Vlog: 5 Tips for Writing Dialogue

Writing dialogue can be tricky. I've talked before about what *not* to do when writing dialogue, but here are some tips and things to consider when deciding what your characters say and how they say it.

RELATED LINKS:

• 5 Dialogue Don'ts (vlog)
• How to Write Realistic Dialogue
• Writing Dialogue with Purpose
• Writing Tip: Don't Be Afraid of Said
• How (Not) to Write Dialogue

What dialogue-writing tips would you add to the list? 

Twitter-sized bite:

Struggling to get your MS's dialogue right? @Ava_Jae vlogs 5 tips for writing dialogue. (Click to tweet)

Vlog: 5 Dialogue Don'ts

Oh, look! It's a dialogue vlog on bookishpixie! Dialogue is one of my favorite parts of writing, but sometimes it can be tricky to get right. So here are five quick things you DON'T want to do while writing dialogue.

RELATED LINKS: 

• Writing Tip: Don't Be Afraid of Said
• The Dangers of Dialect
• On Writing Realistic Dialogue
• How to Write Realistic Dialogue
• How (Not) to Write Dialogue

Have you made these common dialogue mistakes? What other issues do you frequently see with dialogue?

Twitter-sized bites: 

Not sure where to start w/ dialogue? @Ava_Jae vlogs about 5 things you DON'T want to do when writing dialogue. (Click to tweet) 

Author @Ava_Jae vlogs about 5 common problems w/ dialogue—are you making this common mistakes? #writetip (Click to tweet)

On Writing Realistic Dialogue

Photo credit: kattebelletje on Flickr

Dialogue is a tricky thing to master. Trying to write speech in a way that mimics the way we speak isn't something that comes naturally—like just about everything writing-related, it takes a lot of practice and a lot of reading to get a good feel for it.

I've written some do's and don't's for writing realistic dialogue in the past, so I won't reiterate all of that, exactly, but I think there's still more to be said for writing dialogue that doesn't fall flat, so here are five more points to think about:

1. Language is always evolving. I recently took a Linguistics class (such a good decision, writing-wise), and the number one lesson repeated throughout the semester was this: language is always changing. This is really important to consider, especially if you write YA, because teens are huge drivers of language change and it changes *so* quickly. Slang that was popular just five years ago is already falling out of favor: teens don't say really "(epic) fail" or "pwned" anymore, for example. It's your responsibility, as a writer, to keep up to date with the way language is changing, especially if you write for teens.


2. Think carefully about each of your characters. How much education do they have? What regional dialect are they a part of (remember: everyone has an accent)? Do they swear a lot (or at all)? Are they likely to speak formally or informally? Do they tend towards long or short sentences? All of these factors and more will play into how they speak, and it's up to you to make sure each character has their own distinctive speech style.
   
   When writing Beyond the Red, this was something I had to think about a lot, given that my two main characters come from very different backgrounds and levels of education. It wouldn't make sense for Sepharon (alien) royalty to speak the same way a guy who was raised by human nomads did. Culture, education, and even personality should all be considered when differentiating the way your characters speak.


3. Not all conversations are straightforward. Real-life conversations can be very complicated and nuanced. People frequently don't say exactly what's on their minds—we speak through subtext, we use tone and body language to add meaning to our words, we answer questions with questions or silence, and we change topics or end conversations when we don't want to talk about something. Consider:
   
   
   "I told him we'd go to the afterparty," Leah said.
   Bree laughed. "Of course you did."
   
   OR
   
   "I told him we'd go to the afterparty," Leah said.
   Bree rolled her eyes. "Of course you did."
   
   Same exact words in both of these conversations, but I don't need to explain how Bree's body language completely changes what she's saying.


4. Don't omit contractions needlessly. 9/10 times when I read dialogue that feels stilted, this is part of the problem. People speak with contractions all the time—without them, we sound like robots at best, and laughable at worst. Even if you're writing historical or a formal character, you do not want to omit every single contraction: your characters will only sound stiff and unnatural.


5. Many teens swear. While not all teens swear, writing teen characters who deliberately don't swear (oh, fiddlesticks!) can often sound contrived. If your teen character doesn't swear, it's okay...but make sure you aren't censoring just because—and definitely make sure your teen isn't surrounded by other teens who magically don't swear either. It's honestly just not very realistic—and teens will notice.

These are just a couple points on writing realistic dialogue, but now I want to hear from you. What tips do you have for writing speech that doesn't sound stilted? 

