Tips and Tea

Dialogue

hey hey, so if you made it this far into the book, I'm pretty sure you're now getting a pretty decent idea of this whole author thing, and how to become a better writer.

Now that we've touched on some of the big main key points, let's talk about Dialogue.

we about to get into some thangs chile.

So, why is dialogue important?

Well because Dialogue is useful for developing your characters and the plot of your story. Sometimes dialogue results in helping you establish the backstory, and of course help reveal details important to your plot as you go on.

Not only that, but dialogue helps establish the mood. It kind of can set the atmosphere of each chapter. It helps showcase the emotions of the characters. The words you use helps display the tension in what's spoken.

You don't want pointless, plain, dry dialogue in your story. Nor do you want too much dialogue. And what I mean by too much dialogue is, your chapters are filled with nothing but dialogue and no narration in between that helps the story flow.

When writing dialogue keep in mind:

• Writing good dialogue will give the readers insight as to why the characters behave a certain way they do, or how they feel and what emotions they are experiencing.

• Help the readers understand the relationship between your characters. The words they exchange during conversations, lets the reader understand how the character feel towards that other character.

• Your audience. Keep in mind the type of slang you use, remember; not all readers will understand it and will be confused. I'll get more into this, down below.

Giving your characters a unique way of speaking:

Just like every person you know in real life, they have their unique way of speaking. Whether, they use slang, speak intelligently or have speech problems. Do they talk too much? Or speak very little? Do they talk loud? Or is soft spoken?

Treat your characters dialogue as real conversations you would have with someone in the real world.

Your word choice that use for your characters should help support the characterization. (This goes back to character development and creation, refer back to previous chapters.)

If you're going to be using slang in your story, in a different chapter before the actual story starts, list the terms of slang that you'll be using throughout the story to help your readers understand the characters more and the setting. You might live in Texas, and have a reader that's from Minnesota and have no absolutely clue what the heck the characters are talking about!

Another thing to keep in mind while writing dialogue, body language is key!

When your characters are having conversations with another, they don't exactly say how they're feeling. It's more so within their body language, and their actions. For example:

1st person; I closed my eyes as I took a deep breath, mentally counting backwards from ten, like my therapist had advised me to do so a few sessions back. I exhaled, relaxing my shoulders and balled up fists, completely letting go of any tension that had taken over my body. Finally opening my eyes again, I came face to face with Derek who seemed nervous as to how I was going to react.

"I'm not going to give you that satisfaction of seeing me revert back to my old ways, instead—" I paused, arising from the dingy, old couch. "I'm going to pray for you."

Derek gawked at me, his eyes following me as I made my way towards the screen door. Before walking out, I turned back around to face him one last time, "Don't ever contact me again." I reached for the handle on the screen door, walking out.

Now you see how Ashley reacted? Her body language? The slight details of what was happening? As from what you can gather, she was upset, rather than saying, "I'm so pissed at you Derek!", her actions demonstrated her emotions.

Dialogue + descriptive body language and actions = imagery for the readers to imagine in their minds as they read along. 

SAID IS DEAD!

"He said, she said" gets boring and repetitive! Switch it up! Create unique patterns of speech, and follow ups when using dialogue.

Back to our example up there, when Ashley told Derek to not contact her again, I didn't put 'I said', instead I descriptively followed it up with an action.

If you want to opt out said for another word, go to google and search other terms for the word. Use words that help describes the emotion of the character. If you're character is sad, instead of using said, try using;

"I can't believe he's gone." Sarah sniffled, before bursting out into tears again, burying her face into her hands.

To find a list of words to replace said, try going to spwickstrom.com

They have a list of words for different emotions, to replace the word said.

BUT don't overdo it, said is okay to insert into your story every other line. Just don't use it repetitively.

One last tip, don't let your characters babble on. No one EVER just talks, they're almost always interrupted in some way, or pause in between to think of what they're going to say.

This makes it more realistic.

That's all for now!

I hope these tips helped you out! If you need any further help, feel free to pm us.

written by // @wyntersdiary