It might seem like an obvious fact, but dialogue is a very important consideration in storytelling. Actually, if you read older novels, you might find that there tends to be long sections of prose in-between the dialogue. It was a style of the time, along with the author choosing to recount the state of mind of their characters in equally long paragraphs without any kind of interaction with another person. It is not a style that has influenced me greatly as a writer. In more than one of my novels I concentrated on individual characters to move the plot along through their dialogue. I did not want to be, as the author, the expression of their internal thoughts. This approach generally means that my writing has longer passages of dialogue than descriptive prose.

In my current project, Pomerania, this is definitely so. I am trying to keep the landscape a little vague. The backdrop to the story has all the importance of the set of a play on the stage, that is, it should not distract the audience. Characters describe their environment if I feel that there is a need to. There are a couple of passages where I do set the mood, but I try to keep the descriptions short and relevant.

My approach to writing dialogue is very simple; most of it is going to need editing! As is my way, I write quickly to capture the initial idea. Often this takes me on interesting journeys of exploration through the medium of conversation between two or more characters. I do not tend to worry too much about the technicalities of the writing, relying on my own knowledge and experience to avoid making serious blunders in grammar and syntax. Even if I find in the review that I have done such a terrible thing then I do not worry too much about it, I mean, who else is going to know? As long as I spot it first, which I do not doubt that I do, and put it right, then no harm is done.

Dialogue is very useful for delineating characters. More so, I think, than writing their thoughts as a monologue. To do this properly it is useful to have a good idea of the character. In the past I have written backstories for them. This does not have to be a major essay on their psychology, unless you as the writer think it is necessary of course, but it should cover all the major points that go towards making them who they are. I try to inflect some of the character’s personality through how they talk. This can be by using a repeated phrase or linguistic mannerism, although I think it is important to keep this under control and not let it become a caricature in its own right. The best writers are observers of human behaviour. They pick up on how different people speak in different situations. I have seen people in certain roles, like middle-management for example, who speak with a certain attitude to the people beneath them, but then become all obsequious when dealing with someone in a higher position of authority to themselves. This is no great observation on my part, I am sure, but it illustrates the point. The writer should be mindful of many things if they want to write good dialogue.

Another aspect of dialogue that I try to include is the habit many people have of injecting humour into a given situation, even if it is not obviously appropriate. Humour is a great stress reliever. If you are writing a story in which the characters keep finding themselves in dangerous situations, then you have to ask what is going to be one of their coping mechanisms that allows them to continue? I used a lot of humour in ‘Mesozoic’, mostly in the form of banter between several of the characters. Some pretty violent things happened to these people and an inappropriate laugh seemed to help them get through it. Humour is a universal characteristic and to ignore it in your writing is a mistake.

I will end with a quote from Robert Towne; ‘good dialogue illuminates what people are not saying’. What goes unsaid can be just as important to a good story as every word that appears on the page.