Developing Characters With Dialogue

Using Conversation in Fiction to Create Good Characters

Nov 13, 2009

Character development is an important part to writing good stories. Developing characters through dialogue can keep them interesting. Writers may consider these tips.

Good character development is a step towards writing better fiction. A story needs interesting characters to keep it alive. A great way to keep characters interesting and well developed is through dialogue. As people differ in mannerisms, speech patterns and vocabulary, characters may do the same.

Dialects and Accents

Some famous authors do very well with characterization through dialogue. Mark Twain, for example, writes almost the entirety of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in dialects with a southern drawl. It is effective for developing the character of Huck who narrates the story and showing him in comparison to those around him.

It takes a little work to well write an accent or a dialect into a story, but it can lend the story a touch of authenticity and interest. A little research can be a good help in this endeavour. This research can be as simple as listening to others speak and reading works that demonstrate different speech patterns. If a certain dialect or accent is written into the story, an author should be careful to remain consistent with the spelling and grammar of the particular speech pattern so that it is distinguishable as an accent or dialect and not a compilation of misspelled words.

A writer may wish to do this with a character, as it will indicate a number of attributes to the character. It can show where the character is from, his upbringing and his attitude.

Mannerisms and Vocabulary

Accents or dialects are a great representation of characters, but they are not a necessity for well developing a character. A character can be just as well developed through his mannerisms and vocabulary.

Understanding who the character is helps an author imagine how the character would act in different situations. Imagining these situations between the characters in the story and even privately acting it out can prove to be a useful activity to writing good dialogue between characters. The reaction of a character to his surroundings will help determine his vocabulary. Some characters are calm, cool and polite, while others may be a little rough around the edges – just like real people – and their vocabulary will reflect that.

A Character’s Personality

Knowing the character well is important when it comes to his or her mannerisms. Mannerisms are something that people have regardless of the situation. For characters’ mannerisms, it helps to write up back stories on the major characters. A back story is a write-up of basic information on the character, including prominent personality traits and can be constructed like a chart or a thought-web for easy reference. Writing a back story is a good way to help writer's block. The back stories need not be followed closely if the characters change throughout the writing process. Usually the change is good for the story.

Mannerisms are useful in dialogue in the narration between speaking. For example, how does a certain character sit or stand when speaking? Does a character fidget, make good eye contact, blush easily, smile plenty, or have his own unique action for conveying a thought? All of these details in the midst of the dialogue help develop characters.

Good character development is important for the success of a story, as characters drive the story forward. A great way to well develop characters is through dialogue, and particular speech patterns, vocabulary and mannerisms.

The copyright of the article Developing Characters With Dialogue in Character Development is owned by Michelle Pannecoucke. Permission to republish Developing Characters With Dialogue in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.