Have you ever read a story or book where every paragraph starts with a piece of dialogue? It’s not very entrapping of a story is it? Well here’s why,
When every paragraph starts like this,
“(INSERT DIALOGUE HERE)”
“(SOMETHING)”
“(REPEAT)”
You aren’t very likely to continue reading because there’s no differencing, so your brain doesn’t notice the fact that the story itself is good because you’re too focused on the fact that the layout sucks.
How can you change this?
Instead of making each paragraph start with dialogue make it start with what the character does whilst talking. I.E.
Bob stepped up to the plate, tightening his grasp on the bat in his hands. “I will not miss this one.”
In a way it makes the dialogue much more intriguing because you know now what the person was doing during the dialogue before you actually read what they’re saying.
Now, what else is considered ‘overdoing’ dialogue? Well, there’s a multitude of things that could be considered ‘overdoing’ dialogue, or just bad dialogue in general. One of the most common mistakes for a newbie in writing is to not create a new paragraph for each new piece of dialogue.
BAD:
“I can’t believe you did that!” Screamed Naomi at the young man in front of her. Angrily she ran her hands through her red hair and tried her hardest to calm down, but it wasn’t working. “Look Naomi, I’m sorry but-“ Naomi cut him off with slamming her hands on his shoulder. “I don’t care if you’re sorry or not! You still did it!”
NO. We do not, as writers, do that. As you can probably see TWO different people are talking, but they’re sharing the same paragraph for their dialogue.
GOOD:
“I can’t believe you did that!” Screamed Naomi at the young man in front of her. Angrily she ran her hands through her red hair and tried her hardest to calm down, but it wasn’t working.
The boy spoke up before she had a chance to continue. “Look Naomi, I’m sorry but-“
Naomi cut him off with slamming her hands on his shoulder. “I don’t care if you’re sorry or not! You still did it!”
See how that was different? But don’t get too carried away with making new paragraphs for dialogue, if the same character is speaking, you don’t need a new paragraph unless you really feel like a thousand word paragraph is too much. Which it is.
Another mistake can be fragmenting your dialogue or using made up slang that you believe that your readers will understand. For example:
“I totes don’t comp.” She complained as the scientist tried to explain their situation.
Now, maybe some of you DO know what totes and comp mean (totally and comprehend) but if you didn’t you would have been completely in the dark for what the girl was saying. NOW, if you WANT to have words like totes and comp in your story, try doing something like this:
“I totes don’t comp.” Her slang words for ‘totally’ and ‘comprehend’ confused the scientist as he tried to explain their dire situation.
That may have been very bland and obvious that I was pointing out what the words mean, but at least my readers KNOW what they mean.
That’s it for dialogue for right now, if you need any other advice for this section of writing just comment it down below. I hope this helped you guys rather than hindered, good luck with your writing endeavors!
