Lecture 8: Integrating Dialogue into a Narrative

Integrating Dialogue into a Narrative ................................................

Lecture 8

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how rambling, digressive, elaborate, or colorful, must serve a purpose,

and that, generally speaking, we can categorize those purposes as

evoking character, telling the story, and providing exposition. In this lecture,

we’ll talk in more detail about how dialogue can serve those purposes and

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Some stories and novels are made up almost entirely of dialogue, while some

stories use it only as a seasoning. Deciding just how much, how often, and

how effectively your characters speak will also help you decide just what

sort of story you’re writing.

Dialogue to Evoke Character

z Character is evoked by a variety of techniques used together or in

close succession, including description, action, dialogue, interior

monologue, and so on. Although dialogue doesn’t always bear the

brunt of characterization, it’s not unusual for individual characters to

speak in distinctive ways. Dickens, for example, is known for his

colorful secondary characters, who often use catchphrases or speak in a

particular dialect. George R. R. Martin, who has proven to be a sort of

a latter-day Dickens, also uses this technique with the characters in his

fantasy series $6RQJRI,FHDQG)LUH.

z It’s perhaps more common for a character to have a distinctive pattern

of speech than an oft-repeated catchphrase. The perpetually debt-

ridden Mr. Micawber in Dickens’s 'DYLG&RSSHU¿HOG, for example, is

distinguished by his comically elaborate way of expressing himself.

This technique works well in narratives where the characters are a bit

more extreme than they might be in a more realistic narrative.

z In the 19th century, many writers used dialect, with the result that much

19 thFHQWXU\¿FWLRQLVQRZXQUHDGDEOH,Q'UDFXOD, for example, there’s

a long, almost incomprehensible passage in which Bram Stoker tries