Delegate Guidebook

It’s not a question of whether or not
somebody will say out loud the truth
that they deeply believe in, it’s just that it
becomes on the nose when there is no
subtext. The only time, generally, when
we write on the nose dialogue without
subtext is in fantasy writing or sci-fi,
where characters are allegorical types-
-hero, villain, etc., allegorical types not
to be mistaken for realistic characters.
In various forms of symbolic writing
we do write on the nose. We eliminate
the subconscious mind, because the
subconscious, or even the unsaid
conscious mind, makes people realistic.
In fantasy, you don’t want realism, you
want symbolism. In those cases you do
write on the nose without a subtext. That
is the exception. The strategy to answer
that question is to put underneath
an awareness, a life underneath the
dialogue, conscious/subconscious drives
the audience can become aware of that
contradicts or contrasts with what the
character is actually saying.
Writers often write in their own
voice. Are there any tricks writers
can use to create more pronounced
and contrasting voices for their
characters?
The goal of any beautiful cast design or
any well-told story is that every character
is distinctively different from every other
character. How great these differences
are between characters depends. But,
obviously you do not want redundancy.
You do not want two people speaking
exactly the same. And you certainly don’t
necessarily want them talking in the
writer’s voice. You want to distinguish
each character and give them an
individual speech style.
The reason we create character specific
voices, even within the same culture, is
to differentiate those characters one from
the other in order to tell the story all the
better, because you avoid redundancy.
If characters react the same, speak
the same, do the same things, if two
characters are repeating each other,
one of them has to be removed from
the story to avoid repetitiousness. Fine
writing is specific writing.
You have to find not your voice as a
writer, but character specific voices and
the key to character specific voices is
vocabulary. You go into the character’s
mind and you look for all of those
objects, all of those actions that are
unique to this character’s experience that
express themself in word choices. There
is grammar and sentence constructions
that could also be character specific.
The place to start is vocabulary. People
differentiate themselves by the choice of
words and they find their choice of words
in their vocabulary, and their vocabulary
is the result of the sum total of their
cultural experience. Every sporting
event they’ve ever attended, every book
they’ve ever read, every concert they’ve
ever been to, every department store
they’ve ever shopped. How they have
lived and interacted with their culture in
every possible way has given them their
specific vocabulary and vocabulary is
the most critical step in making dialogue
character-specific.
Do you have any tips on editing
dialogue so that it lands on the
listener with greater weight?
The famous “omit needless words”
from Strunk and White’s “The Elements
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