Authors particularly good with dialogue

[Zhang]

Hello,

I have a lot of difficulty trying to make characters "sound" like different people. Which published authors are known for interesting and convincing dialogue? Thanks !

 

[Sephiroth]

I'm not sure if I can answer that (perhaps someone else has an opinion on that), I can say that IMO, any good author has to be good at writing at least passably realistic and engaging dialogue, or I won't consider them 'good' to begin with.

But as for writing dialogue, you have to develop your own sense of it; I'm sure you hear your characters talk in your head when your write (I certainly do). And you know what real people sound like, and how different they can sound, so you could perhaps take influences for the way certain people talk in your head from interesting things that you hear in real life. Think of conversations you have had with people, ones you have heard between others, or on TV, whatever........

Of course, if you're writing something where their speech is deliberately archaic or somehow different-sounding, it's more difficult to make something sound what we are used to as 'natural', but plausible does. And interesting, and not stilted..........

 

[Giovanna Clairval]

The first author that comes to my mind is Roger Zelazny.

 

[Ginkus]

Terry Pratchet writes children's dialog like no one else.

 

[Commonmind]

I'm a fan of G.R.R. Martin's dialog, as well as Pratchet (already mentioned) and Salvatore. I do agree with what Seph had to say, in so much that I believe every writer needs to develop their own style. However, I also feel you can benefit from reading examples of good dialog. Reading good writing is never a bad thing and can generally serve to help any aspiring writer develop their craft - dialog included.

 

[Sephiroth]

I agree with that, too. I just couldn't think of anyone of the top of my head whom I thought was particularly good at it. I've been reading too much non-fiction and not enough fiction, lately.......

 

[Giovanna Clairval]

Nobody is reacting on Zelazny's genius?
He had a way, sometimes, of writing witty dialogues without boring to say who was talking, but it's sharp and shining.
Try Lord of Light.
Hadn't she died at 58, that, purp, he would have delivered other masterpieces. Now he is mostly remembered for his Amber cycle, which is a very good read, but not the best of his production.

 

[The Curious Orange]

Pratchett doesn't just write good children's dialogue. Check out the scenes where the three witches are all talking across each other at once, or where the University faculty do the same thing. He uses no attributions whatsoever, and it's always crystal clear who's speaking (unless he's deliberately confusing you). Genius.

 

[Commonmind]

Nobody is reacting on Zelazny's genius?
He had a way, sometimes, of writing witty dialogues without boring to say who was talking, but it's sharp and shining.
Try Lord of Light.
Hadn't she died at 58, that, purp, he would have delivered other masterpieces. Now he is mostly remembered for his Amber cycle, which is a very good read, but not the best of his production.

I missed your recommendation, but I definitely second it. (We disagree on this front, but my favorite of his works are the Chronicles of Amber.)

 

[Giovanna Clairval]

Commonmind, Amber is my favourite too, and I've read it short of twenty times. Zelazny's previous work, though, is widely awknoledged as stronger, from the literary point of view.

Of course, and happily enough, fantasy is not just about literary achievement.
Many of Z's themes have influenced a score of contemporary authors.

Shouldn't we start a thread on Roger Zelasny?

 

[jackokent]

Robin Hobb does the best dialogue for animals I've probably read. I will never look at a cat now without thinking it's demanding "Make a lap"

On the subject of Zelasny I agree really good dialogue, in fact really good everything. There must be lots of threads on him here surely.

For natural sounding dialogue I quite liked Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner

 

[Sephiroth]

I haven't read any Zelazny, but I shall. And I've already got such a pile of recommendations since I arrived here........

He uses no attributions whatsoever, and it's always crystal clear who's speaking (unless he's deliberately confusing you). Genius.

Interesting. I've always hated using attributions in dialogue, they feel so clumsy and tacked-on; I try and stay away from them as much as possible.

Of course, whether I achieve what Pratchett achieves is another argument entirely.......

 

[Erin99]

I try and stay away from them as much as possible.

You sound like our resident pedantissimo, Chris. He never uses dialogue tags in his work.

 

[Sephiroth]

I have a strong pedantic streak myself. Didn't you notice?

 

[Giovanna Clairval]

Dialogue in novels is not real dialogue. Real dialogue is boring and dull. Listen to people when they are talking. They repeat things a lot and keep jumping from a subject to another.

Zelazny and Pratchett use artificial dialogue. When artificial dialogue is sharp and witty (Pratchett and Zelazny), it is much more effective (entertaining and profound) than real dialogue is.

Realistic dialogue is the technique consisting in copying a speech that is typical of a particular group. You can take dockers, or teenagers from New Jersey or Dundee, and copy their accents, their choice of words, their slang (Dickens was one of the first to use an underground slang), and their special way of torturing grammar.

Now, dialogues can be artificial or realistic (or artificial-and-realistic: think of Joss Whedon’s Buffy). They must always be believable. A believable dialogue is a dialogue that makes sense in a particular situation and with those particular characters of yours. One given character will use her proper choice of words and tone (formal, informal). In the same situation, one given character will say something that another one would not say.

A good technique, after you have written your story, consists in highlighting the dialogues with different colour markers, a colour for each character (including those who are very secondary but are supposed to have a distinctive language). When your typescript is a multicoloured zebra, read one character’s lines in a row. You should recognise, most of the times, a character from the way she speaks and without any attribution.

Well, lean attributions (Marcantonio said) are useful when there are more than two people speaking, or else you will have your reader make a bit of reading callisthenics because lines cannot be characterised all the time (“I’ll get the phone.”).

I hope this helps.

 

[Zhang]

Thank you Giovanna. I really learned something.

 

[Ginkus]

Pratchett doesn't just write good children's dialogue. Check out the scenes where the three witches are all talking across each other at once, or where the University faculty do the same thing. He uses no attributions whatsoever, and it's always crystal clear who's speaking (unless he's deliberately confusing you). Genius.

While it is true that Pratchett is a genius with dialog (or with anything really) I think he is at his best writing children's dialog. They sound like real children unlike every other writer I've seen where the kiddies sound like people trying to sound like children. Pratchett nails it on the head.

Another writer with good dialog is good old Mark Twain. May not be fantasy and sci-fi oriented, but the number of different lingos and dialects in Huck Finn is jaw dropping.

 

[Giovanna Clairval]

Another writer with good dialog is good old Mark Twain. May not be fantasy and sci-fi oriented, but the number of different lingos and dialects in Huck Finn is jaw dropping.

Very true. Never read HFinn though. Ten times I read Tom Sawyer, but never Huck. It's a shame. I know.

One that contains good dialogues is The Prince and the Pauper.