Bad dialogue?

[ThisAdamGuy]

How much can badly written dialogue take you out of a story? Is it a mild annoyance you can overlook if the plot is good enough? Can it absolutely ruin a story for you? Do you even notice it at all?

For me, nothing ruins a story as fast as badly written dialogue. I can overlook a few problems if I can see potential in the story, but if I find myself thinking "That's not how people talk!" it's unlikely I'll get past the first chapter. The best example that comes to mind is Animorphs. I was a young teen when I tried to read the first book, and I had to put it down when the main characters saw a UFO and their reaction was to start making wisecracks.

 

[NotaNuffian]

How much can badly written dialogue take you out of a story? Is it a mild annoyance you can overlook if the plot is good enough? Can it absolutely ruin a story for you? Do you even notice it at all?

For me, nothing ruins a story as fast as badly written dialogue. I can overlook a few problems if I can see potential in the story, but if I find myself thinking "That's not how people talk!" it's unlikely I'll get past the first chapter. The best example that comes to mind is Animorphs. I was a young teen when I tried to read the first book, and I had to put it down when the main characters saw a UFO and their reaction was to start making wisecracks.

Yeah I agree.

If the theme doesn't fit, it is jarring.

Either that or they are trying to say that MC is way too jaded for this shit.

 

[Tempokai]

What makes a good dialogue is context. No matter the content, if the context is trash even if the dialogue is Shakespearean in quality it will fail to matter. The meaning of a word is in its use, and if the usage fails to adhere to context, it will fail as a written dialogue.

 

[Kitsuna]

Context matters, but it’s not everything. If the dialogue’s fun, flows well, and feels true to the characters, it’ll work. That said, writing dialogue that actually matches the characters? Not easy. Sometimes breaking the rules makes it even better, though. It’s about what feels right, not just what’s ‘correct.’ And honestly, what’s the point of writing if there’s no fun in it?

 

[Valmond]

Context matters, but it’s not everything. If the dialogue’s fun, flows well, and feels true to the characters, it’ll work. That said, writing dialogue that actually matches the characters? Not easy. Sometimes breaking the rules makes it even better, though. It’s about what feels right, not just what’s ‘correct.’ And honestly, what’s the point of writing if there’s no fun in it?

This varies as well, it is typically about context. As what is ‘True to the characters’?

A character that grows will show a difference in the dialogues as it goes along.

My lead for instance starts off cautious, with very low trust in others. By the end of the series, they are much more open, and you actually see them truly having fun.

Though, when the situation calls for it. They can flip the switch, reminding on what weight they actually hold.

Character evolution relies on context. As a result, there isn’t a ‘True’ or ‘Correct’ way to write it.

Now, writing what feels right is also factored into this. If it flows well with the context, and stays consistent to the development, it’ll just work.

Though, the same is true otherwise. Even if it feels right, if it is not holding true to the context and consistency, it’ll lead to problems. That I know from experience.

 

[Representing_Tromba]

Bad dialogue takes me out of a story more than anything else. I can deal with poor descriptions, bad spelling, and even some grammar mistakes(some are too agregious to look past) but poor dialogue will snap me out of it immediately.

 

[ignova]

Generally, good dialogue is invisible, so you don't notice it unless you're deliberately looking. (An exception would be certain styles going for that Jane Austen or Oscar Wilde flavour of witticism.) Bad dialogue is hyper-visible.

I'm OK with utilitarian dialogue, so long as it's not super 'visible.' When I see obvious info dumps or weird contrivances, though, I get cranky.

 

[Anonjohn20]

if I find myself thinking "That's not how people talk!"

That's a slippery slope. In general, story dialogue is always too clean. In real life, people misspronounce things, polyglots can forget a word in one of the languages they speak, misunderstandings are common as people only hear what they want to hear, people interrupt each other, they say things they don't mean, and rely way too much on body language (at least for my tastes), while in stories the dialogue is always super clean and clear unless it benefits the plot for there to be a misunderstanding or whatever. While an author can express facial gestures and body language, they seldom focus on every subtle change in it as they need to continue the story.