Twitter-sized bites: 

How do you write realistic dialogue? @Ava_Jae shares five tips to consider. (Click to tweet) 

Struggling to write realistic dialogue? @Ava_Jae shares five tips you may want to implement. #writetip (Click to tweet)

Writing Tip: Don’t Be Afraid of Said

Photo credit: Kris Krug on Flickr

NOTE: Today is the day! If you've been curious about Beyond the Red's cover, you need be curious no longer—the cover is NOW live on YA Books Central's blog! And I have it on good authority there miiiiight be something ARC-ish you guys can win. YAY! 

So every once in a while I come across writers online who mention trying to avoid “said” in their writing. And I’m not 100% sure how this not-so-foolproof advice started, but I suspect it has to do with avoiding repetition in writing.

As I’m sure many of you know, a common critique in any sort of writing is the accidental repetition of certain words and phrases. Usually this comes through with writer ticks—everyone has a couple crutch words or phrases that they often unconsciously insert into their work while writing, and the ticks often even change manuscript to manuscript. That’s normal and easy to fix, and yes, should be adjusted particularly when it happens often enough to draw attention to itself.

“Said,” however, is not usually a word you have to worry about overusing. To a point.

When it comes to writing dialogue, "said" is a somewhat magical word because it’s largely invisible. The only time it really becomes noticeable is if too many dialogue tags are used, for example:

“Hello,” Mary said.
“Hello,” Bob said.
“How’ve you been?” Mary said.
“I’ve been great, and yourself?” Bob said.
“We’re using too many dialogue tags,” Mary said.
“I think you’re right,” Bob said. 

You get the idea.

Now, that’s not to say that you can’t (or shouldn’t) vary up dialogue tags—to avoid situations like the above terrible example, you do want to drop dialogue tags, use action tags, and when relevant, use tags other than “said.” But generally, it’s best not to get too fancy with dialogue tags because anything that isn’t “said” (or a dropped tag altogether) draws attention to itself.

For example:

“Hello,” Mary uttered.
“Hello,” Bob pontificated.
“How’ve you been?” Mary inquired.
“I’ve been great, and yourself?” Bob articulated.
“These dialogue tags are a little distracting,” Mary communicated.
“I think you’re right,” Bob concurred. 

Again, you get the idea.

Generally, this is something I don’t really worry about while first drafting—I just use whatever dialogue or action tags come to mind. But for those of you who worry about overusing said, particularly in the first draft, I encourage you not to worry about it. While there’s absolutely always a balance to aim for, if you find yourself reaching for the thesaurus to look up another word for “said” you may want to hit the pause button.

What do you think? Do you worry about overusing “said”?

Twitter-sized bites: 

Worried about overusing “said”? Writer & assistant editor @Ava_Jae says not to be. #writetip (Click to tweet) 

When it comes to writing dialogue, @Ava_Jae says "said" is invisible. What do you think? (Click to tweet)

The Dangers of Dialect

Photo credit: Scott Smith (SRisonS) on Flickr

Oftentimes, when working with dialogue, writers work with characters who have a peculiar manner of speaking. Whether it’s a weird turn of phrase, a thick accent or unusual slang, it’s not at all uncommon to come across characters with unique speech. 

Unique dialogue, when done well, is great because it makes it easy to identify a character’s voice, and it can also say a lot about their character. However, when done incorrectly, this great character marker can become difficult and painful to read.

The number one problem I’ve come across with unique dialogue is writers going overboard with dialect.

The thing is, dialect is a tricky thing to get right. If you do too little, it’s like you haven’t done anything at all, and the few sections where it’s present feels out of place. Do too much, however, and a character’s speech can go from quirky to nearly impossible to read.

The key is to find a happy medium, which of course isn’t entirely easy, especially at first. Good news is there are three questions you can ask yourself to determine whether or not you’ve gone over the dialect deep end.

1. Do you have to slow down to read it? This is a huge red flag to me—if I have to slow down to read and process what a character is saying (or worse, read it several times to try to figure out what’s being said), then more likely than not, the dialect’s been overdone. Remember—you never want your writing to draw attention to itself—and forcing your readers to slow down to translate your character’s speech will definitely draw attention away from the story and onto the words. 


2. Can you read it aloud without tripping over the words? If your answer is “no” or “yes, with practice” then you’ve failed this test. Go back and smooth out your dialogue to make it easier to read.  


3. Were your CPs and beta readers able to read it without getting frustrated or confused? Self-explanatory. If your CPs and betas are fine with it and didn’t have an issue, then you might be in the clear. But if you’re getting comments on confusing speech, it’s a pretty good sign you should break out the red pen. 

Finally, for a good example of nice, balanced dialect, I give you Hagrid:

“I am what I am, an’ I’m not ashamed. 'Never be ashamed,’ my ol’ dad used ter say, ‘there’s some who’ll hold it against you, but they’re not worth botherin’ with.” —Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (J.K. Rowling) 

Have you ever written dialect or come across dialect that was difficult to read? 

