I'm just returned from a writers conference where I led a workshop called "'You Talking To Me?' Why Less Really Does Mean More When It Comes to Dialogue."

I'd been meaning to put my ideas about dialogue in a coherent form for some time, and the 90 minute class provided exactly the right opportunity. In boiling down dialogue's essential place in fiction, I was surprised to see how many of the same rules apply to dialogue in prose that I used as a playwright, writing scripts. As I see it, then, there are five essential purposes for dialogue:

1) To illustrate INTENTION (illuminating character goals, sometimes directly expressed but otherwise through sub-text)

2) To allow ACTION v. REACTION (no response is still a reaction), which creates a progressive dynamic in your story. This dynamic provides tension/conflict and illuminates the obstacles to characters' goals/intentions

3) To illustrate RELATIONSHIPS. Answers the question of Emotional Control -- who has it and why? (Conflict, intentions)

4) To provide VOICE (illuminating character origins & background, attitudes, state-of-mind)

5) To provide EXPOSITION (illuminates essential plot information… but exposition must be used sparingly!)

I'll talk about each one of these purposes in detail beginning with the next blog post. Stay tuned!