Writing Tips

15 - Talking and Dialogue

"I can not believe he has done this. How come I perceived him as a nice person?" Baekhyun questioned, staring at the sight in front of him. Chanyeol was eating ice cream. Without him.

"I shall not forgive him. He will never receive my forgiveness."

Chanyeol turned then, spotting Baekhyun. His eyes widened in surprise. "Baekhyun! It's not what you think! I was just offered to eat this ice cream and like the idiot I am, I accepted!"

Jongin stumbled into the room. "U-uh—I'm... Chanyeol t-that's my i-icecream a-and i-i d-don't u-understand w-why you'd b-b-b-betray B-Baekhyun hyung l-like this—"

Jongin stuttered away for the rest of his life.

"What is it then, Chanyeol! How dare you eat ice cream even though you know it is my favourite!" Baekhyun screamed, jumping at Chanyeol and clawing his face off.

"Hold on!"

"How dare you eat icecream!"

"Baekhyun wait!"

"How dare you eat icecream!"

"It's your least favourite kind!"

"How dare you eat my ice cream!"

"I swear this is the third time you've said that wait—"

Baekhyun fell onto the ground, crying. "I just do not get why people make their characters stutter so much or pause every five seconds or repeat the same thing in different words or make them sound formal because that's just not how humans talk and it falls into cliché territory when they re-use words because it's their catch phrase."

"I chogiwa do not understand what you're saying," Kyungsoo spoke up from the doorway. "And chogiwa where is Jongin?"

"Why do they all sound heartless?" Baekhyun questioned, sob threatening to fall out of his mouth.

"You sound heartless too, Baekhyun," Chanyeol pointed out.

The mentioned man glanced up at Chanyeol, eyes filled with tears as he begged him to explain without using any words.

"Go back in time and see how you spoke before. Unless you're a character who's very formal and professional, you'd be speaking in contractions or shortened sentences, without using fancy words."

"What is the meaning of your phrases?" Baekhyun asked, even more upset. "I do not understand! How come you are making it seem like I am some kind of robot when you know that I value life very much?!"

"Because the way you're speaking is unnatural to your character in this story."

"Impossible! I am but a mere character in a story, the authors do not take heed of the way I speak which is why they make me like this even though my personality is bubbly and carefree and a little bit of an airhead!"

"But Baekhyun... the readers do notice," Chanyeol turned to Jongin, "Stop stuttering so much. It's difficult for the readers to read or understand what you're saying. Even though it may be like how real humans stutter, ain't nobody wanna read 6 pages of hyphens and dashes with random letters in between." He then turned to Kyungsoo, who was still asking where his Jongin chogiwa was. "And you, stop being so cringey. It's not cute to use a word so often even if it is your catchphrase or an inside joke."

Baekhyun watched, amazed.

"And you, Baekhyun, try speaking more casually. Like you're holding an actual conversation. Authors should always think: who is my character talking to? What message are they trying to convey? Do they have ill or good intent? In this case you were just yelling at me, someone who's close to you. Your words didn't fit the scene."

"How about this?" Baekhyun questioned, "Is this okay? I can't really tell."

"Already sounds a little better."

Baekhyun can't believe how Chanyeol just saved his life.

"I won't chogiwa listen to you," Kyungsoo piped in.

"Shut the hell up, Kyungsoo."

Moral of the story: your character has to fit the words that they say, or else you'll really be portraying someone completely different. before writing any dialogue always think whether this character would actually ever say this

ur -10 writer is oot.