Write Good: An Absurd Storytelling And Adventure Blog
Banter
Serious blog time.
I take banter seriously.
You should too.
Banter ain’t just for laughter to fill page space. You want filler? Watch the last 5 or 6 seasons of the original Naruto, or eat a jar of marshmallow creme instead of a Twinkie. Banter gets more hollow than a chocolate easter bunny if you overuse it. You can punt your readers out of the story if a too-serious character uses banter when they don’t have a reason to.
What makes back-and-forth feel amazing and mean more in storytelling? Connection. Voice. Opposing personalities.
Read that last sentence again. That’s the most important if you ask my young curmudgeonly ass. Banter makes the book because it can make a scene DO multiple things effortlessly.
When done right.
Right. The first thing on the ol’ list. Connection. Characters who have a past together will riff on it when the current story’s events remind them of past events. This lends weight to both the characters’ relationship, their unseen-on-the-page backstory, and the current shitnado they’re going through.
Famous movies and books that do this:
The Avengers with the line, “You and I remember Budapest very differently.”
Star Wars with the line, “It’ll be just like Beggar’s Canyon back home.”
Pretty much any Neil Gaiman book. Find two characters in a Neil Gaiman story speaking of a past event that’s also a proper noun (The Great Fart War, for instance), then watch their reactions to that banter.
Got characters who don’t have much of a connection yet? Throw ‘em in the grinder and see how they handle things. Then they can refer back to it later and that can show how their connection has progressed. Grown. Proliferated. Then the reader was THERE for the inside joke that brought the dragon and the yeti together. It deepens connection and lets two very opposite types of voices come together, satisfying the reader.
Yep. Time for the second thing now. Voice. A character’s voice and the things they choose to speak on must change in some way throughout a novel. The asshole lightens up. The noble character grows cynical. A hurt, distant person learns to open up. Banter in your manuscript can be one character’s way of pointing out another character’s current mindset and their need to change it. Banter can also indicate progress or regression in a character arc.
Famous friggin’ examples:
Megamind. Yep, I said it. He uses his banter for good at the end and not evil.
Firefly. Just look at Simon & Kaylee’s relationship.
Final Fantasy VIII. The most overlooked game in that series. Squall opens up and banters with Rinoa and the party more the closer to the end you get.
Each character’s VOICE changes and becomes more enriched and positive. There are character regression journeys too, but I’m an optimist dadgumit. I even get along with pessimists.
So yeah. That third thing. Opposing personalities. Banter reveals closeness even between characters who’re on opposite ends of a situation or a personality spectrum. Writing moments into your manuscript where the hard-ass character sees good reasons presented from the light-hearted
Dadgum popular examples:
Lethal Weapon.
Shallan and Kaladin in the Stormlight Archive.
Hermione and Ron.
Do I NEED to say where they’re from or have you been living under a rock in a sense deprivation tank on a deserted island?
No, don’t ask how it got there. Make up some banter about how it got there instead.
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