Writing Wednesday: The Handy Book of Villainous Dialogue

Today's Writing Wednesday post was inspired by one of my critique partners, Lori, and some very well-worded critique for a recent chapter I had just gotten back (the title above was also a brainchild of hers and it was too awesome not to use *shifty eyes*). Anyhow, jumping right in.



One of the danger zones when fleshing out characters is the overuse of cliches and cliche-like dialogue. The heroes talking like heroes, the damsel in distress talking like damsels in distress, and the villains talking like, well, the villains. *laughs* This creates a one-layered depth to the character - something that would either:
a) incite some eye-rolling from the reader
b) make them stop reading completely because the characters seem so predictable or
c) wonder what the hell they're still doing reading something that feels like it's been overdone loads of times when they could be watching the new episode of True Blood instead.
-.-

All those aforementioned things = BAD

So how do you, as a writer, break those cliches so that your characters are multidimensional? Maybe insert a scene where the main antagonist shows a weakness that might make the reader sympathetic to their cause or to them in general? Or how about a quirk or a past indiscretion in the main character that isn't so heroic or even likable?

For example, instead of the hero jumping in to save the someone from a fire and then coming out unscathed with that heroic glow and ta-da! pose, they can stumble inside, maybe break a limb or two, go into a dialogue or monologue scene where their fears and anxieties would be displayed for all to see, and then stagger out after having saved whoever they were jumping in there to save. And holy cow, that was a long sentence. *laughs* Anyway, I digress. But you get the point, right?

Let me share the little snippet that got this train of thought rolling (and also made me snort out coffee that I was drinking at the time *glares at Lori for making me laugh while liquids were in my presence*):

"It is you who shall burn. Your God cannot save you once the Great Three have been awakened." William’s expression was triumphant, his sneer revealing long canines. "The time has come for a new order."

Don't laugh. Okay, I did, but yeah, don't laugh. *wiggles an accusing finger at all the laughing people* I already knew this was going to get some heat from my awesomesauce CPs just because of the very fact that I pictured a very sinister-looking, mustache-twirling cliche villain when I wrote this. Granted, this snippet was an excerpt from my first draft, but still. That character - SO not the sinister-looking, mustache-twirling cliche villain. At least not conceptually. But the way he came out on paper gave him that air of "one-layered dimension" and I can see how it would make someone blurt out "OMG, did he really just say THAT?". *crickets*



Moral of the story? Try to think out of the box. The villains don't have to all be completely evil and the heroes don't have to all be completely good. There's a battle between good and evil in all people (in my humble opinion) and that should show in all characters in some form or another. Which means, actions AND dialogue. I always try to read back dialogue out loud just to see how it sounds outside of my brain, but I do have my moments when the cliches sneak in there all stealthy and ninja-like. It's especially hard when you're trying to show that part of a character that marks them as either the protag or antag without going full out cliche.



How do you feel about dialogue cliches and have you ever caught yourself writing them?

And now for our regularly-scheduled pretty...

Writing Wednesday: Dialogue

One of my favorite things to write is dialogue. This is where I get to show how the characters interact, it's how I develop the characters' individual voices, and frankly, I'm a big fan of snark and anywhere I'm given a free pass to let it out, I take it with eager fingers. LOL Also, sometimes the characters steal that free pass from me and run with it. I'd be a fool not to jot that down.


Certainly, there are other ways to show character interaction besides dialogue and other ways to show a character's personality, but there's just something about the way dialogue is phrased that can completely change the tension in the story, or add certain emotional reactions that you can't get with just action and character tendencies.


Don't get me wrong - not all dialogue is good. There are some that are just laugh out loud ridiculous. Serious moment ruined by a cheesy line, anyone? I'm not going to give any examples of those because frankly, it's not nice. LOL I mean, I've written some pretty shotty dialogue myself and I would be mortified if I found it as an example on some random person's blog somewhere in interwebville.

But I digress.

