Writing Vivid, Colorful Dialogue

Writing Dialogue the Right Way!

What’s Dialogue?

A conversation between two or more people.

“Here’s the cache,” Sarah said. Caitlin replied, “Let me see!”

Why Do Writer’s Use It?

It’s essential to most genres of writing, especially fiction, creative non-fiction, and

most non-fiction!

It Brings Characters to Life!

Dracula asked, “What’s on the menu tonight?”

It Can Do All These Things, Too:• Provides information• Describes people and places• Creates a sense of time and place with dialect*• Creates suspense• Reveals a character’s thoughts• Summarize what has happened

Dialect: Writing words exactly the way a speaker says them. “I’m droppin’ that class,” John said. Sue told us, “I’se fixin’ to go home.”

It Doesn’t Just Duplicate Real Speech!

“Hi, Bob,” I said. “Hi, Ralph,” Bob replied. “Isn’t the weather rather nice today? It is

very sunny and mild,” I said.

This would be boring!

What Should Dialogue Consist Of?

The most exciting, the most interesting, the most emotional, and the most dramatic words

that carry along a story line.

“Oops! I pressed the wrong control,” Marie said. Suzanne shouted, “We’re going to sink! Prepare to jump overboard!”

What Are Its Parts?

Just Like A Car, Dialogue Will Not Work Without The Proper Parts!

Quotation Marks

They tell a reader which words are spoken by “holding” them:

“Good morning, Dumplings,” said Ms. Hart.

Spoken Words

All words within quotation marks are actually spoken by a person:

They responded, “Good morning, Ms. Hart!”

Dialogue Tags

The words leading up to or following the dialogue:

I said, “Please get me the cheese.”

“What type is it?” he asked.

Punctuation ConventionsTag Comes First

She said, “Let’s feed the llama!”

I said, “No, I think it will bite me.”

Note that when the tag comes first, it’s always followed by a comma before the dialogue is written.

Punctuation ConventionsTag Comes Last

“Let’s feed the llama!” she said.

“No, I think it will bite me,” I said.

Note that when the tag comes last, the punctuation within the dialogue will vary. Keep exclamation points and question marks, but change

periods to commas.

What Do I Do When…

A Character Begins or Stops Talking?

Begin a New Paragraph

It was a bitterly cold night and the wind was blowing hard. It was also the first night my parents had left me alone. I heard it coming from the next room in a hushed, gritty voice.

“Sue? Are you ready to meet me?” it said in its gravelly cadence.

I panicked and ran as fast as I could toward the back door, screaming all the way.

Writing Someone’s Thoughts?Solution #1:

You can write a thought exactly like regular dialogue, being certain to note in the tag that it is a thought:

I thought to myself, “I’m in so much trouble.”

Solution #2:You can write the actual words of a thought in italics:

I can’t believe I’m doing this, I was thinking as I faced off against the gigantic ogre.

What About Writing Dialogue for Comic Strips?

The dialogue bubble indicates that any words within it are either spoken or being thought. Therefore, a writer should never

use quotation marks—the bubbles serve as quotation marks.

regular spoken dialogue:

thoughts:

urgent spoken dialogue: