I used to think dialogue was one of the most difficult parts of writing a story. But the more I wrote, the more natural the dialogue felt. Now I'm able to write a much as a client asks for without sounding forced or trite.
Dialogue, or the natural conversation between characters, is one of the most important parts of a story. It propels your story forward (think: show, don't tell) and is the biggest thing that causes your readers to have an emotional reaction. Publishers rarely even consider a fiction manuscript without a heavy portion of dialogue.
To help master writing dialogue, you must do two things:
Listen to conversations. When you go to a restaurant eavesdrop on your fellow diners. Pay attention to the natural flow- the give and take of a conversation between two people.
Practice. Write dialogue. All the time. Especially if it's your weak spot.
Today's Challenge
Write a story entirely in dialogue. Make the readers feel the story just by what the characters are saying (and not saying) and how they're saying it. See how long you can keep the story going using only dialogue.
Images via Pexels
Be a Better Writer in Just One Month! Join the 31 Day Writing Challenge to transform your writing and your life!
Day 1 The Truth About Making Time For Writing
Day 2 How to Incorporate Ideas From Life in Your Writing
Day 3 Master the Art of Captivating Your Readers
Day 4 Banishing Distractions
Day 5 Get Your Writing Noticed!
Day 6 The Importance of Morning Pages
Day 7 Why You Should Write Even if You're Not a Writer
Day 8 How to Personify an Object
Day 9 How to Use Writing Prompts to Improve Your Skills
Day 10 Why You Need an Email List
Day 11 There is a Best Time to Write!
Day 12 Your Future Path
Day 13 Do You Know How to Eat an Elephant?
Day 14 Soliloquy Speaking: Bring Depth to Your Characters
Day 15 The Red String- You and Your Readers are Connected
Day 16 Pardon Me, What Did You Say?
❤
I appreciate your support :)
If you find this article after day 7, please consider upvoting a recent article.
The above is THE BEST way to get a storyline! I also LOVE when I am sitting in a restaurant or other venue where there are a lot of people and I'll pick out one person or couple and by watching their body language; coming up with a background of them. I let my mind tell their story to me.
Writers are the worst eavesdroppers, aren't we?! Lol!
...like every Tuesday, you mean? lolol
😂
(humor not pedantry!)
Oh my. Lol. Yes, even on Tuesdays ;)
Gratzie' ;)
Dialogue is difficult to write, partly because of all the punctuation! That said, I use it quite often when I write anecdotes into my posts. Something that I think is important for dialogue that is written to be read, as opposed to spoken, other than the punctuation, are the adjectives/modifiers that describe some of the expressions and/or connotation that the author wants conveyed, and which are sometimes not always conveyed in just the words.
You are absolutely correct, dialogue is difficult to convey without the extras. This exercise helps to bring that awareness :)
@arbitrarykitten i have some thing for your challenge.
If you enter a task to write on any meaning full picture . like to explain different point of view of a single picture is also a tough job .
I will help a writer a lot in understanding and focusing and also this thing will sharp there mind.
Such as me posting an image and everyone writing a different description, then everyone comparing? To see how different the perspectives are?
Yep . but upload some picture and give task to explain these picture to audience so that will help them to think as a writer and as audience and also help to build new ideas also it will help them to write there own views . which is pretty good thing for a writer.
Ok, yeah. That sounds like a good plan- I'll definitely post this, thanks!
Welcome
A great read as always @arbitrarykitten :) Upvoted & Resteemed, Lots of love from the #steemitbloggers
Thank you so much!
In collaboration with the @steemitbloggers
This post has received a 100% upvote and a resteem. Be sure to share the news of @theluvbug with your blogging buddies - and remember to keep a look out for our daily posts where you can share your links :)
I AM
Spreading the STEEMIT LOVE with upvotes and resteems of INSPIRING, MOTIVATIONAL & POSITIVE Steemit content. Use #theluvbug to get my attention :)
......
FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER
Sweet! I'm lovin the luv bug :)
Great advice. I start stumbling with lots of dialogue just with the: he said, she replied, he answered, she said, yelled, gasped... I kind of start losing the flow of my writing when I try to capture that part of the dialogue. I know I just need to practice more. I will make more effort to focus on dialogue for a while, just to feel more comfortable with it.