Dialogue, if written with the right touch, can turn even the cheesiest of lines into gold. Here are a few examples:

Scarlett: Cathleen, who's that?
Cathleen Calvert: Who?
Scarlett: That man looking at us and smiling. The nasty, dark one.
Cathleen Calvert: My dear, don't you know? That's Rhett Butler. He's from Charleston. He has the most terrible reputation.
Scarlett: He looks as if... as if he knows what I look like without my shimmy.

I loved this exchange between these two characters because even though Rhett isn't in this conversation, the insinuation that is built in and the references that are shown in these six lines gave a great set up to what you would expect from our dear Captain Butler.

Anne: She is out foolin' around with that boy until two o'clock in the morning and it has got to stop! I didn't spend seventeen years of my life raising a daughter and giving her EVERYTHING so she could throw it away on a summer romance!
Young Allie: DADDY!
Anne: She will wind up with her heart broken or pregnant! Now he's a nice boy, but he's...
Young Allie: He's WHAT? He is what? Tell me!
Anne: He is trash! Trash! Trash! Not for you!

This dialogue is great because I could absolutely feel the tension between these characters. The repetition of some of the phrases amplified their meaning, as though the characters were trying to ingrain what they were saying into the other person.

How do you guys feel about dialogue? How important do you think the right phrasing is to the flow of dialogue in a story?

SIDE NOTE: I might be holding my very first contest soon. The prize is yet to be determined, but it's just something fun I wanted to do that relates to dialogue. Possibly for next week's Writing Wednesday post. :D STAY TUNED!!

Writing Wednesday: Dialogue Tags - Another He Said/She Said Post!

When I started writing, like really writing, a few years ago, I didn't know what the hell I was doing. I'm sure most of you can relate. All I had was a story that I wanted to get out using the limited knowledge I had at the time. Since deciding to pool the unlimited internet resources available to me, I've realized how very unprepared I was and how the smallest of things can really make a difference in someone's writing.

Someone once told me after reading my first chapter that one of the tells of a new writer was the overuse of varying dialogue tags. So what did I do? Of course I listened right away, right? Um. Nope. I, again, pored through all of my favorite books to validate what this very knowledgeable person had told me from page one. Suffice to say, she was right. *already kind of knew it, but felt the need to read through my favorite books anyway...innocent whistle*

Not only did she point out the overuse of dialogue tags, but gave me reasons why they distracted from the story and why they should be used sparingly. It's sort of like when you have a perfectly good recipe for soup or *insert food item here* and oversalt or over*insert condiment here* it. The story is the soup. The unnecessary loadage of crap is the salt. Savvy? (That just made me think of Jack Sparrow...tee hee)

Let me give you an example:

"Lyra!" I exclaimed in surprise and grabbed my sister by the arm. "You're so going to get in trouble with Dad!"

"Not if you don't tell him!" Lyra hissed back.

"What did you do anyway?" I inquired, trying to keep myself contained.

"It was nothing. Just some stupid prank that got out of hand," Lyra replied, looking away with that guilty look in her eyes.

Now, without the unnecessary baggage:

"Lyra!" I grabbed my sister by the arm. "You're so going to get in trouble with Dad!"

"Not if you don't tell him!" Lyra hissed.

"What did you do anyway?"

"It was nothing. Just some stupid prank that got out of hand." She looked away, her expression guilt-ridden.

Okay, you have to forgive the examples. Coming up with them on the fly is harder than it seems. LOL But do you see what I mean? I know that looking through my first chapter again after I changed something as small as the characters' dialogue tags helped with story flow. I didn't realize just how much of a distraction they were. I'm not saying not to use a variety. But like so many before me have said, use those variations sparingly.

Here are some great links to more on dialogue tags:

Susan Dennard's Blog
Kiersten White's Blog
And a personal favorite of mine - My ever so frawesomesaucefull CP Lori Lee's Blog

How do you guys feel about dialogue tags?

And now for our daily eye candy *le swoon*: