Three Purposes of Dialogue

Perhaps you love dialogue. Perhaps you can’t stand it. But rather you’re writing it or reading it, let’s face it, dialogue is essential in fiction. But why? Why do we need dialogue, and what does it accomplish? I think there are three main purposes of dialogue.

1.) It Advances the Plot

This is tricky. Everyone has read or listened to clunky dialogue that unnaturally pushes the plot along. Instead of showing what happened, someone simply says it (exposition). “Joe, after surviving the car accident last year and feeling that God was giving you a second chance on life, why are you doing drugs again?” Advances the plot? Sure. Ridiculous? Absolutely! But what about this? Two characters encounter each other at a park. As they walk toward one another, they stop. One person says, “Alex, I’m so sorry.” The other character replies, “Don’t be,” and then walks away. Is the character sorry for something they did? Was there an incident that the character knows about and wants to offer condolences? This advances the plot, but it isn’t heavy handed.

2.) It Develops a Character

This is a little more straightforward. Through interactions and dialogue, the reader can begin to understand the identity of different characters. Are they timid around certain people? Do they say one thing to certain people and another to others? Are they verbose? Are they quiet? Are they abusive? Dialogue can be essential in shaping characters.

“How was school today, son?”

“Fine.”

“Just fine?”

“It was fine.”

“How was it fine?”

“It just was, OK?”

“Don’t talk like that to me!”

“Why do you even care?”

“Because I’m your father, and when I ask you a question, I expect a response.”

“Sure. Like I said, it was fine.”

3.) It Entertains

If dialogue isn’t furthering the plot or developing characters, it should at least be entertaining. We’ve all watched movies with ridiculous conversations or scenes that truly have nothing to do with the overall story or read books with zany moments. And even though these conversations don’t fulfill the first two reasons for dialogue, they’re just plain entertaining. We laugh. We roll our eyes. We smile. There are obviously exceptions, but books should be enjoyable, and some authors can make dialogue seem like a roller coaster with fast turns and gut wrenching drops, while others can turn an interaction into a gut-busting fun house.

“You’re bleeding.”

“What? Where?”

“From your mouth?”

“Are you serious? It must have been from flossing too much.”

“Gums don’t bleed from flossing too much.”

“Well, my gums are bleeding and the only thing I can think that happened was my flossing.”

“That means you don’t floss enough.”

“Then my gums would bleed more.”

“No, if you don’t floss much, then your gums will bleed when you finally do.”

“See, that’s why I hardly floss, because my gums will bleed if I do.”

Good dialogue shouldn't be noticed--it should be enjoyed. If you keep these three purposes in mind, you'll be well on your way to writing meaningful dialogue.