If you are writing ‘realistic’ and representative fiction, you want to ground the character as strongly as possible in his or her particular context, create a believable and compelling character. And that means producing well-motivated and convincing dialogue. If you want to show, for example, two war veterans talking in a bar, you are likely to have expletives and off-colour jokes. That doesn’t mean that these men (or women) may not be people of deep faith or troubled by faith issues or good, complex people caught up in a tough situation. Their inner monologues may be profound or questioning or show the integrity of inner struggle. But outwardly they will talk as others do in that kind of context.
In the same way, you may want to show a young wife and mother who is concerned with careful speech, a demure church-goer, gentle and soft-spoken. Unexpectedly, her little son is killed by a drunken driver and she feels a rage she has never felt before, she blames not only the driver but the God who did not save her child. She rages at the universe in language she has never dreamed of using before. In the novel or short story this is only the beginning – you will show her journey through rage and grief to acceptance and a deepening of faith, work to help others who are bereaved, the slow healing of this terrible loss.
The important thing is that the speech or dialogue should not be mindless or cliched, it should resonate with the character and the context.
Good luck with your work.
uch: One or two for effect can be tolerated but most new movies, eg. “Django Unchained,” go overboard and it just disgusting!