Dialogue: Dos and Don’ts
Dialogue is one of the most necessary components when writing fiction. Our characters come to life through their dialogue and it helps us understand the story even better. Everyone has their own style and preferences when it comes to writing dialogue, but it can still be tricky for the new writer. I went on a Google search to find some helpful hints when it comes to dialogue.
Dialogue Dos:
- Keep the dialogue straight and to the point. Lots of times in real life, when we talk to our friends or family, we can go off on tangents. In reality a lot of the things we say in our day to day lives is pretty boring. The dialogue should say only what needs to be said without a great deal of useless filler.
- Keep an equal balance. There should be as much narrative and internal thought as there is dialogue. All of these combined help move the story forward.
- All dialogue must follow basic grammar rules: Each time a new person speaks, they get a new paragraph; spoken dialogue must be enclosed in quotation marks, etc.
- People aren’t static. We do things when we talk, and so should your characters. Break the dialogue up with action (ie: “Timmy went to the sink to continue washing dishes while he told me the rest of the story”). You don’t want your characters just standing there while they have their conversations.
Dialogue Don’ts:
- Don’t go nuts when it comes to dialogue tags. He said/she said can get boring, but you don’t need a different tag each time something is said. If the conversation is between two people, you don’t even need a tag after every spoken sentence or phrase.
- If you have already explained the character’s back story through narrative, don’t have them repeat it in dialogue. It can be tedious for the reader.
- Don’t use dialects or slang you aren’t familiar with until it has been thoroughly researched. Readers will spot the mistakes if they are familiar with such slang or dialect.
- Don’t write dialogue the way we actually speak. Daily conversations are filled with a great deal of ums, ers, likes and you knows. Too much of this will bore and possibly irritate the reader.
- Don’t go overboard when using a characters name. The name doesn’t need to be used in every line. In good dialogue, the reader will know who is talking and who is being addressed.
As in anything, there are always exception to the rule. Because everyone has their own writing style, every writer isn’t going to follow every single dialogue rule out there. In the end, you just want to make sure the dialogue fits in with the rest of the story and moves it along.
Good luck and happy writing!
I disagree with your point about writing like we speak. I think you should emphatically write the way people speak, just not to the degree of fragments like “um” and “err.” Everything else makes the dialogue seem authentic and relatable. It makes the writing as a whole more accessible. Just don’t go crazy in detail.