Characterisation in Dialogue

How a character speaks can be utilised for the sake of characterisation in a very effective way that shows the reader what kind of person someone is instead of simply telling them in narration. Here are some things you should take into consideration when writing dialogue.

• Accents and dialects

Accents and dialects point to a character’s background and identity. 

JKR’s approach of misspelling words is actually not the most elegant way to write accents. It often has a comic side effect like when Ron talks with his mouth full of food.

This method can go so far as being racist, so be careful with accents and how you portray them. It can infantilize characters with ethnic backgrounds and make it difficult for the reader to read your dialogue.

Other ways to let the reader know that a character speaks with an accent can be adding snippets of their mother tongue (usually hello, yes, no or swear words are not only easy to understand for readers of every background, but are also words we often use without thinking so they can slip in between words of another language). For dialects you can add idioms and phrases from the region they are from. Lastly, another character can notice someone’s accent and you can include it in the narration around the dialogue.

Example:

If you write a Scottish character, they might use certain words that Brits or Americans do not use (like wee, aye, naw etc.).

• Children

Children use different vocabulary than adults; they sometimes use silly words and tend to build less complicated sentences. In real life they might mispronounce words a lot, but in writing you should keep this to a minimum! It can be really annoying to read extended stretches of children talking otherwise. You can either avoid these characters speaking for long stretches of your story or tone it down so it does not interrupt reading flow. 

Tip:

In the HP universe the same goes for Elves as they speak like children. 

The above does not mean you cannot use phonetic spelling for characterisation at all. Just keep in mind that people should still enjoy reading it, and that you give your characters credit; write them as persons and not stereotypes. 

• Speaking patterns

How someone speaks is a great tool for characterisation. 

Example: 

Someone mature and adult speaks in a controlled manner, filtering their language as in avoiding swear words and informal speech. But that does not mean that all adults talk like that. It can tell a lot about an adult character if they speak more like a teenager with colorful words and without filtering how they speak and what they say.

Another thing to consider is erudite language. 

Example:

An educated person may use other words than someone less educated, so you can show the reader how intelligent someone is by the way they are speaking in contrast to others.

Contrast in speaking patterns is something you should go for to make your characters distinct in the way they are talking, the words they use and what they talk about while being silent about other topics.

• The said and the unsaid: how relationships affect conversation topics

There are the things that people talk about versus the things you tell the readers in narration or by writing about the thoughts of a character. People might not lie all the time, but there certainly are a lot of things humans are not comfortable speaking about. 

Example:

Speaking directly about emotions should be something saved for rare occasions and only in contexts where that would be believable.

Often writers tend to advance character relationships too quickly for the sake of plot advancement and let characters talk about very intimate things without developing that relationship properly first. Hence the often used claim of slow-burn romance. It has become a sign for quality in writing as it claims proper character development before plot.

• Show, don’t tell: Exposition through dialogue 

Dialogue is a great tool for exposition as it adds a layer of characterisation to the information delivered to the reader and therefore enriches the exposition with additional information. You should always strive for efficient storytelling, so this is a great method of telling the reader two things at once.

Make sure the characterisation does not come up short, though, as then it quickly becomes an information dump. A help can be to switch between people talking rather than making it a monologue and to insert reactions to the new information.