Twitter-sized bites: 

Writer @Ava_Jae on dialect: “You never want your writing to draw attention to itself.” More tips here. (Click to tweet)  

Do you have accented characters in your MS? Writer @Ava_Jae shares 3 signs you may want to rework their speech. (Click to tweet) 

How to Write Realistic Dialogue

Photo credit: AnyaLogic on Flickr

I’ve often found it’s easy to tell a writer’s skill level by taking a look at their dialogue. With just a few lines, you can easily tell if the dialogue is working (or not), which is important because character speech can easily make or break an otherwise great story. 

The good news is well-written dialogue can really make your manuscript shine, and if you remember certain guidelines while writing or editing, it can make all the difference. 

So when writing dialogue...

Don’t: 

• Let your characters ramble. In reality, we ramble while having conversations all the time. We switch from topic to topic, sometimes randomly, and go on unnecessarily about silly little details that are fun to talk about.
  
  Don’t let your characters do this. Everything your characters say should have a purpose, and unnecessary ramblings are not allowed in fiction.
  


• Use it to convey obvious information. Or, as some writers like to call it, use the “As you know, Bob.” If your protagonist is a dentist with three kids, the way to tell us not to have her mention to her friend, “As you know, my three kids Elana, Mike and Maggie have beautiful teeth because I put my dentist skills to good use at home.”
  
  If both characters in a conversation know a particular bit of information that you want your readers to know, chances are you don’t want to use dialogue to tell us. Characters have no reason to tell each other information they already know, and readers will recognize it for the poorly disguised info-dump that it is.


• Mention names every couple lines. This is a pretty common mistake, and it’s easy to do. Thankfully, it’s also very easy to fix (the “Find” feature is a beautiful thing).
  
  Point is, your characters are certainly allowed to mention each other’s names, particularly when they’re trying to get their attention or make a point. But they should not  mention each other’s names several times in a conversation, or even in every conversation. We don’t do this is real life, and neither should our characters. 

Do: 

• Think about context. In this case, by “context” I mean your character’s background and surroundings. A high-class 18th-century woman is going to speak very differently from an uneducated man of that time, or a teenager in today’s society, or a king from another world. How your characters speak, what they choose to say and to whom is very much dependent on the setting, your character’s background, and personality, which are all important to remember while writing dialogue.


• Remember everyone speaks differently. If you removed all of your dialogue tags, you should still be able to pick out which of your characters said what. Every one of your characters should have a different voice and viewpoint that should come across in the dialogue.


• Read it aloud. I’ve written in the past about the importance of reading your WIP out loud, but even if you don’t read your entire WIP out loud, you shouldn’t definitely try to at least read your dialogue aloud. Or have someone else read it to you.
  
  Why? Dialogue should sound natural and flow easily, and sometimes, what flows in our minds when we read, doesn’t actually flow as well as we think. Reading our writing out loud solves that problem, because the awkward phrases your brain doesn’t trip over, your tongue will still catch. 

Consider: 

• Silence can be powerful. Sometimes, what a character doesn’t say is just as powerful (or even more powerful) than what they do say. Silence, in a way, is it’s own form of dialogue.


• Straightforward isn’t always the answer. It wasn’t until semi-recently that it occurred to me that just because a character asks a question, doesn’t mean whoever they’re talking to has to answer. Eureka! Changing the subject, answering a question with a question, or dancing around the answer can sometimes be even more interesting than the answer itself. As a bonus, unanswered questions also make for added tension and intrigue.


• “Said” isn’t evil. While action tags and non-said dialogue tags are great in moderation, “said” is not a word that needs to be avoided. The nice thing about “said” is that it acts as an invisible dialogue tag. That’s not to say that you should use it every time, but it’s actually less noticeable than the alternative tags and are often overlooked while reading. 

And in case you missed it, here’s how you definitely shouldn’t write dialogue. 

What tips do you have for effective dialogue? 

Twitter-sized bites:

Is your dialogue realistic? Writer @Ava_Jae shares dos, don'ts and tips to remember while writing dialogue. (Click to tweet)   

Having trouble with dialogue? Take a look at these tips for writing realistic conversations. (Click to tweet)

How (Not) to Write Dialogue

Photo credit: theilr on Flickr

For whatever reason, I haven’t written much about dialogue on this blog, something that I realized must be remedied sooner rather than later. And so this post was born.

As many of you know, dialogue makes a huge impact on your writing—stilted dialogue can very easily ruin an otherwise well-written scene, while lines of great dialogue are often quoted by readers as their favorite lines from the book. But how do you ensure that you’ve written brilliant dialogue? The secrets to brilliance, my friends, are here.

