows he's earned it because of how smart he is, and by the end of the conversation we're all aware that he knew about the Jewish family hiding here and was only toying with Petit the entire time. In almost one fell swoop he chips away Petit's will to protect the Jewish family by the end with his statements about the reward of non-punishment in the final moments of the scene. And the rest of the dialogue served the purpose of building towards this conclusion beautifully by dropping subtle clues that Landa knew about the Jewish family.
This, right here, is truly great dialogue. It ticks all the boxes mentioned in the beginning of this section, and then some. And it both creates suspense, tension, hope, dread, and fear in the reader in a wild roller coaster ride to its violent conclusion.
In Closing.
What separates plain dialogue from good dialogue, and good dialogue from great dialogue, is both an adherence to the rule "show, don't tell" applied to your dialogue by not just stating everything outright in a no-subtext filled exposition dump, and also the breaking of that adherence at the right moment to create the most interesting and compelling drop of reality and surprise that you can manage.
What made Landa's reveal of his knowledge of the Jewish family so terrifying and powerful in this scene was the fact that he made it seem like he didn't know for sure that the Jewish family was there. He danced around it. He hyped himself, downplayed the German forces, and hyped up the Jews. And everything about the way he spoke made it look like he was either just blabbering on, or that he was trying, unsuccessfully, to fish the information out of Petit... But no. He knew. Every word he said was meant to build towards the purpose of breaking Petit's spirit and will to protect the Jewish family. He gave Petit hope, and then took it away all at once.
That, for a villain, is a terrifying level of power to have over the protagonist of the scene. And that's great damn dialogue.
Hopefully you learned something from this tutorial! And please, study Tarantino's writing! The level of information and his mastery of dialogue, subtext, "show, don't tell," and overall suspense is beyond compare in the writer's world. And even just a single scene that's dialogue heavy like this one can teach you so much it's not even funny.
Cheers!
~ GojiBean
This will be my final tutorial for the year, and perhaps my final tutorial in general since my knowledge of creative writing basically ends with what I've already shared. Lol.
This tutorial is about how to create truly great dialogue in your writing.
And, in typical GojiBean fashion, I shall explain it in the most obnoxiously over-the-top way as possible with as many tangents as possible to make it look like I'm smarter than I am!!
So, let's get started!
What is Dialogue?
Dialogue, in its simplest form, is simply words that we understand to be spoken out loud by the character(s) on the page.
That's literally it.
Spoken words. Page. Put em' together, and you have dialogue.
It's simple. It's plain. It takes up space, gives expositionary information, and gives a voice (sort of) to your characters.
Easy!
What is Good Dialogue?
Good dialogue, by contrast to generic and plain dialogue as outlined above, is spoken words on the page which provide both a goal and a purpose to their own existence.
In other words, they're not just there.
For example, which of these is simply "dialogue," and which is "good dialogue?"
Example 1:
Mark - "Oh, hey Billy! Nice day, huh?"
Billy - "Hey Mark! Yeah, real nice!"
Mark - "Anything interesting goin' on?"
Billy - "Nah, not really."
Mark - "Yeah? Ah well."
Example 2:
Mark - "Oh, hey Billy! Nice day, huh?"
Billy - "Hey Mark! Yeah, real nice!"
Mark - "Anything interesting goin' on?"
Billy - "... You could say that."
Mark - "Oohhh... Damn. Nice ass on that chick, huh?"
Billy - "Oh yeah."
----------------
Now, this is obviously a rather crass example and doesn't exactly paint men like myself in a good light. But did you notice the difference? Aside from having slightly different endings, Example 2 serves a purpose. The dialogue moves through casual conversation to the point of showing us as readers that Billy's got one thing on his mind. Girls. More specifically, whoever the girl whose ass he's looking at. And he's also shared this attraction and attention with his friend Mark who obviously reciprocates it.
The conversation was moving towards a goal. And that goal was to demonstrate how hormonally driven and focused both men are. While it's not a pretty example, it's a realistic one. And for dialogue purposes, it served a purpose whereas the dialogue in Example 1 did not. It was just there taking up space and giving us something to read.
What is Great Dialogue?
Great dialogue continues the trend of good dialogue, but takes it to the next level and accomplishes all of the following:
- Sets and maintains (or deliberately changes) the tone of the scene
- Creates and wraps up loose ends and tangents
- Ensures every word guides the conversation towards a specific goal/ending
- And, most importantly, it flows naturally from the tongue and doesn't sound robotic or inauthentic
So, let's look at an example. And, as I've done before, I'll reference the master of dialogue and subtext, mister Quentin Tarantino and his film Inglorious Basterds!
The scene in question is the opening scene at the farm with Colonel Landa and the farmer, mister Petit.
It begins cordially with Colonel Landa entering with a smile, greeting mister Petit and his daughters and complimenting all of them on their beauty. The two men sit down with some milk and smoke their pipes at the Colonel's request. And everything seems to be going Petit's way as he tries to navigate the conversation away from the family of Jews hiding under his floor boards. And then, the conversation turns as Colonel Landa asks Petit to fetch him a glass of milk...
Landa - "Monsieur Petit. Are you aware of the nickname the people of France have given me?"
Petit - "I have no interest in such things."
Landa - "But, you are aware of what they call me?"
Petit - "I am aware."
Landa - "What are you aware of?"
Petit - "They call you the Jew Hunter."
