forum Dialogue. I'm not that good and I need your help.

Started November 26, 2020 by @JustALostM book

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The Title says it all. I am decent but I'm not the best.

Tip: try reading it aloud. If it sounds a bit… off to you then rework it.

Ill keep that In mind!

Also keep in mind that different characters should have different personalities, and that includes how they speak. A character who acts very refined should have a different way of speaking than a character who's grown up causing general chaos and mayhem. A rule of thumb for me is that a reader should be able to grasp an idea of who's speaking, and possibly even to who, without using dialogue tags.
Speaking of which, use dialogue tags! And be sure to refrain from using 'said' and nothing else! Continuously using 'said' makes it very bland, and generally makes the writer seem inexperienced. Here's a helpful web page I found that has not only replacement words for 'said', but tips for how to use those words!

Also keep in mind that different characters should have different personalities, and that includes how they speak. A character who acts very refined should have a different way of speaking than a character who's grown up causing general chaos and mayhem. A rule of thumb for me is that a reader should be able to grasp an idea of who's speaking, and possibly even to who, without using dialogue tags.
Speaking of which, use dialogue tags! And be sure to refrain from using 'said' and nothing else! Continuously using 'said' makes it very bland, and generally makes the writer seem inexperienced. Here's a helpful web page I found that has not only replacement words for 'said', but tips for how to use those words!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Thanks Ashhhhhhhhhh!

Also keep in mind that different characters should have different personalities, and that includes how they speak. A character who acts very refined should have a different way of speaking than a character who's grown up causing general chaos and mayhem. A rule of thumb for me is that a reader should be able to grasp an idea of who's speaking, and possibly even to who, without using dialogue tags.
Speaking of which, use dialogue tags! And be sure to refrain from using 'said' and nothing else! Continuously using 'said' makes it very bland, and generally makes the writer seem inexperienced. Here's a helpful web page I found that has not only replacement words for 'said', but tips for how to use those words!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Thanks Ashhhhhhhhhh!

No problem!

Try to add things such as "like" or maybe if someone is uncomfortable, don't add too much stuttering, only like once or twice and with stuff like "the", "a" and "they". Also come up with questions for your characters, and try to stray away from your tastes a little bit. When writing their dialogue, look back at their answers to better understand them.

Advice: No huge paragraphs of people talking. Short and simple keeps the people's attention. If there's a story being told, have a listener or some sort of action poke in after three lines or so at most. Also, dialogue isn't just speaking, it can be an exchange of actions between things, too. Also, in general, short to mid-length paragraphs are what you should go for every time. It's your book, hun, there's no one to tell you what to do or what not to do based on the way it's structured, so don't feel like you need to write an essay just because it looks professional.

Make sure to keep a healthy mix of dialogue tags and “said”! It’s good to have variety, but too many “unique” tags can pile up to make quite the noisy paragraph.

For example, here’s a paragraph:

Frosty let out a heavy sigh and adjusted his hat. “I just don’t know how they do it, you know?” he said to the snowman beside him. “How do some people just… not celebrate their birthdays?”
“Beats me,” Jerry replied.
“But it doesn’t make sense!” cried Frosty. “How do they brush over something so unique to their lives? Without even a celebration?”
Jerry took a moment to consider the question, then said “Maybe they don’t think of birthdays as being as important as we do.”

As you can see, there’s a good mix of “said”s and other dialogue tags in there. A good paragraph should have around the same amount of both, otherwise it’ll get too bland or too noisy. For example, here’s the same paragraph, but with every “said” replaced with a different verb:

Frosty let out a heavy sigh and adjusted his hat. “I just don’t know how they do it, you know?” he ranted to the snowman beside him. “How do some people just… not celebrate their birthdays?”
“Beats me,” Jerry replied.
“But it doesn’t make sense!” cried Frosty. “How do they brush over something so unique to their lives? Without even a celebration?”
Jerry took a moment to consider the question, then retorted “Maybe they don’t think of birthdays as being as important as we do.”

Yuck! That was kind of icky to get through, huh? Or maybe it wasn’t too bad. Trust me, though, in a scene with lots of dialogue, it’ll get old quick, especially if you plan on having chapters full of nothing but character conversations. But at least it’s not a barrage of “said”s, like what you get if you don’t use any dialogue tags at all:

Frosty let out a heavy sigh and adjusted his hat. “I just don’t know how they do it, you know?” he said to the snowman beside him. “How do some people just… not celebrate their birthdays?”
“Beats me,” Jerry said.
“But it doesn’t make sense!” said Frosty. “How do they brush over something so unique to their lives? Without even a celebration?”
Jerry took a moment to consider the question, then said “Maybe they don’t think of birthdays as being as important as we do.”

Did that hurt a little bit to read? It hurt me to read. That could just be because I wrote it, though. But could you imagine reading a whole book full of nothing but “said”s? Could you imagine reading a chapter of those noisy dialogue tags? It would be an eternity before you got to the end, whether because of boredom or sheer difficulty to read! I’d advise using dialogue tags around half the time in your writing, and “said” the other times. That’ll some nice flair to your writing without it going overboard. Hope you have a fun time writing!

okay uhh this was posted so long ago omg but writing dialogue is my number one favourite thing to do, so here are some tips to improve it if you ever come back to this thread

• read it aloud, act it out. not only is this fun, but it'll make it clear what sounds unnatural and needs reworking
• talk to people! different people talk in different ways, and nobody really talks like how description is written lol
• watch films!! you pick up loads from it. tarantino in particular is renowned for his dialogue. coen brother's movies also have very believable, funny dialogue.
• tag some lines, tag some lines with stuff other than said, but DO NOT tag every single line (unless it's like a two/three line conversation). most of the time, it should be obvious who's speaking and who isn't
• don't overuse swear words, but they can be really effective. especially depending on the character

good luck!! dialogue can make or break a character, and it takes practice but you'll get it soon enough!! <3

I forgot about this but I definitely still need it! Thank you!

Hi! This is late but I also have some tips. Imperfect dialogue can often be more natural. Especially when emotional, characters will repeat words or say unfinished sentences. Trying to let go of perfect grammar helped me write organic dialogue. Also, people aren't always good at explaining the nuances of how they feel. Simplified "feelings" statements can be more real and more intense to read. I think Succession is a great show for its simple and flawed but cutting and human dialogue, watching it helped me improve my dialogue a lot.