Effective dialogue is an important part of both creative fiction and nonfiction writing. A good dialogue not only moves the story forward but also reveals important character information. Here are some of the dos and don’ts of a good dialogue.
Dos of a Dialogue
- A dialogue should be broken with actions. When people talk, they don’t normally stop everything. They keep driving, cleaning up dishes and fidgeting, etc. Your characters shouldn’t be static.
- Dialogue should follow all grammatical rules. Every time a new person is talking, a new paragraph should be started. A dialogue is enclosed within quotation marks. And each new line of dialogue should be indented.
- A dialogue should be brief. Wordy and long passages may be irritating for the reader.
And here are a few don’ts of a dialogue:
- Do not use many dialogue tags. Usually, some well-placed “she replieds” or“he saids” will do the trick. If a dialogue is wonderfully written, the person who is speaking is known, even without tags
- Do not use many dialogues in your scene. The reader need not know every word your character says.
- Do not be too realistic in your dialogue. Actual speech can’t make a great dialogue. A good dialogue should not mimic real speech, rather, approximates it.