Discussing Dialogue

    An aspect of story telling that some writers struggle with where others may thrive is dialogue. I am proud to be able to say that dialogue is one of my strengths (many of my professors and readers can attest to this), so today I am going to share some of my tips and tricks. 

    One mistake many people make when writing dialogue is adding complex dialogue tags. For those who might not know, a dialogue tag is when you put "he/she said" at the end of a bit of dialogue to determine which character is speaking. Many novice writers like to embellish their dialogue tags by saying "she dictated" or "she told them." While these are not necessarily bad phrases to use, it can become a little distracting if every other dialogue tag is something completely different from the last. Most readers have trained their brains to ignore the phrase "he/she said," so when it get's switched up every time, it makes it harder to focus on what the characters are actually saying. 

    Another mistake writers often make is adding adverbs to better describe how a character is saying something. Consider the sentence: "'He was my first love,' she said sadly." While it is a perfectly fine sentence, it lacks depth because of the "-ly" word attached to the dialogue tag. This is an instance where you could possibly show rather than tell. Now consider the sentence: "'He was my first love.' Tears welled in her eyes, threatening to cascade down her cheeks at any moment." In this scenario, I cut out the dialogue tag completely and added in a detailed description that allows the reader to infer how those words might've sounded. You could also be more direct and say something along the lines of : "'He was my first love," she said, voice trembling." The syntax of this phrase also paints a more detailed picture than "she said sadly" and allows the reader to feel what the character is feeling. 

    My final note on dialogue is to read it out loud after you're finished writing it. Consider how it flows off your tongue. Does it sound like something someone would actually say? Does the exchange happen at a natural pace. If you find it's going too fast, add a bit of description about what the character might be thinking or feeling during this conversation to help break it up. If it seems to be slow in some spots, nix your dialogue tags in order to create a snappy back and forth. And most importantly, does each character have a unique voice? Not everybody talks the same, so it's important to reflect that in your dialogue. 

    Remember, dialogue is a representation of reality, not reality itself. You don't have to document every conversation your characters may have. Dialogue should be just as important to the story as your descriptions and reflections. Let your characters speak their minds, but most of all, let them be human. 

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