by Mike Klaassen

Created on: February 13, 2010

A key ingredient of any scene is the character attempting to achieve a goal.  If the scene is to be interesting, something must thwart, or attempt to thwart, the character's intensions.  Often the character's effort is physical (as in trying to catch bank robbers), but the effort may also be verbal (as in the town marshal's speech to recruit volunteers for a posse).  Dialogue can play a vital role in creating conflict in a scene. 

According to Jordan E. Rosenfeld, in Make a Scene, ". . . characters should want things from each other - information, affection, favors, material goods, and so on.  The act of wanting powers both conflict and drama.  When there's something desired, there is the potential for loss and gain - the essence of good drama.  Dialogue should be, on some level, an act of bartering . . . .  I call this technique tug-of-war."

Peter Selgin, in By Cunning & Craft, adds to this line of thinking when he states that "The essence of most strong dialogue can be distilled down to the following two-word exchange: "Please -" and "No." 

The following scene segment provides an example:

Marshal Cisco raised his hand to silence the saloon-hall crowd.  "Black Bart and his gang have robbed the bank.  I'm forming a posse to apprehend the culprits and return the town's money.  Who'll ride with me?"

"Not me, Marshal.  The last posse to go after Black Bart got shot to pieces!"

"I shouldn't have to remind you," said Cisco, "that the life savings of many of your neighbors was in that bank." 

"Fine," yelled a man, "let them ride after Black Bart." 

"But what about the widows and orphans?"

"Sorry, Marshal, that's why we hired you."

ON-THE-NOSE DIALOGUE

This example demonstrates what Jessica Page Morrell calls on-the-nose dialogue, where characters say exactly what they mean.

James N. Frey, in How to Write a Damn Good Novel, calls this direct dialogue.  “Direct dialogue expresses exactly what is on the character’s mind with no attempt on the part of the character to demur, use subterfuge, lie, be witty, and so on.”

PARALLEL DIALOGUE

The example above also demonstrates parallel dialogue, where (as explained by Gloria Kempton in Dialogue) ". . . each line of one character's dialogue responds to the previous line of the other character's . . . ."

On-the-nose, parallel dialogue has important roles, and doesn't have to be boring.  In Plot & Structure,

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