“It is important to craft your character in such a way that they have distinctive voices that the reader can identify, to help the reader understand who is telling the story.”
You reveal your characters through their actions, thoughts, and the way they speak. The choice of words is what makes identify and discover the character.
Combine what is interesting and provocative with what is true and real. Art and artifact. This is the art of crafting conversations.
Don’t use too many adverbs. Too many adverbs move the attention of the reader from what is said to how it is said. Adverbs are usually used to express the way things are said, instead of letting the dialogue work by itself.
Adverbs are useful when the conversation is not going in the direction expected by the words used. I love you, she said angrily. I hate your guts, he said sweetly. Then an adverb is necessary as it creates surprise. But I love you, she said sweetly, or I hate your guts, he said angrily, here adverbs are redundant.
You need to trust yourself as a writer and the reader as a reader that the message is clear from the words in the dialogue only. Do not overexplain by using adverbs.
Book: the art of character, by David Corbett.
Dialogue can lead the scene by itself, and when it can you should let it do it.
Use context, always. The characters might do something while they are having the conversation. An action between one phrase and the other helps breaking the rythm of the dialogue and provides context.
A short story: The Dead, by James Joyce.
Hills like white elephants, by E. Heminguay.
GetSomeSky 