The Importance Of Dialogue

Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter — What if? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers prompts —

The Exercise —

Highlight the dialogue in a story by a writer you admire. Then determine how much dialogue is summarized rather than presented in quotation marks.

Next, set up a situation in which one character is going on and on about something — complaining about grades, arguing with a spouse about the children, or recounting an accident to a friend. Summarize the dialogue, occasionally interspersing it with comments and stage directions.

The Objective —

To understand what summarized dialogue accomplishes and how it affects tone, pace, and the shaping of a scene.

Author’s Note 1: Highway, Tomson. The Rez Sisters. First produced in 1986.

Many years after the first production of The Rez Sisters, I was in the play at Bemidji State University. I had no intention of being in a play beyond college. Well, I thought maybe after I retired, I might give theatre a try, but I was doubtful.

My sister, an artist, who was working with Native American students at the college at the time, talked me into being in the play. She said it is an all Indian cast and she was recruiting the cast from her friends for the Director.

After the play, the director said the Native American cast was the best group he had ever directed. I always thought it was because we had to live in two worlds and were like chameleons because of that.

She said to me, “Remember that photo of you sitting on the potty chair?” I said yes, because we laughed about it more than once—training pants around my ankles with a hat on my head. Then she said, “Could you sit on stage in a similar position for a scene in this Rez Sister play? I think you could and wouldn’t that be fun?”

When that wasn’t doing it she said, “Will you do it for me? I think you owe me a favor or two.” She didn’t tell me that the character was one of the main characters who had lots of parts and spent time on a roof, and wore a dress for the majority of the play.

Those sisters are my Rez Sisters to this day as we bonded in that production. I was the oldest sister and knew that role very well as I filled that role with my siblings in real life too.

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The roles below are a sample of dialogue from seven women living in this reserve in Canada. Their hopes and dreams were different and they talked about them on their way to the biggest bingo in Toronto. Below is a sample of some of those roles. I was Philomena Moosemeat (It says Moosetail below, but it was Moosemeat) in the play that I was in.

Pelajia said, “Philomena. I want to go to Toronto. Everyone here's crazy,”….. “No jobs. Nothing to do but drink and screw each other's wives and husbands and forget about our Nanabush.”

Philomena said, “My new toilet! White! Spirit white !”

Pelajia, “When some fool of a being goes and puts us Indians plunk down in the middle of this old earth, dishes out this lot we got right now. But I figure we gotta make the most of it while we’re.

Emily stated, “Pelajia Patchnose wants to pave all the roads on the …. Philomena Moosetail wants a shiny new bathroom. Marie-Adele Starblanket, who is dying of cancer, wants an Island where she can live with her husband and fourteen kids.”

Emily Dictionary says, “Every second night for……goddamn Yellowknife drunk asshole Henry Dadzinanare come home to me so drunk his eyes was spitting’ blood like Red Lucifer himself and he’d beat me purple.”

Emily added, “You should have seen me fight back like you've never seen a woman fight for her life before”.

In talking about her past pain when a friend died in an accident, Emily says, “I drove on. Straight into daylight. Never looked back. Had enough gas money on me to take far as Salt Lake City. Pawned my bike off and bought me a bus ticket back to Wasy.”

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When listening to the dialogue it gives you a better sense of who these women were in their community. In a reserve, similar to reservations in the United States. If you summarize, some of that can be missed. You may not get to know the characters.

The characters have a dream of how they would spend the bingo winnings. Their life in the culture and on their reserve is shared with the audience. The Native audience could relate. There are not many plays where there are Natives other than Westerns, where most Natives are the bad guys.

Some of the story is about being Native, where whites are considered superior and it means getting a better education and having a better future if white. The dialogue talks about the struggles these women are familiar with. Humor and optimism are there too.

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Author’s Note 2: In the act where my underwear was around my ankles on stage — There was an outhouse, and there was a fight breaking out just outside of the outhouse. As the oldest, when I came hollaring out of the outhouse to say, “Cut it out… behave yourself!” Then nothing more until everyone in the audience and on stage who had spotted my underwear around my ankles stopped laughing.

The most difficult part of the play was just freezing until everyone was done laughing, and I could continue my lines and go back into the outhouse.

We received lots of positive feedback and lots of laughs. The Rez Sisters was well received and well done.