As for dialogue I dislike: massive random infodumps that were unprompted.

 

[Valmond]

That's a slippery slope. In general, story dialogue is always too clean. In real life, people misspronounce things, polyglots can forget a word in one of the languages they speak, misunderstandings are common as people only hear what they want to hear, people interrupt each other, they say things they don't mean, and rely way too much on body language (at least for my tastes), while in stories the dialogue is always super clean and clear unless it benefits the plot for there to be a misunderstanding or whatever. While an author can express facial gestures and body language, they seldom focus on every subtle change in it as they need to continue the story.

As for dialogue I dislike: massive random infodumps that were unprompted.

“And so, in the ravaging fury. The discontent set in, their voices reverberating in the forums. Each wishing to have their opinions heard. In the last of it, the undying raging inferno in their deep hearts came free. Now they are on the surface, providing a slight moment of clarity.”

 

[Deleted member 84247]

Type of dialogue I dislike most is infodump and same with infodumping in narration. If I can skip whole paragraphs of infodumping and still understand everything, then you should trim the story.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

It varies - sometimes bad dialogue actually works (Stephen Brust's paean to "The Three Musketeers" - "The Phoenix Guard" - is rife with dialogue so awful it KNOWS it and makes a joke of it, while inviting the reader to have fun as well. Even so.). But USUALLY it is the breaking point. Usually.

 

[ThisAdamGuy]

I tried to read Phantoms by Dean Koontz a few years ago, and one of the opening chapters involves a woman having a lengthy conversation with a teenage girl, and I distinctly remember thinking "I have never been more aware of the fact that somebody is not a teenage girl than I am right now." I wish I still had the book so I could share it with you guys, but I threw it into the Goodwill donations pile so fast I'm surprised the binding didn't come undone.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I tried to read Phantoms by Dean Koontz a few years ago, and one of the opening chapters has involves a woman having a lengthy conversation with a teenage girl, and I distinctly remember thinking "I have never been more aware of the fact that somebody is, in fact, not a teenage girl than I am right now." I wish I still had the book so I could share it with you guys, but I threw it into the Goodwill donations like so fast im surprised the binding didn't come undone.

Koontz keeps writing the same blasted story over and over. Different character names, sometimes the broken person is male, sometimes female, sometimes the innocent is a child, a teen or an animal, and sometimes the victim is male, other times female. He only deviated from this in the Odd Thomas books.
But the formula is this:
Introduce something that looks supernatural.
Throw the Victim in its way. Either the Innocent saves the Victim or causes the Victim to get into trouble. The Broken Character gets involved. Broken Character and Victim fall in love at some point, and discover that the thing that looked supernatural is actually the result of scientists Researching Things Man Was Not Meant to Know(TM).
The Watchers was probably his best written book with this template. The most original was Lightning. But Phantoms, Midnight and one other one I read all followed this perfectly.

Another author that I keep waffling on trying something else by but always shying away is David Baldacci. Read The Innocent - pacing, plot, character sketches? Absolutely top notch. Dialogue? Feels like the only time he's ever seen anyone ever talk to anyone else is in 80s action movies and all the characters sound like that is where they belong.

 

[sbdrag]

I can reconstruct the sound of people talking in my head so dialogue that I can't get a clear cadence or style from will take me right out of a story. Especially if I'm reading fanfic, because I can "hear" the character's exact voice in my head - so anything distinctly out of character, I can't "hear" anything.

But like others have said, it's contextual - if it matches the rest of the story, if it matches who the character is supposed to be, etc. Read one book where one of the two MCs was supposed to have been kicked out by her parents at 18 and living on the streets for a while and... still talked like a naive young woman who had never done any of that. It wasn't badly written dialogue, so I soldiered through because I really enjoyed the second POV, but... if it had only been her, I would have DNFed for the disconnect.