I’m very attracted іn writing аnd hаνе written a lot οf tаlеѕ, bυt I want tο mаkе mу dialogue sound better/wittier/ more untreated. Anу tips?
I’m very attracted іn writing аnd hаνе written a lot οf tаlеѕ, bυt I want tο mаkе mу dialogue sound better/wittier/ more untreated. Anу tips?
If you use a thesaurus or glossary whilst writing speech, throw them both out your window. (Unless it is a prewritten speech like an inaugural take up.)
Imagine if you were talking to your characters. What do they tell you? What are there faces showing you?
Imagine you are one of your characters. What are you thinking? What are you saying?
Start writing. Don’t reckon of how you’re writing. Pretend the events are unfolding before you as you are writing. Write first, right later.
Study the people around you and how they speak. You will pick up untreated patterns of conversation and the art of dialogue.
Read all your dialogue out loud.
Or have someone else act out the conversation with you. (depending on how many characters are talking)
If you say it out loud you’ll catch any awkward phrases or whatever thing else.
Avoid Bullet Dialogue – Where there is just strings of dialogue shot back and forth with no devious intrusions as to who is speaking and what they’re doing while they talk.
Watch out for how you intrude. She said and he said CAN get irritating but it’s such a devious word that it won’t distract the reader from what you’re trying to say. When you use adverbs (like “She snapped” “She yelled” “She laughed”) to frequently they sound like you’re trying too hard.
Hope that helped and keep up the writing!
The “He said, she said” tags are all right to use with dialogue, but interject action sentences that fill the purpose of a tag. One example is this:
Joe swept the point of the knife within a half-inch of Jacob’s Adam’s apple, his eyes dark and menacing. “Now, do you get the point?”
Avoid placing adverbs in your tags, such as:
“What are you doing?,” she questioned surprisingly.
Any word ending with -ly usually becomes an adverb, which I call “adverbys” for identification.
Distinguish your dialogue by the characters and their voice. Try your best not to make the dialogue the same.
I wish you well.
Dialogue is one of the more hard aspects of writing. Here I’ll provide you a list. I can’t guarantee you’ll write untreated, stellar dialogue by following the steps, but you’ll be well on your way to learning how.
1. Learn your mechanics. Learn how dialogue is supposed to be formatted on the page.
2. Pick up a book, preferably one published after 1995 so you don’t accidentally run into something outdated. Now, look for the dialogue and watch how the writer punctuates it. For example:
“It doesn’t matter, we’ll die, the dragon’s going to kill us.”
as opposed to
“It doesn’t matter. We’ll die. The dragon’s going to kill us.”
Technically, the latter sentence is more grammatically right, but if you read it aloud, you’ll notice it doesn’t sound like very untreated dialogue. The former, while grammatically inexact, reads a lot more smoothly (though it could be argued the second phrase is overkill).
In dialogue, commas, colons, and dashes are used to mimic the way human speech really falls on the ear. Don’t overuse punctuation, but with a gentle, discerning touch, you’d be amazed what kind of literary tricks you can achieve.
3. Learn the real world mechanics of dialogue. In the real world, we rarely refer to anyone frankly by their name (unless it’s a third party being referred to). Known information is continual in cryptic quips, or glossed over with a wave of the hand. Friends will use different language with each other than they will with people they’re worried of or deeply respect.
Master the real world mechanics and you’ve won half the battle to better and more untreated dialogue.
4. Read your dialogue out loud. Once you’ve written your dialogue, read it aloud with the narrative–in fact, you must read every word you write at least once, preferably three or four times. Where are you stumbling? Where do you self-right? You can fool the eye, but you cannot fool the ear.
Have a friend go over the dialogue with you. Do you both sound untreated?
I try my best to write like I’m talking. Writing in your speaking voice is the best way, I reckon, to make it sound like something someone might really say. Talk to yourself while you write; say what you’re saying as you place it on the page.