This week, while working on a particular tension-filled scene, I found myself stressing over my characters' dialogue. I found myself thinking questions like, "Would she really say it like that?" and, "how can I reveal his discomfort without having him just say it?" When there is so much that needs to be said, but only so much a character would actually voice, I felt the pressure of wanting to capture the weight of the moment accurately with each line a character spoke.
The thing about dialogue is that while characters can say a lot about themselves, there are equally as many things they won't say. Like every person, there is a distinction between a character's thoughts and what he will actually voice. So in writing a scene that so heavily depends on dialogue, you have to be careful to maintain the line between thoughts and speech. Of course, you want your characters to be realistic and only speak dialogue that is authentic to their nature, but then, how do you accurately describe their state of mind, and the tension of the moment, if having them directly state it just doesn't work?
The answer is through a description of their physical movements — all the small ticks and habits and body language that reveals so much about a character. This is what I spent a lot of my week doing, visualizing the thing going on between and around the dialogue. In my scene, which relies so heavily upon dialogue because of the static nature of the office where it takes place, I realized that the physical expression of those words mattered just as much as the words themselves. Although you cannot detail every inflection and tone of a character's voice, well-placed descriptions of how a character looks, or what a character does, can make all the difference.
Visualizing the physical element of dialogue allows you to realize that it is not just about the words that are said, but also how they are said. Because we are limited to the words we put on the page, and cannot insert stage directions or whisper each and every emphasis into the reader's ear, the description of a character's actions becomes vital. In the absence of such stage directions, the expression of a character's subtle movements and tweaks become the guide that allows us to reveal just how a character's dialogue can be read. It gives the reader insight into the tension of the moment, and all the ways we envisioned the scene to come alive.
In my particular scene, my protagonist finds himself in the guidance counselor's office, where they are later joined by his mother. Unlike the previous scene that takes place on the soccer field, there is little movement happening. Everyone sits in chairs. No one is gesticulating wildly. But yet, the way the guidance counselor leans across her desk to portray empathy, and the way he slouches, totally uninterested in her words, and the way his mother fiddles with the clasp on her purse — these are all so important to understanding the scene. They show you what's going on below the surface. They show you how people feel.
You have to be creative about the movements you choose, because you don't want to venture into the cliche. I mean, your character can't sigh every time he feels exasperated, right? And your other impatient character can't just loudly tap her foot throughout the entire book. So you have to ask yourself, if she tilts her head to the side, what does that say? And, what would it mean he if purposely dropped something to the floor just to lean over and get a break from the gaze of his teacher? Scenes that are full of tension, or whatever emotion that lay just below the surface, need the physical description in order to come to life. Yes, the words of the dialogue themselves are so important, and cannot be underestimated, but the things going on around the dialogue are just as important, too.
When further limited by the first-person narration like my story is, you only have that moment to work with. What your characters sees and how he perceives things is all you have. With a distant third person or a third person omniscient, things might be easier. But when you only have that one scene, you need to bring it to life. And life is full of physical movement. So why not use it? It might just tell part of the story for you.
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