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Dialogue Writing [Guide: Mon]

Mon's Guide
Source: self publishing school

Dialogues

What is dialogue?

As simple as the word states, dialogue refers to a conversation or discussion or to the act of having a conversation or discussion. It can also describe something related to conversation or discussion.

For ex:- "I need help moving this box of toys for the garage sale. Will you help me?" Suzy asked.

Basic rules for dialogue writing:-

One of the most important yet unknown topics of writing is dialogue rules. There are many people who like to write a story but they don't know there are proper rules established for writing dialogues.

Without effective dialogue, even the best plot or book ideas will fall flat. Your efforts for successfully writing a book that reads well will be ineffective. Ultimately, your reader's reviews of your book will hold weight.

Because if the dialogue is bad readers will put the book down (because the dialogue is often what readers pay the most attention to).

Here are the main rules for writing dialogue:

1)Each speaker gets a new paragraph: Every time someone speaks, you show this by creating a new paragraph. Yes, even if your characters are only saying one word, they get new paragraphs.

For ex:-

"Hi!" She exclaimed. [Dialogue 1]

"Wow, when did you come back?" The girl beside her questioned. [Dialogue 2]

2)Punctuation for what's said goes inside the quotation marks. Any time the punctuation is a part of the person speaking, they go inside the quotes so the reader knows how the dialogue is said. No matter what style you are choosing for your writing (British or American) everything said by the speaker goes under the quotation mark including punctuation marks.

For ex:- "I don't know what Seo is saying," May replied. [Correct]

"I don't know what Seo is saying", May replied. [Incorrect]

3)Long speeches with several paragraphs don't have end quotations. If one character is speaking for so long they have separate paragraphs, the quotation marks on the end are removed, but you start the next paragraph with them.

4)Use single quotes if the person speaking is quoting someone else. If you have a character who says, "Man, don't you love it when girls say, 'I'm fine'?", the single quotes indicate what someone else says.

5)Skip the small talk and focus on important information only. Unless that small talk is relevant for character development, skip it and get to the point, this isn't real life and will actually feel more fake if you have too much.