TDAPD

12. "𝚍𝚒𝚊𝚕𝚘𝚐𝚞𝚎".

di·a·logue
ˈdīəˌläɡ,ˈdīəˌlôɡ/
noun
1.
conversation between two or more people as a feature of a book, play, or movie.

Writing dialogue in a novel requires more than knowing how to write a conversation. Good dialogue intrigues, informs and moves a story along. The dialogue is just as important as the descriptions; it usually solves the story's problems, sketches in clues, builds anticipation, suspense and more.

Brooklyn: You love me?
Zakiyah: Yeah, I guess.

NO.

You're writing a book/novel. Not a fucking script for a movie or a play. That shit looks tacky as fuck. Cut it out.

Before we get to the spoken dialogue or "the conversations", we need to go over how to properly punctuate dialogue with periods, commas, ellipses, quotation marks, etc.
With dialogue, you always have to put the punctuation inside the quotation mark.

                  "You could always come and see a nigga if you feelin' like that."

                  "Who said I feel any typa' way?"

                  "Yo' ass!"

"Brooklyn..."

PUNCTUATION
IN DIALOGUE
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COMMAS in text or direct speech are broken up by information about who is speaking, you need a comma to end the first piece of speech and period or another comma before the second piece of speech,

example: "I mean, I guess I get what you're saying," he spoke, "I'm just mad you didn't come to me first."

The commas show a continuation of not only the dialogue but as well as the sentence. You use a period in dialogue just like you do in any sentence or statement—to end the conversation, speech, etc.

example: He frowned, and spoke up, "I mean, I guess I get what you're saying."

With ELLIPSIS, you use it when the dialogue trails away, as if the speaker has gotten distracted or stumbled over their words. You put it inside the quotation mark.

example: "Brooklyn..." Zakiyah started, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration.

When the dialogue is abruptly interrupted or cut off, you use an EM-DASH inside the quotation mark.

example: "You mad at m—"

                  "Naw, nigga! I'm happy!"

For a non-dialogue beat to break up a line of dialogue, you can use COMMAS or EM-DASHES.

example:
  "And that's when I realized it," Zakiyah said with a sigh, "that nigga had lied to me."
                  "At this point"—Brooklyn shook his head—"I can't do shit to fix this."

FILLERS
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In dialogue, fillers are meaningless words, phrases, or sounds that mark a pause or hesitation in speech. Some of the common filler words in English are:
um, uh, er, ah, like, okay, right, and you know.

In strong dialogue, there is no fillers. Fillers also include unnecessary dialogue tags (he said, she said). Instead of having those tags at the end, try to replace a tag with a gesture or motion that gives more description or tone to the scene or story.

example one:
  "So, you just gone go? Just like that?" She asked.
"Fuck I'mma' stay here for? To deal with yo' ass crabbin'? Not happenin'." He said.

The dialogue tags are bland and don't make the conversation seem interesting at all. "Said" is played the fuck out; it's the basic of all basics. Use something else:

Shouted
Yelled
Gasped
Spat
Moaned
Groaned

It's too many dialogue tags out there to be used just for you to sit there and "said" yo' book the fuck up. You could leave the dialogue tags out entirely if you wanted to (as long as the last scene's context makes it clear who says/said which line), or you could add gestures that feed off the dialogue.

example two:
  "So, you just gone go? Just like that?" She folded her arms over her breasts, eyeing his back with a sneer on her face as he plopped down on the last step of the stairs, tying his shoes.
"Fuck I'mma' stay here for? To deal with yo' ass crabbin'? Not happenin'." Pulling his laces tight, he looked over his shoulder at her, giving her a blank look before he rose to his towering height.

The dialogue isn't bland now that you get more detail about the emotions of the scene, and you're avoiding that clunky repetitive shit; that fucking "said".

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AUTHOR'S
NOTE

Lemme' know about some dialogue that was a no go for y'all in the comment section, and ask some questions.