How to Write Brilliantly Fantastic Dialogue That Will Leave Your Readers Clamoring for More*

1. Make sure your characters always address each other. As your readers can’t see that your characters speaking to each other (you’re not writing a screenplay for a movie—you’re writing a book), it’s very easy for them to become confused. Who is speaking to whom? The quickest way to remedy this is to make sure your characters address each other, like so:
   
   “Hello Bob, how are you doing?”
   “I’m doing very well, Mary, and yourself?”
   “I couldn’t be better, Bob!
   “That’s wonderful, Mary.”
   “Isn’t it, Bob?”
   “Truly, it is, Mary.”
   
   And so on.


2. Never use “said.” “Said” is about the most clichéd word in the English dictionary and must be avoided at all costs, unless you want to bore your readers to death. Besides, why would you use “said” when there are dozens of more interesting words like “remarked,” “declared,” “divulged,” “avowed,” and “proclaimed”? You wouldn’t. That’d just be silly.


3. In fact, forget dialogue tags altogether. Who really uses dialogue tags anymore, anyway? All they do is weigh down your writing with unnecessary words. Besides, your readers will know who is speaking to who since all of your characters are addressing each other in every line.


4. Quotation marks are cliché. Use italics to differentiate your dialogue from the rest of the writing. It looks much prettier.


5. No cussing. There are NO circumstances when it’s ok for your characters to curse—it’s very ugly and few things will chase your readers away faster than cursing characters. Instead, use substitute words like “fairy poo,” “fiddlesticks” and “shish kabobs” to save your readers’ innocence.


6. Formal speech is a must. If your characters don’t sound like they came out of a work of Shakespeare, you aren’t doing it right.


7. Write out accents. How are your readers supposed to remember all of the various accents your characters have if you don’t sound them out? Hope y’all err havin’ a fantaaaastic day! looks much better than “Hope y’all are having a fantastic day, she said with a Southern accent.”


8. Use as much punctuation as possible. Case and point: WHY AREN’T YOU USING ENOUGH PUNCTUATION?!?!?!?!?!?!?!???????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????????????!!!!!!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!.....?!


9. Strive for uniformity. It is essential that all of your characters sound the same, otherwise you risk confusing your readers with characters that don’t sound like they belong in the same book.


10. Forget dialogue altogether. You know what? Who really needs dialogue, anyway? Silent movies were all the rage way back when, what’s to say it can’t work now? 

*The only thing your readers will be clamoring for, should you do these things, is your head on a platter. This is a sarcastic post. Please do not take these tips seriously.

Now it’s your turn: what dialogue “tips” would you add to the list?

Writing Dialogue with Purpose

"Characterization is an accident that flows out of action and dialogue." —Jack Woodford

Photo credit: pheezy on Flickr

It's often said that poorly written dialogue is one of the first signs of a new writer —whether it's an error in the way it's punctuated, an abundance of non-said dialogue tags or clunky, unrealistic speech, dialogue can make or break your writing.

This post is assuming that you've already perfected the grammatically correct way to punctuate your character speech and your characters are speaking naturally, rather than sounding like they're reading off lines from a script. You see, even after you've mastered the basics of dialogue writing, there are still many more aspects to look at when writing or revising character speech.

One of the most important things you can do when looking over your novel's dialogue is determining its purpose.

In our everyday lives, people blabber on for no particular reason. We talk about the random and the ridiculous with little direction, we go off on long-winded, completely unrelated tangents and some of us are even guilty of talking for the sake of talking. In real life, those things happen.

In your books, those things must never happen.

Menial how's the weather conversations are perfectly acceptable in the work place or at the dinner table, but the moment your characters start talking about the beautiful sunny day outside or the delicious breakfast they had, red flags and buzzers should be going off in your mind.

I'm sure most of you have heard the Alfred Hitchcock quote: "Drama is life with the dull parts taken out." The axiom doesn't only apply to drama and plot, however, it also applies to dialogue.

One of the best writing tips I've ever read on the subject is this: character speech is an action. Our characters' every action must have a purpose, and that includes every line of dialogue they speak throughout the course of the novel.

So what does that mean?

Next time you're revising your writing, take a close look at the dialogue. With every line that comes from your character's mouth, ask yourself if what they said was necessary. What would happen if you removed that line? Would the conversation still be understandable? Would it miss anything? Chances are if the scene can go on without repercussions after removing the line, you probably don't need it.

But how can you tell if the dialogue is necessary?

Dialogue must accomplish one of two things: 1) move the plot forward or 2) develop character. If your dialogue isn't doing either, it's time to either cut it or rewrite it with one of those goals (or even better—both) in mind.

Well-written dialogue moves smoothly, develops character and leads the reader forward through the plot. What are you accomplishing with your dialogue?