Landa - "Precisely. I understand your trepidation and repeating it. Heydrich apparently hates the moniker the good people of Prague have bestowed upon him. Actually, why he would hate the name "the hangman" is baffling to me. It would appear he's done everything in his power to earn it. Now I, on the other hand, love my unofficial title precisely because I've earned it. The feature that makes me such an effective hunter of the Jews is, as opposed to most German soldiers, I can think like a Jew, where they can only think like a German. (Laughter) More precisely, like a German soldier.
And it is here that Landa goes off on a tangent. And pay special attention to the language and phrasing he uses...
Landa - "Now, if one were to determine what attribute the German people share with a beast, it would be the cunning and predatory instinct of a hawk. But if one were to determine what attributes the Jews share with a beast it would be that of the rat. The Fuhrer and Goebbels have said pretty much the same thing. But where our conclusions differ is I don't consider the comparison an insult. Consider for a moment the world the rat lives in. It's a hostile world, indeed. If a rat were to scamper through your front door right now, would you greet it with hostility?"
Petit - "I suppose I would."
Landa - "Has a rat ever done anything to create this animosity you feel toward them?"
Petit - "Rats spread disease. They bite people."
Landa - "Rats were the cause of the bubonic plague, but that's some time ago. I propose to you any disease a rat could spread, a squirrel could equally carry. Would you agree?"
Petit - "Oui (yes)."
Landa - "Yet, I assume you don't share the same animosity with squirrels as you do with rats, do you?"
Petit - "No."
Landa - "Yet, they are both rodents, are they not? And except for the tail, they do even rather look alike, don't they?"
Petit - "It's an interesting thought, Herr Colonel."
Landa - "However interesting the thought may be, it makes not one bit of difference to how you feel. If a rat were to walk in here right now, as I'm talking, would you greet it with a saucer of your delicious milk?"
Petit - "Probably not."
Landa - "I didn't think so. You don't like them. You don't really know why you don't like them. All you know is you find them repulsive."
And it's here the dialogue turns, and the true purpose of this tangent is revealed.
Landa - "Consequently, a German soldier a search of a house suspected of hiding Jews. Where does the hawk look? He looks in the barn, he looks in the attic, he looks in the cellar, he looks everywhere he would hide. But there's so many places it would never occur to a hawk to hide. However, the reason the Fuhrer has brought me off my alps in Austria and placed me in French cow country is because it does occur to me. Because I'm aware of what tremendous feats human beings are capable of once they abandon dignity... May I smoke my pipe as well?"
Petit - "Please. Make yourself at home."
Landa - "... Now, my job dictates that I must have my men enter your home and conduct a thorough search before I can officially cross your family's name off my list. And if there are any irregularities to be found, and rest assured they will be, that is unless you have something to tell me that makes a conducting of search unnecessary. I might add also that any information that makes a performance of my duty easier will not be met with punishment. Actually, quite the contrary. It will be met with reward. And that reward will be your family will cease to be harassed in any way by the German military for the rest of our occupation of your country."
... And so an eerie silence fills the room. There is no music in this scene. Just the ticking of a clock in the background as Landa's smile slowly fades to a look of cold determination.
Landa - "... You're sheltering enemies of the state, are you not?"
Petit - "... Yes."
Landa - "You're sheltering them underneath your floor boards aren't you?"
Petit - "... Yes."
And so the scene moves on as Landa and his men slay the Jewish family hiding beneath Petit's floor boards, save one who manages to flee into the countryside. And thus the scene comes to its terrifying conclusion after a heart thumper of a conversation that seemed so innocent and almost light hearted that one would be forgiven for thinking that it would be a happy ending where Landa would do his search, come close to finding the Jewish family, and then fail in his mission and give Petit the pass we were all hoping for.
But no. Tarantino masterfully allows the dialogue flow from one moment to the next. Landa loves his unofficial title, knows he's earned it because of how smart he is, and by the end of the conversation we're all aware that he knew about the Jewish family hiding here and was only toying with Petit the entire time. In almost one fell swoop he chips away Petit's will to protect the Jewish family by the end with his statements about the reward of non-punishment in the final moments of the scene. And the rest of the dialogue served the purpose of building towards this conclusion beautifully by dropping subtle clues that Landa knew about the Jewish family.
This, right here, is truly great dialogue. It ticks all the boxes mentioned in the beginning of this section, and then some. And it both creates suspense, tension, hope, dread, and fear in the reader in a wild roller coaster ride to its violent conclusion.
In Closing.
What separates plain dialogue from good dialogue, and good dialogue from great dialogue, is both an adherence to the rule "show, don't tell" applied to your dialogue by not just stating everything outright in a no-subtext filled exposition dump, and also the breaking of that adherence at the right moment to create the most interesting and compelling drop of reality and surprise that you can manage.
What made Landa's reveal of his knowledge of the Jewish family so terrifying and powerful in this scene was the fact that he made it seem like he didn't know for sure that the Jewish family was there. He danced around it. He hyped himself, downplayed the German forces, and hyped up the Jews. And everything about the way he spoke made it look like he was either just blabbering on, or that he was trying, unsuccessfully, to fish the information out of Petit... But no. He knew. Every word he said was meant to build towards the purpose of breaking Petit's spirit and will to protect the Jewish family. He gave Petit hope, and then took it away all at once.
That, for a villain, is a terrifying level of power to have over the protagonist of the scene. And that's great damn dialogue.
Hopefully you learned something from this tutorial! And please, study Tarantino's writing! The level of information and his mastery of dialogue, subtext, "show, don't tell," and overall suspense is beyond compare in the writer's world. And even just a single scene that's dialogue heavy like this one can teach you so much it's not even funny.
Cheers!
~ GojiBean