6 Ways Dialogue Reveals Characterization
In truth, there are infinite ways dialogue reveals characterization, but, for the sake of article, I’m going to cover some of the most common and useful ones.
Building Characterization through Dialogue
Dialect
Let’s get the obvious out of the way and talk about dialects or accents (don’t get nitpicky with me now, linguists). Dialogue is a wonderful way to establish what region a character is from based on accent. Granted, unless you’re an accent expert, and so is your reader, it’s not going to be that specific – that character is from Newcastle. Just read how they talk! They have to be!
No, it’s more general than that, but you do get a kind of feel for the area where they grew up by the accent they use to speak.
Nationality
Accent gives away nationality to an extent, but so does syntax. People from different countries speak English a bit differently. They use different phrases, and they may even order the parts of their sentences differently. That can be because they’re translating their original language to English, which can result in various quirks, or because English is spoken differently where they’re from.
For example, in Spanish, you don’t make a decision, you take a decision. So people who learned Spanish first often translate that idea into English. And English speakers tend to translate their version into Spanish.
Here’s how the same sentence might be worded differently in two different English-speaking countries:
- United States – We went shopping two days ago and stopped at a great Indian place for dinner.
- Ireland – We went round to the shops the other night and had a lovely curry while we were out.
It’s the same thing, but it isn’t. That’s one reason being well-traveled (or at least watching tv from different countries) can be very useful for a writer.
Grammar
Some of us love grammar. Some don’t. Some of us have learned not to show off our knowledge of grammar in our speech. Others haven’t (And the rest of us immediately had a list of people come to mind, didn’t we?).
When building characterization with grammar, you’re actually looking at two aspects:
- How closely the character has to follow grammar rules (Do they have to speak properly all the time? Do they say things like, “It is I?” Do they have to correct themselves if they make a mistake?)
- Does the character try to enforce grammar rules on others? (Sometimes, people just have one or two pet peeves that they always correct – like saying “library” if someone says “liberry.” Other people correct anything and everything they consider bad grammar.)
Oh, and remember: just because they think they know grammar really well doesn’t mean that they actually do. That can lead to all kinds of interesting moments.
Formality
One trick writers use to make characters seem alien or outcast is to make them use no contractions. They have to say everything broken down into individual words, which is very formal and not how most people speak. In fact, especially with dialect, writers often include contractions that aren’t legitimized by a dictionary. Making the speech even less formal. Because that’s how many people talk.
Other levels of formality can include how you address other people (especially elders), words or topics considered inappropriate for the current audience, etc. Some of that falls under propriety (see below), but propriety is also an aspect of situational formality. Most people become more or less formal depending on their surroundings and audience.
Propriety
There are two kinds of propriety important for characterization. One is situational propriety (as mentioned above), and the other is personal propriety.
Situational propriety is feeling something is inappropriate to the circumstances – like not talking about sex in front of your parents. Personal propriety is feeling something is inappropriate to discuss at all – like not talking about sex ever.
It doesn’t have to be related to sex although a lot of cultural proprieties are. Other examples include cursing, personal finances, health concerns, what’s appropriate discussion at dinner, and more. People often have very specific beliefs about propriety. And people from different social strata or religious beliefs may have very different rules around what should or shouldn’t be said or done.
It’s not always what a character does that tells the reader about them. Sometimes, it’s what they don’t do or refuse to do.
Patience
Any character trait can be revealed through dialogue, but patience and impatience are some of the strongest. Dialogue tactics for this are…
- The speed at which they talk,
- How often they interrupt,
- Their endurance for silences or pauses, and
- How often they tell people to hurry up or just give up on the matter.
There are many ways to show this trait through dialogue. For example, an impatient character isn’t going to sit still and listen while another character says a whole paragraph. They’re going to interrupt that monologue. Or, if they can’t be that rude, they’re going to physically show their impatience. A patient character, on the other hand, might listen to multiple paragraphs with only a sentence here or there in response.
And More
There are more than these 6 strategies to reveal characterization through dialogue. There’s age, religion, quirks, interests/obsessions, speech impediments, mental disorders, and more still. Basically, any aspect of the character could be revealed through dialogue.
These 6 are just the basics, and I would argue that you can use them to cover all the other aspects you want. What do you think? Do you use these areas when writing dialogue?