My writing instructors told me to stop using all the extras, and stick to the basics- he said, she replied, she said. By simplifying and eliminating the he retorted and she bellowed I found it really did clean up the page, as well as helped the reader flow through the dialogue in a natural pace.
Hahaha today task is much more difficult .
@arbitrarykitten you do such an amazing job . keep it up .
Dialogues are very difficult to write .
They need more attention and care . that how the reader understand and how it be fun for them . and how it attract the reader to read more.
natural dilog conversation is very well,i think story so beautyfull writing,
Yes I Love when @arbitrarykitten teaches you how to be successful as a writer (Blogger).......
Dialogue is very essential, in fact it's a feature of drama, however it's very difficult to master it really when it comes to prose writing , It's a fantastic ability when writer is able to key in this concept as well, it's really been a while.
How are you faring?
Reminds me of that great Dorothy Parker poem "Any Porch" - snippets of dialogue that might be overheard on any porch. My favourite dialogue writers are Elmore Leonard, Graham Greene and Victoria Wood. The first two are really sparse, Victoria was the opposite.
Good writing.You are really doing a great job for all.It is helpful to the new writers whose are interested in writing. Thanks again for sharing such kind of valuable writing to all.
thats very useful practice...
A conversation is a dialogue, not a monologue. That's why there are so few good conversations: due to scarcity, two intelligent talkers seldom meet.
I don't know... As a writer I have a habit of people watching (and listening lol) and I've heard many intelligent conversations.
Perhaps change up your scenery? Go somewhere where the types of talkers you wish to overhear hang out?
I don't know where those places are. Thanks though.
I love dialogues in my Freewrites, just don’t like having to type in the quote marks haha
Thank you for this, I feel better about the extras 😊
#steemitbloggers
There's a dystopian series I stumbled upon where quotation marks aren't used, instead they're italicised. It was rather refreshing!
PS. I find those pesky quotation marks time consuming and rather frustrating myself! Lol! I wish I had an assistant to do them for me ;)
Interesting, I’ll try that one of these days. See how it works out 😊
Perfect! And please keep me updated with how it works out :)
Hey, I've been meaning to ask if you know of any tricks or things Frank and I could implement to help with an overly needy child? Attention seeking is a bit strong, but my step daughter needs a lot from us, and we can'T always give it to her. Both kids have trouble entertaining themselves for some reason and just don't want to do anything alone unless they absolutely have to. Step-daughter seems less independent and requires more attention and takes more than we can give. We were wondering if you knew of anything we could do to help her be able to help with that.
It's hard to tell sometimes because we only have them one weekend out of two, but this Summer we'Re going to have them an entire month and we've already started doing a few things when we do have them, adjusting our approach to certain things, which has helped my step son with cognitive thinking. So I mean, I'm sure we can figure something out for this too.
Have you tried giving them a prize if they can self entertain for a bit?
For instance, set her up with something, a coloring page and crayons for this example, and say you'll give her a sticker on the calendar if she can color it beautifully for 30 minutes. Set a timer. And tell her if she gets three stickers that day, she gets a prize- bedtime story with both you and Frank, a board game before bed, something with your attention. She'll learn that by doing that thing solo that day, she'll be rewarded with primo attention time that night...
That's a good idea. Any ideas for fun rewards for preteens? lol I think one of our major difficulties that Frank and I are facing is that she's in that transition phase where she's not doing kiddy things anymore, but she's not a teenager yet. She's 11, going on 12 in September.
She does enjoy colouring and making drawings. Maybe I can make it a Rosie-approved activity too. And we can remind her of the things she enjoys doing on her own.
That actually gave me some ideas. :) Thank you!
I think being comfortable in writing dialogue between characters is crucial to be an effective writer and one who has a broad reach. For sure.
Thanks @arbitrarykitten as I need to do more practice on it ;)
Dialogue is definitely a necessity.
Thanks for reading! I'm happy it's motivational for you :)
Haha, im not sure im up for this challenge just yet. Only just started freewriting this week, give me a few more weeks and Ill try my skills.
Well... You never know... Perhaps practicing these challenges while you're new, before you pick up some bad habits- might be something to consider. ;)
Very true.
Writing in pure dialogue reminds me of when I had my scriptwriting class in University. One should be able to perfectly describe the tone through each of the participant's point of view. Can't wait to reach this day, I've finished with day 2 and working on Day 3, I hope you check out my writings for the challenge in my blog :D
Absolutely :) and, well done!