Content

• Steps
• Part 1 of 3: Exploring Dialogue
• Part 2 of 3: Writing a Dialogue
• Part 3 of 3: Checking the Dialogue
• Tips
• Warnings

Dialogue is an integral part of any story, and writers tend to strive to ensure that dialogues in stories, books, plays and films sound natural, as if the conversation is taking place in real life. Writers often use dialogue to convey information to readers in a way that is interesting and engaging to them. Write the dialogue, understanding your characters, trying to keep it simple and clear, and read them aloud to make sure the dialogue sounds natural.

Steps

Part 1 of 3: Exploring Dialogue

1. 1 Pay attention to real conversations. Listen to how people talk to each other and use it in your dialogue, then it will sound for real. You will certainly notice that we all communicate with different people in different ways, and this point should be taken into account when you sit down to work.
   • Don't use parts of the conversation that are difficult to translate. For example, "hello" and "goodbye" do not need to be written all the time. Some conversations can start in the middle of the conversation.
2. 2 Read good, quality dialogues. To develop a sense of language in general and dialogue in particular, you need to read books and watch films that have really high-quality dialogue. Read, analyze and draw conclusions.
   • Look for works by those authors who were recognized as masters of dialogue, under whose pen realistic, multifaceted and vivid dialogues were born and are being born.
   • It will not be superfluous to work with scripts and plays, which is understandable - all this is literally tied up, implicated in dialogues. Some writers have done just that!
3. 3 Expand your characters fully. What needs to be done before you put words into the mouths of heroes? That's right, understand them inside out. You, the author, need to know the manner of the hero's conversation, as well as all the features that are associated with it.
   • Age, gender, education, religion, tone of voice all affect speech. You understand that a girl from a small monotown, lost in Siberia, will speak in a completely different way from, say, the son of a prominent party leader would speak.
   • Give each character a distinctive voice. Not all of your characters will speak using the same words and speech techniques. Let every (at least every important) character sound differently!
4. 4 Learn to avoid writing implausible dialogues. They, of course, will not "kill" your story, but they can alienate the reader. As a writer, you strive to have a radically different effect on the reader, don't you? Yes, we will not argue, sometimes even implausible dialogues are needed - but very, just very rarely.
   • What, if in general, is this very “implausible dialogue”? It's simple: a dialogue built from template phrases according to obvious patterns. Here's an example: "Hi Masha, you look sad," said Vanya. "Yes, Vanya, today I'm sad. Do you want, Vanya, to find out why I'm sad?" "Yes, Masha, I would like to know why you are sad today." "I am sad because my dog ​​is sick, which reminds me that my father died under mysterious circumstances two years ago."
   • Terrible, isn't it? How to fix it? Yes, at least like this: "Mash, did something happen?" Vanya asked. Masha shrugged her shoulders, not taking her absent gaze from the window. "My dog ​​is sick. Nobody knows what happened to him." "I sympathize, of course, but ... Mash, the dog is already old. Maybe age?" Masha clasped her hands. "You know ... just ... the doctors would say." "Veterinarians?" Vanya corrected it. "Yes. Like that."
   • Why is the second option better than the first? He does not translate the reader straight to Mashina's thoughts about her late father, he allows the story to unfold gradually, which is especially noticeable at the moment of Mashina's slip of the tongue about veterinarians.
   • Where, you ask, are implausible dialogues appropriate? Oh, the answer will surprise you. In Lord of the rings... Yes, the dialogues there are sometimes very realistic - especially in those moments when the hobbits speak, however, if in general, the dialogues there sound very sublime and implausible. What is the secret of success (very controversial, by the way, according to many people)? The fact that this style of storytelling is characteristic of the old epics that underlie English culture - like the same Beowulf.

