The Magical Dialogue Dragon

Greetings, Wizard Writers!

Dialogue is one of my personal favorite areas of writing, and while not difficult in concept, it is important to master. First, I want to throw away the idea that dialogue in books is not supposed to mimic real-life dialogue. For authentic characters, it is important to write their conversations exactly as you hear them as a writer. Should dialogue be to-the-point? Yes, of course. But don’t cut or skim the dialogue to make it sound bookish. In other words, you want your characters to sound natural, but don’t let them go on and on in pointless conversation. The Wizard of Writing has a Magical Dialogue Dragon who would love to share some quick and fiery tips for dialogue, as well as how to punctuate dialogue properly. So let’s don some armor and check it out!

Dialogue Tip #1   

Individual Dragons

Characters should sound unique in speaking. 

Every character should have their own catchphrases (don’t overdo this, though), and their own manner of speaking. What geographical location are they from? How old are they? What kind of education do they have? Try to match the speaking voice with the personality of the character.

Dialogue Tip #2

Breathe Fire

Make dialogue tense whenever possible.

Dialogue should advance the plot, and to advance the plot, we should always write on conflict. Not every conversation has to be an argument, but the dialogue should achieve a) tension or b) plot progression.

Dialogue Tip #3  

Blazing Subtext

Sometimes people say things that mean something else. 

When subtext is done correctly, the reader should pick up on this and learn a fact about the character that the character might not even know about themselves. Dialogue is a great place to use subtext. 

Dialogue Tip #4 

The Mighty Punctuation Dragon

Make sure to punctuate dialogue correctly.

This area seems to give writers the most difficulty. Here are some examples of how to properly punctuate dialogue. 

“Are you going to breathe fire today, Dragon?” the wizard asked. 

“I am not going to breathe fire today,” Dragon replied.

“We really need you to breathe fire!” the wizard said.

“I just don’t want to,” Dragon said. “Please don’t ask why.”

Dialogue Tip #5 

Slay it with Said

Use “said” as a dialogue tag in most cases.

Readers slide over the word “said” in dialogue tags without even noticing, so it’s best to use this form whenever possible to keep them in a story. You can shake things up here and there with “he replied” or “she asked” or “he shouted,” but don’t get too carried away, and don’t use too many adverbs here, either. Choose “said” most often to keep things clean and moving along.

Do you have any tips on constructing dialogue? Please let us know in the comments!