Some writers have trouble with dialogue. Others would write entire novels as dialogue if their editors would let them get away with it. One type of fiction writer stumbles into the bad habit of having characters chatter on like monkeys, going nowhere but having a lovely time. (Mea culpa: My first drafts are full of such talk. What can I say? It’s fun to write.) I know authors who admit they are never comfortable moving out of the narration and into the imperfections of believable speech to carry the plot forward.

A few things I’ve picked up about dialogue from the fine writers I’ve encountered over the years. I don’t always get it right myself, but I try to keep in mind:

1. Real people use conversational shortcuts and don’t speak in sentences.

2. Real people don’t always answer the questions they’ve just been asked.

3. Real people interrupt each other, don’t listen carefully, and go off on tangents.

4. Real people sometimes don’t speak what’s on their minds – they use physical gestures and expressions for all or part of their meanings.

5. Real people shout and whine. Tone of voice can be the key and yet writers (particularly Americans) are advised to use nothing other than “said” to tag the conversation, instead conveying anger, fear, pleasure and the range of emotions by what is said, and avoiding the (perceived) laziness of a cornucopia of adverbs or words that only imply speech, like “breathed,” “snorted,” or “raged.”

6. Real people say “hello” and “goodbye,” and “please” and “thank you,” but writers and readers will assume those niceties at the proper places. Boring the reader with strings of polite chirps is a no-no.

There are other pieces of good advice, and I’d be delighted if you add some here. In the meantime, who do you think writes great dialogue? I’d love to do a follow up with a handful of favorites – and why they work.

Last Sunday, one of my – and everyone’s – favorite crime writers and an all around nice person, Sophie Littlefield, won an Anthony Award for Best First Novel, for A Bad Day for Sorry (2009). She visited my blog several months ago to talk about the book, the unorthodox main character, and what she has planned as sequels. If you missed the post, or didn’t catch her name then, I’m giving you a second chance because she’s a name to be reckoned with, and you won’t want to forget her. So, in her honor today, Sophie Redux.

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Sophie Littlefield is a burst-onto-the-scene success who actually has been working at her craft for many years. She’s active in Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and Romance Writers of America, unfailingly collegial with other crime writers, and possessed of a self-deprecatory sense of humor.

SCS: Your first book, A BAD DAY FOR SORRY (2009), garnered considerable positive attention and a number of award nominations. And, now, it’s out in paperback, sure to bring you more fans.  How did you settle on a 50-year old victim of spousal abuse as your lead series character?

SL: Stella Hardesty is a plain, plump, rural housewife who shocks her entire community by taking out her abusive husband after 30 years of marriage – and then she surprises herself by discovering that she’s good at delivering justice for other abused women. She’s really a hodge-podge of many of my own interests. Middle age became a lot more interesting to me when I arrived there myself, and there is a dearth of interesting middle-aged heroines that a reader can truly root for, so I set out to create one. Issues of image – particularly the disconnect between real women and society’s messages about self-worth being attached to how hot one is – are on my mind because I am raising a daughter. And as for making Stella the owner of a sewing shop, some readers might be surprised to know that I am a very skilled seamstress and quilter, though I don’t have time for much sewing these days!

SCS: Stella made me a little nervous at first  – she seemed comfortable inflicting pain when it wasn’t in self-defense. Did you have any doubts about casting her as a hero?

SL: I’m a bit of a contrarian – make that an irritable contrarian. I had noticed that we accept a great deal of violence in film and on TV from men, while women are rarely able to be violent without getting punished for it, even when the violence is justified. So while I am not a violent person or even an advocate for vigilantism, I was intrigued and irritated by the unfairness of it all, and Stella’s badassery grew out of that.

If you can have action films in which the hero blows away dozens of human beings and audiences barely blink an eye, why can’t we have a heroine who dishes out comeuppance to those who truly deserve it – the worst of the worst? (And it will probably come as no surprise to readers that I think people who prey on those who are weaker than themselves are true scumbags.)

SCS: You’ve mentioned having written nine, I think, other novels before A BAD DAY FOR SORRY sold? Were they mysteries? Was Stella in any of them? Will we see any of them in print?

SL: Before writing SORRY, I wrote, in order: five romance novels (one of which was, um, “extra spicy”); two women’s fiction novels, one of which topped 170,000 words; and one police procedural. Also around two dozen true confessions and an equal number of literary and crime short stories.

I’ve always read very broadly, but I went through periods of focusing on different things and I generally wrote what I was reading. I spent my early adulthood reading mostly literary fiction and short story collections. Then I read women’s fiction and romance for a long time. Then I got more interested in crime fiction, mysteries and thrillers.

