Did you know that up to 93% of communication is non-verbal? When I learned that fact, it made me wonder how in the world those of us who deal in verbs (and other parts of speech) can authentically capture dialogue in our stories. What I came up with is that there are two main ways we can start to approach dialogue in our stories: through two different kinds of beats.
Two beats for writing dialogue: Pacing and action
The first kind of beat has to do with the pacing of the dialogue. Several years ago, a screenwriter named Cynthia Whitcomb wrote about the Three-Beat-Rule for writing dialogue in The Willamette Writer Newsletter. She says, “the Three-Beat Rule advises writers to have a maximum of three dialogue beats at a time, after which you should insert a dialogue tag, action beat, or another character’s speech. Dialogue ‘beats’ can be understood as the short phrases in speech that you can say without pausing for breath.” (We’ll get to action beats in a minute.)
Take this example from the novel Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey, where I use bolding and italics to show the three different beats in each snippet of dialogue:
“That's me,” I answered. “How did you get that open? I was trying for ages, and–”
“Oh,” he said, “it's easy–you just have to cast an unsealing charm while you pull on this lever. We have to keep it locked, or the kids will sneak in here to steal coffee before first period.”
To begin to grasp the pacing in your dialogue, you’re going to have to read your work out loud, which is still my go-to method for revising anything from tweets to 12-page essays. Once you set up this kind of speech pattern throughout your novel, when you deviate from it–either to shorten it to staccato “yes” and “no” answers, or to ramble on nervously–you will indicate to the reader that something is different with the character and they should pay attention.
Some of our favorite characters from old novels frequently launched into long monologues, but contemporary readers have the different expectations for pacing: We want the important speeches reserved for pivotal scenes in the story.
Now that you have a sense of the importance of pacing in dialogue, let’s look at the other kind of beat: the action beat. This has been described as “the expressions, movements, or even internal thoughts that accompany the speaker’s words. They’re included in the same paragraph as the dialogue, to indicate that the person acting is also the person speaking.”
Simply put, varying these words prevents you from a long line of dialogue ending in “she said.” Check out this example from Sleeping in the Ground by Peter Robinson, where I bold the action beats that break up the dialogue:
“So do I," said Banks. After a short pause he went on. "Anyway, I seem to remember you told me you went to Silver Royd girls’ school in Wortley."
"That’s right. Why?"
"Does the name Wendy Vincent mean anything to you?"
"Yes, of course. She was the girl who was murdered when I was at school. [...] It was terrible."
Banks looked away. He couldn’t help it, knowing the things that had happened to Linda, but she seemed unfazed. "That’s right," he said.
Louise Harnby calls this tactic “the voice breaker,” when different actions break up longer chunks of dialogue.
And one more thing about too much “she said” (or he said, or they said): vary those verbs! There are so many synonyms for “said,” each with their own slightly different connotations. Denote volume by using shouted, yelled, or whispered. Show the speaker’s inflated sense of importance with declared, or their vulnerability with intimated, or their negative attitude with retorted or huffed. Have your characters protest, exclaim, wail, whine, sigh, shriek, offer, or counter, instead of just say.
A writing prompt about dialogue
To practice these dialogue skills, record one half of a phone conversation or a favorite character on a TV show with a voice recorder or memo app. Write out the conversation as dialogue in a short story, keeping in mind Hitchcock’s advice: “Drama is life with the boring bits cut out.” Pare it down to the important statements and play with these two different types of beats to create a new story.
What did you learn about dialogue in this post? Will you try the writing exercise Teneice offered? Share with us in the comments.
Related reading: What is point of view?
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