[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsAFdZRRAFk]
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Yet more brilliant writing from Cormac McCarthy in cinematic form. McCarthy originally wrote No Country for Old Men as a screenplay, so the dialogue you’ve seen here is pretty much directly from the book. And it’s solid.
Beats sit neatly between the lines. Subtext simmers under the spoken words. The dialogue advances Ed Tom Bell’s character and relates to the overarching story.
You could do worse than trying to emulate that.
As I read through the second draft of my novel, I am looking for these things. I’m looking to tune up the dialogue, to make it more relevant, to make it more than just talking.
And so I’ll sit here in the writing shack speaking my lines out loud, searching for cadence and flow and voice. I may even talk in funny accents. Thankfully no one is listening. Yet.
There is plenty of advice on dialogue floating in the ether. Here are a few that should be helpful:
It’s okay if your lips move while you write, just make sure you’re alone.
This is the second blog I visit this week about dialogue and beats…funny how sometimes the blogging world is in synch.
I love this: to make it more relevant, to make it more than just talking.
Everything has to have a purpose in fiction, right? Editing can be so overwhelming for me at times….but it is so worth it!
I love the idea of tying everything together so that nothing is wasted. The doing on the other hand… Well, we’ll see.
You can’t go wrong with Cormac McCarthy as a guide! Or even just paying attention to the vernacular of language. Robert Frost tried to inject his poetry with the New England accent–that unique beat of the East Coast farmers. I hear it in my dad’s voice, as he talks about something he’s excited about. Oh, to capture it in writing!
I feel like my own speech is pretty neutral compared to dialects like your dad’s. Sometimes I think that can be a hindrance to writing honest dialogue. The flip side is that I feel like there’s less bias when I explore other cadences and dialects. It would be neat to see how someone else might characterize my speech.