The NY Book Editors have an interesting piece on common dialogue mistakes. Fortuitously, I avoid almost all of them. My dialogue has a purpose. I don't write, "Hi, how are you?" "Fine, thanks."
I do "insert action", as the article puts it, if by action the writer means a character doing other things while conversing. Rarely do two people sit face-to-face staring intently into each other's eyes (unless they're infatuated teenagers). People do things, even inconsequential things like straighten a pile of magazines on the coffee table or zip into the kitchen to refill their coffee cup. When I do add action to dialogue scenes I try to make it relevant, not just filler. During my writing session yesterday, the main character's mother unconsciously massaged the finger that her wedding ring used to adorn. This was in the midst of a conversation in which MC asked her mother what her fondest wish was. Mom had lost her husband years ago, and that unconscious act signaled her regret.
In the eight points the article covers, I plead guilty to "getting too creative with dialogue tags". Apparently tags like, "she sighed" are distracting to the reader. The author states that action should be substituted instead, although if I employ the article's example of "Sam tossed the frame across the room with a heavy grunt", I'm going to end up with a lot of broken objects, sort of like a Poltergeist movie. However, I'm going to try to minimize my habit of constantly describing how words are uttered. I do, though not purposely, try to lead a reader where I want them to go by over-explaining or over-describing. Perhaps that's a bit disrespectful. Readers aren't dummies like me.
When I found the referenced article, what I was really searching for were ways to avoid over-reliance on dialogue. It's probably my biggest writing downfall. In yesterday's writing session almost the entirety of what I wrote consisted of two long dialogue scenes. Worse, they were almost back-to-back (involving different characters, but still). Maybe that's just too much. Probably it's too much. I suppose the scenes need to be separated by something else happening. While both conversations were edifying -- thus, they advanced the story, I'm troubled by my execution. Does anyone want to read a long block of dialogue? That seems more like a play than a book. Well, I guess that's what editing is for.
Too, when I'm stuck on where to go next, I revert to dialogue. And that was my problem yesterday. I'm edging toward MC's ultimate decision, but I haven't quite figured out how to get her there. Apparently she had two big hurdles to get over -- not disappointing her mother and her trepidation about how much saying yes would change her life. Those two dialogue scenes accomplished that, but not in the most compelling of ways.
I left off with her taking a walk (when all else fails, says the unimaginative writer). Something, lord knows what, will happen on that walk, either physically happen or just spark in her brain. Maybe she'll run into someone. I haven't a clue.
I hope I'm nearing the end of this particular rewrite. The story's okay; again, like most of my stories, not particularly earth-shattering. But I'm itching to create something new.
One day I hope to compose a story that doesn't require a rewrite.
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