（外文电子版资料）SK.OnWriting2.doc

PAGE PAGE 45 – 7 – Let us now talk a little bit about dialogue, the audio portion of our programme. It’s dialogue that gives your cast their voices, and is crucial in defining their characters — only what people do tells us more about what they’re like, and talk is sneaky: what people say often conveys their character to others in ways of which they — the speakers — are completely unaware. You can tell me via straight narration that your main character, Mistuh Butts, never did well in school, never even went much to school, but you can convey the same thing, and much more vividly, by his speech . . . and one of the cardinal rules of good fiction is never tell us a thing if you can show us, instead: “What you reckon?” the boy asked. He doodled a stick in the dirt without looking up. What he drew could have been a ball, or a planet, or nothing but a circle. “You reckon the earth goes around the sun like they say?” “I don’t know what they say,” Mistuh Butts replied. “I ain’t never studied what thisun or thatun says, because eachun says a different thing until your head is finally achin and you lose your aminite.” “What’s aminite?” the boy asked. “You don’t never shut up the questions!” Mistuh Butts cried. He seized the boy’s stick and snapped it. “Aminite is in your belly when it’s time to eat! Less you sick! And folks say I’m ignorant!” “Oh, appetite,” the boy said placidly, and began drawing again, this time with his finger. Well-crafted dialogue will indicate if a character is smart or dumb (Mistuh Butts isn’t necessarily a moron just because he can’t say appetite; we must listen to him awhile longer before making up our minds on that score), honest or dishonest, amusing or an old sobersides. Good dialogue, such as that written by George V. Higgins, Peter Straub, or Graham Greene, is a delight to read; bad dialogue is deadly. Writers have different skill levels when it comes to dialogue. Your skills in this area can be improved, but, as a great man once said (ac