Painting With Light

The Secret to Dialogue is Good Listening

Interesting, believable dialogue has been mentioned several times in reviews of my stories. I’m delighted and actually quite proud of that. However, when someone asks me how to do it, there’s only one thing I can say …

Listen
That’s not a joke. If you seriously want to learn the secret to good dialogue, listen to the way people talk … really listen. I do it so much it’s second nature. If you haven’t conciously done it before, take the time to listen to the conversations you hear around you.

Listen to people talking to each other in the check-out line at the grocery store. Eavesdrop on the conversations at other tables in restaurants. Listen to friends talking at social gatherings. Jot down words and phrases.

When you do, the first thing you’ll discover is that no one speaks the way your grade school teacher told you they’re supposed to when she was teaching you grammar (sorry, Mrs. Bliss).

When you listen, it shouldn’t take long to notice the poor grammar, misplaced modifiers, mispronounciatons, sarcasm (both intended and unintended) and allusions that people include in their routine conversations with one another.

You’ll discover believable dialogue is no big secret … it’s just not necessarily proper English.

People get the “poor grammar” and sarcasm part. We all speak in a way that’s less than perfect. It’s when I talk about allusions that most people ask questions. They want to know more about what an allusion is, and how to use it.

It really isn’t hard to describe.

Allusions in Dialogue
An allusion is a reference within your work to another work: a book, a film, a piece of artwork, a known quotation or even a real event. They’re often used to summarize complex ideas in one quick, powerful image, getting your point across without lengthy paragraphs of description.

Think of it as a kind of shorthand that provides greater meaning to what you’re writing about, by relating it to an already familiar story. I often think of allusion as a kind of modern day hypertext, linking the reader to another thought.

There are poems, like T.S. Eliot’s “The Wasteland,” which rely heavily on allusions and practically sample the works of others, the way local bands go through other artists’ songs at a wedding. It’s quite a challenging read (and definitely not one of my favorites).

However, good allusions are contingent on the reader knowing about the story or event being referenced. While they can be an economical way of communicating, you risk alienating anyone who doesn’t recognize the reference … or, as T.S. Eliot did with me … making it so hard to decipher you finally say the hell with it.

As a writer, the absolute last thing you want is for the reader to leave the story.

Allusions in Titles
However, allusions don’t have to be difficult. They can also be quite subtle. For instance, Shakespeare’s influence on English literature is so strong that we often make allusions to his plays without being aware of it.

For instance, these five books give a nod to the bard simply by using his words in their titles.

“Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley;
“Something Wicked This Way Comes” by Ray Bradbury;
“The Sound and the Fury” by William Faulkner;
“The Gods Themselves” by Isaac Asimov, and
“The Winter of Our Discontent” by John Steinbeck

Common Dialogue Examples
Good allusions are also found in dialogue. How many times in simple dialogue have you heard something referred to as a “Pandora’s Box?” It’s an allusion to Greek mythology.

The box was actually a large jar given to Pandora which contained all the evils of the world. She was admonished not to open it, but curiosity got the best of her, and all the evil was released when she lifted the lid.

Today the phrase “to open Pandora’s box” is an allusion that means to perform an action that may seem small or innocent, but turns out to have severe and far-reaching consequences.

“I was surprised his nose wasn’t growing like Pinocchio’s.” This is obviously an allusion to “The Adventures of Pinocchio,” written by Carlo Collodi, where the character’s nose grew whenever he told a lie. Even schoolchildren know the story.

“She acted like a Scrooge and refused to buy anything that wasn’t absolutely necessary, and even some things that were.” Scrooge, as most of you know, was an extremely stingy character from Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”

Both allusions help cement the writer’s character in our minds without lengthy exposition. We know quite a bit about the writer’s intent for them from one sentence. Both sentences, you will note, are also comments any character might make in simple dialogue.

Thus, allusion doesn’t have to be something that makes reading difficult. It can be found in some of the simplest sentences.

Allusions Are Everywhere
However, the use of allusions is not confined to literature alone. We often refer to common people and places in our speech that are quite apart from scholarly things.

If you pay attention to the conversations going on around you, the occurrence of allusion is fairly common in our daily speech. “Stop acting like my ex-husband please.” That was an actual remark I overheard at a recent social event.

While the reason behind the statement is unknown, the implication of rudeness and distaste in that single sentence tells us a lot about what one character is really saying to another.

Allusion. A useful tool in a writer’s toolbox.