How To Write So Readers Would Read

12. The Dialogue

|WELCOME|

I am bad at a lot of things when it comes to writing but writing dialogues is one thing I feel I am worst at. With this update I have researched and brought about the best advice possible that will definitely improve our dialogue game! So read the whole chapter and don't forget to make notes. 

Any book is incomplete without dialogue; any good book is incomplete without good dialogue. So, on this note we'll begin with the update. 

Basic rules for writing dialogue:

1. Every new speaker gets a new paragraph. Even if it's one word- new paragraph.

2. Please brush up on basic grammar like tenses, modals and punctuation. 

3. Avoid using 'He said' as much as you can. Try to add life in your dialogues.

4. Include only what's absolutely necessary. Before writing it down think what difference does the dialogue make to your book. 

What do you need to do to make your dialogues engaging: 

1. Add Variety: 

One of the major reason why I kept a book of mine on hold was because I didn't have words to express what I wanted. Yes! I was out of words. All I wrote was 'He said that', 'She said that'. Eventually I got bored of writing. So, you need to add variety to your dialogues and replace 'said'. Try to follow up a dialogue with action words. 

For example: They hung their head and mumbled, "It's fine if you don't want me to come."

2. Express feelings:

Dialogues are the best ways to 'Show and tell' your protagonist's personality. Try to express the protagonist's emotions through dialogues instead of just mentioning it in the filler paragraphs. 

3. Say them out loud: 

Hearing the dialogue will make you realise whether it sounds real or fake. Another tip, say the dialogue with feelings, exactly how you'd want your character to say it. It'll help you make a deeper connection to your characters and would help you practice voice modulation as a bonus! XD

4. Adverbs:

Brush up your adverbs because they truly spice up the dialogue. They are the best replacements for 'said'. 

5. Brevity: 

Try and keep the dialogues brief and impactful. The lesser the content within the brackets, lesser would the chance to make errors. 

6. Filler Gaps: 

Do not give out all the information in a single dialogue. Let the reader guess some of it, and let the other person in the conversation guess some of it. For eg: 

I picked up Todd's call. "I ran into that friend of yours, last night ...the one you introduced me to at your housewarming party..."

"Mina?" I asked. "Mina Millers?"

This is how we actually talk in real life right. A person on call does not always explain every single thing to you, you try and fill some information using your own head right? 

7. Use the setting: 

Try to utilise the place your characters are in to make the dialogues seem more real and to add more depth to the scenes. You can use the the setting to reduce dialogue tags like, "He said", "She said." and instead replace them with gestures or activities happening in the surrounding. This helps the reader imagine better. 

For eg: Your characters are in a restaurant. While conversing they could be disturbed by a waitress asking for their order, or a look at the crying child on the table adjacent to the characters can be enough to add depth to the scene. 

Some important punctuation for dialogues: 

1. Use double quotation marks to indicate what is spoken by the characters or anybody in the story.

"It's sure cold out here, " Mark said. "You should skip work today." 

2. Dialogue tags tag a dialogue to a particular character. They are phrases like 'Sylvia said', 'Sylvia replied.' These remind outside the quotation marks. 

For eg: "Stay away from me." Sylvia screamed. "I don't want you anywhere near me." 

3. Only the exact words that the speaker has said remain within quotations marks. If the dialogue splits, you will not include the tags or any other information in between the quotations.  

For eg: "I really don't know," he said, "she should've been her by now."

4. Full stops and commas will always remain inside the quotation marks.

 For eg: "She is here." The full stop will not be present outside the quotation marks. 

Similarly, exclamation and question marks will also remain inside the quotations. 

5. Use single quotes when the character is quoting somebody else's words. 

For eg: "What about the day when you had proudly proclaimed, 'I'll be the one winning this race.' I thought you were very confident then." 

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These were the basics of dialogue writing. I have kept this update short because I know it can be quite boring but trust me utilising proper punctuation for your dialogues can change the way your book attracts the readers. Just like all those reading this update, I suck at writing good dialogues too but before I write any more stories I'll brush up on my grammar and other tips for writing dialogues. I will then keep adding that information here and in the next updates for you all to find it in one place. 

Resources that can help you make your dialogues better: 

1. Screenwriting books

2. Article- 8 strategies for improving dialogues in your writing: MasterClass

References

1. Self-Publishing Schools

2. MasterClass Writing

3. NY Book editors 

4. NowNovel.com

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Thanks for reading. If you found this update helpful please leave a star and a comment of encouragement. I'd love to receive constructive criticism as well. 

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Util next time, 

Isha