by Ane Mulligan  @AneMulligan

When I’m teaching about writing dialogue, my first confession is I cut my authorial teeth on dialogue as a playwright. I was the creative arts director for 11 years at my church. We did everything from the 30-second sermon starter to full-length musicals. When I first wrote my first few scripts, my actors often used different words that I’d written, or they changed the sentences around, and even—gasp—dropped words. But I liked what I heard, so I dissected the changes and found the common ground.

I wrote like Snoopy, trying to be literary. Gag. The lines were too perfect and not realistic.

Have you read a book where the dialogue actually pulls you out of the story because it’s so stiff and unbelievable? Or worse, it sounds like an info dump, as if the writer’s saying, “You won’t get this part unless I explain it to you.” Well, thank you Billy Sunday. That’ll make me throw a book across the room faster than a politician can empty your wallet.

A lot of books can teach you about writing realistic dialogue, but this post is about writing banter. Those fun little conversations that ping pong.

Writing banter isn’t easy. You have to cut out a while lot of words! One problem is found in the way characters answer questions.

[tweet_box design=”default” float=”none” inject=”#Writing #Writinglife #BRMCWC”]Tips On Writing Banter by @AneMulligan on @BRMCWC[/tweet_box]

If you aren’t sure how the characters would really talk, go to a local mall and hang out in the food court and eavesdrop. Listen to the half sentences, colloquialisms, and especially to the way people answer questions.

“Good morning, Bob. Where are you headed this fine morning?”

“Good morning, John. I’m going to the hardware store to get a new float for the toilet.”

First of all, we don’t really care about Bob’s toilet, unless his four-year-old flushed the latest Wiki-leaks state secrets. A bit more realistic might sound like this:

“Morning, Bob. Where you off to?”

“Hardware store.”

“Anything I can help with?”

“I got it.”

“Okay, holler if you need me.”

That’s how two neighboring men would have this conversation. If it were women, it still wouldn’t be complete sentences, but it might go something like this:

“Morning, Sally. Going shopping?”

“Macy’s is having a huge sale, and you know those new slip cover I got for the den sofa? John ruined it with cranberry juice.”

“I hear you. Bob got mustard on my bedspread. Why can’t they be more careful?”

“I think it’s in their genes.”

“Yeah, he got mustard on those, too.”

Anyway, you can see how their conversation veered off the main track. Another thing in romance is build conflict in dialogue. Jenny B. Jones is great at this. A few lines from Save the Date illustrate this point well:

“Do you know anything about football?”

“You toss around a ball and throw people to the ground. What else is there to know?”

“Okay then, what’s a birdcage?”

“The name of the bar where you met your last girlfriend?”

“A cut?”

“A fantasy I have involving your throat.”

She never answered his questions seriously and he kept asking instead of commenting on what she said. It was brilliant dialogue for building character and a great example of verbal Ping-Pong.

How about you? Do you have any great examples of natural dialogue that has stuck with you and helped you write better?

Ane Mulligan lives life from a director’s chair, both in theatre and at her desk, creating novels. Entranced with story by age three, at five, she saw PETER PAN onstage and was struck with a fever from which she never recovered—stage fever. One day, her passions collided, and an award-winning, bestselling novelist emerged. She believes chocolate and coffee are two of the four major food groups and lives in Sugar Hill, GA, with her artist husband and a rascally Rottweiler. Find Ane on her website, Amazon Author page, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, The Write Conversation, and Blue Ridge Conference Blog.