I am fond of my police procedural, which featured a young Pakistani-American detective and was set in suburban San Francisco, where I currently live. I could definitely see revisiting that cast of characters, probably with a different story.

There are one or two short stories which I occasionally wonder about, whether they could carry a whole novel. That’s how Stella got her start, actually.  In the original short story, she was actually able to talk to the dead, in addition to owning a vengeance business. Also, it was set in the Nevada desert, rather than Missouri. I love that story!  My brother read it and said “hey, you have a book here!”

SCS: The sequel, A BAD DAY FOR PRETTY (2010), is just out to great reviews.  Congratulations! Are there more Stella books in the works?

SL: Yes, thanks for asking, Susan! The third and fourth books will be out in spring of ’11 and ’12. I’m still working on the fourth, but the third has a fun plot that may or may not feature some gentlemen escorts. Also, Stella’s daughter Noelle makes an important discovery about herself that causes everyone a little consternation.

(Sophie’s web site:      http://www.sophielittlefield.com/ )

Day 1

Actually, the thrills begin the evening before when, walking to the hotel from drinks and catch-up with such fine writers as Sophie Littlefield, Juliet Blackwell, and Cornelia Read, I see S.J. Rozen (who is short) chatting animatedly with a tall man I don’t recognize. He’s tall enough to make her look even shorter, which reminds me that she’s apparently a hell of a basketball player in addition to being a hell of a good writer.

Checking into the hospitality suite, being staffed by the Bay Area’s Sisters in Crime chapter the next morning, I bump into Camille Minichino (Margaret Grace to craft mystery lovers), Cindy Sample, Simon Wood, and several other SinC writers.

Squinting to read the schedule without digging around for my glasses, I see that myery maven Janet Rudolph, Avery Aames, book blogger Jen Forbus, Hilary Davidson, and Gar Anthony Haywood are all on panels in the morning. But not, alas, on the same one. How to choose?

I’m so distracted by the presence of large numbers of the tribe that I walk right past my agent, who is kind and forgiving, for which I am grateful. A handful of Kimberley Cameron’s clients are at this convention and she’s trying to be everywhere at once, too, to support us all.

Exchange industry gossip with some pre-published writers who are scoping out agents, then off to take part on a kind of non-panel panel called “continuous conversations,” with a handful of other debut authors.

After lunch, Kelli Stanley does an expert job of moderating a panel of outstanding writers and wits on translating books to film. Val McDermid, as always, has a fan club in attendance. Easy to understand why: she’s funny, smart, a real pro, and she speaks with a Scottish accent that’s just – I hate to say it – adorable.

Then the awards program and I’ll leave it to others to fill you in – good books and worthy writers – and that includes the other nominees. I need to get to bed so I can get back to the hotel early for Day 2.

I attended a writers’ workshop last weekend. I don’t do that often, perhaps not often enough. Seven of us read portions of our novels out loud, 10 pages each day. Some of us handed out copies, a few didn’t. For me, saying the words on the page to a group of mostly strangers listening with critical ears was pretty much a new experience for me. They sat, pencils quivering, listening for what worked –  or didn’t. I was curious, excited, eager for feedback from others who labor over the keyboard much as I do, struggling for the best way to characterize someone, to get into and out of a scene smoothly, to capture and hold a reader’s attention.

Writers are always being told that it’s important to read our work out loud, especially dialogue. Favorite writers and teachers like Cara Black and David Corbett harp on the importance of this part of writing and revising. Each time I hear that, I promise myself I will; but then the pressure of deadlines or an itch to revise something one more time interferes. With 75,000 words at issue, it takes time, lots of time. The writing group I’m part of is wonderful, but we read big chunks of each others’ work in advance and spend our time together sharing feedback and suggestions.

Last night, I saw “The Social Network,” a new film with a script by my favorite screenwriter, Aaron Sorkin, and the light bulb went on. His dialogue is truer than true – casual, real, stripped of what obscures the essence of the message without sounding forced or fictional for even a moment. There’s a wonderful rhythm to it, speed when speed is what you need, long pauses when characters who need to process something are thinking, snippets of real humor that are so telling.

I have no idea if Sorkin reads dialogue out loud or if he’s so damn good at writing it that he hears it fully formed as his fingers hit the keyboard. But I love listening to his characters talk and have decided to use his dialogue as a writer’s tool. I’ll listen to his characters “read” a scene from one of my DVDs of “West Wing” and then I’ll read out loud a scene in my new book.  I figure it’ll be our own private workshop, a way for me to hear my own words critically, and in the context of writing I admire.

I’m taking a break from my weekly blog and attending an intensive writing workshop. To make up for it, I promise to bring back some nuggets of advice or how-to suggestions next Friday from the experience.