Part 2 of 3: Writing a Dialogue

1. 1 Keep your dialogue simple. Use "he said" or "she answered" instead of grandiloquent phrases such as "he objected" or "she exclaimed." You don't want your characters to communicate using unusual words and phrases, do you? The “she / a said / a” format does not even distract the reader from the text.
   • Of course, there is nothing wrong with changing those verbs from time to time for more appropriate ones - “interrupted,” “shouted,” “whispered,” and so on. But, we emphasize, only from time to time and to place.
2. 2 Develop the plot using dialogue. It must convey information to the reader or viewer. Actually, dialogue is a wonderful tool that allows the author to convey the developmental features of a character's character or some information about the hero, which otherwise would have gone unnoticed by readers.
   • You shouldn't pay too much attention to small dialogues conducted on trivial topics like the weather, even if we do them quite often in real life. This kind of dialogue is appropriate in one case - when you need to increase the tension in the scene.For example, the first hero needs specific information from the second hero, but the second one insists on observance of formalities and slowly, slowly asks the first about the weather, health, business, the peculiarities of planting potatoes in loamy soils and gasoline prices. In general, it makes your readers tense up in anticipation of the most interesting.
   • The dialogue must have a goal, otherwise it cannot. Always ask yourself why you are writing a dialogue, what it will add to the story, what the reader will learn from it. If you do not have the answer to these questions, then you do not need this dialogue.
3. 3 Don't turn dialogue into a dump of information. Incidentally, this is a common problem. It may seem to you that there is no better way to convey certain information to the reader than to dump it on him in a dialogue at once in one piece. It only seems to you, believe me! From time to time, background information should also be found in the text!
   • Here is an example of how you don't need to write: Masha turned to Vanya and said, "Oh, Vanya, do you remember that when my father died a mysterious death, my whole family was kicked out of the house by my evil aunt Agatha?" "I remember that, Masha! You were only 12 years old, and you had to leave school to help your family make ends meet."
   • How can this be fixed? Well, at least this way: Masha turned to Vanya, her face had a grim grimace. "Aunt Agatha called today." Vanya was surprised. "Is that the one who kicked you out of your own house? And what did she want?" "I have no idea. True, she muttered something about the death of my father ..." "Something?" Vanya raised an eyebrow. "It seems to her that her father ... was helped to die."
4. 4 Don't forget the context. Conversations, especially in fiction, are multifaceted (or multilayered, depending on how you look). Since more than one event occurs at the same time, you need to reflect all of this.
   • There are several ways at your service at once. Let's say your character wants to say something like "I need you." Try to get your character to say this ... but not in plain text... For example: Vanya went to his car. Masha touched his shoulder, she nervously bit her lip. "Vanya, I ... you ... are you sure it's time?" She asked, removing her hand. "We still haven't figured out what we're going to do."
   • Don't make your characters say whatever they think or feel. This will be overkill, which will leave no room for a subtle psychological game.
5. 5 And now - to the point! Do you want your dialogue to be interesting and engaging? Then skip the background dialogues (say, where people at the bus stop discussing the weather) and go straight to the point (that is, in fact, to the confrontation between Masha and the insidious aunt Agatha).
   • Let your characters argue, let them say the unexpected - but only as long as it fits their behavior. The dialogue should be interesting, and if everyone only agrees, nods and answers the simplest questions, then hardly anyone will find this reading fascinating.
   • You need to saturate the dialogue with action, do not forget about it. While communicating, people twirl something in their hands, laugh, wash the dishes, go around the pits on the roads, and so on. Add it all to the dialogue, bring it to life!
   • Example: "Well, you don't think that a healthy man, like your father, can just get sick and die like that?" Said Aunt Agatha, coughing dryly. Masha, not without difficulty restraining herself so as not to break down, answered, "Sometimes people get sick." "Yeah, and sometimes well-wishers help them with this." Aunt's voice sounded so smug that Masha wanted to reach out and strangle her aunt with a telephone cord. "Are you saying that your father was killed? And do you even know who?" "I have ideas on this score. But you better think for yourself what and how."

Part 3 of 3: Checking the Dialogue

1. 1 Read the dialogue out loud. This will give you the opportunity to hear how it sounds. You can make changes based on what you hear and read.The main thing is to put aside the text for a while before checking, otherwise you simply will not be able to notice the mistakes that you are used to while working on the dialogue.
   • Let a trusted friend or relative read your dialogue - a fresh look at the problem, so to speak, will help you identify weaknesses in the text.
2. 2 Arrange punctuation marks correctly. Few things anger readers (as well as publishers and literary agents - and these even especially) more than lame punctuation, especially in dialogues.
   • Check your Russian textbook on how direct speech is written in writing.
   • Let's say you break up a character's speech with a descriptive phrase inserted in the middle of the statement. Will the second half of the statement begin with a capital letter? Depends on punctuation, and for that - you are welcome to the Russian language textbook.
   • If the statement of the hero and the action taken by the hero are two different sentences, then separate them with a period. Example: "Goodbye Agatha." Masha dropped the telephone receiver with such force that it cracked.
3. 3 Delete words or phrases that are not necessary for the conversation or story. Let your characters speak less, but there will be depth in their words.
   • For example, you shouldn't write something like "I can't believe that it was Uncle Evlampy who killed my father by putting poison in his cocktail!" said Masha. Write it easier - "Believe me, I can't believe that Uncle Evlampy poisoned my father!"
4. 4 Choose your dialect carefully. Each character should have their own sound and voice, but everything is fine in moderation, so too much emphasis can annoy readers. Again, do not use a dialect that you are not personally familiar with - the stereotypes you use can be extremely offensive to readers who speak a particular dialect.
   • You can use other methods to show where your character is from. For example, terms like "soda" and "soda" will show you where your character comes from. Of course, if you resort to this method, then you will have to continue to monitor the hero's speech, saturating it with local words and slang.

Tips

• Use every way you can to make the dialogue better. You can use professional help by taking a master class from him, or use publications that are aimed at so that newbie writers can improve their skills in writing dialogue.
• Do you have workshops or writing circles in your city? Join them without hesitation! All this will be very useful to you!

Warnings

• When you have just sat down to the first draft, you should not lean on dialogue. Better to leave them for later stages of work.