A Simple Class: Basic Grammar

Lesson 2: Dialogue

In this lesson we'll be going over dialogue which, as I'm sure you know, can be very different depending on what you're reading. Please make sure you have finished lesson 1 before doing this.

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We'll start with the quotation mark -> " <- These are absolutely essential when writing dialogue. Here's how you use them.

- Quotes. When adding a quote put quotation marks around the text. I'll do a full lesson on this later.

Ex: "To be or not to be, that is the question." - William Shakespeare

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Now on to dialogue.

Dialogue is very important in a story, it gives an idea of what the characters are like and can reveal important information. One tip I can give you is to listen to real life conversations. People say "um" a lot and the topics tend to jump all over the place. You want your dialogue to be like a real conversation without the boring bits. There may be filler but things like: "Um, for dinner last night I had pasta." Why is this necessary? It isn't.

I think all of us writers struggle with this. How much filler do we add? The story can't be rushed but it can't drag on forever either. It's up to you to find the right balance of small details and information important to the plot.

So moving on. Let's say your character is going to have a conversation with someone, maybe she's talking to her dog. You want her to tell the dog to bring the ball back to her.

Ex: "Come here Bailey! Bring the ball back!"

See how I put the quotation marks around what she said? This shows what the character is saying versus description or their thoughts. You might think this is extremely basic but trust me, not everybody does this.

Another thing some people forget is that you still have to use punctuation. It should go right inside of the quotations, not outside.

Do you have more than one person speaking? You probably do. Make sure you hit that enter button in between their lines.

Ex: "Come here Bailey! Bring the ball back!"

"Woof!"

Okay so that was a weird example but you see what I mean? There has to be a space in between to prevent confusion. However, one thing you might notice is that I don't say who's saying what. Is the girl woofing? Is Bailey talking? This is where you need tags.

Ex: "Come here Bailey! Bring the ball back!" Anna called.

"Woof!" Bailey barked.

Better? Sure it's not the most creative but you get the point. You can add any kind of tag you'd like, said, yelled, huffed, screamed, etc. You don't always need one but you should have a few scattered throughout your dialogue to help the reader along.

One thing is writers learn is that "said" is bad. Turns out, readers actually ignore "said" but register who's saying it. While you might want to use your fancy vocabulary, going back to basics is sometimes better. That being said, if you'd like some help finding a specific word PM me and I'll send you some links to great books filled with adjectives and unique tags.

Now you have a basic dialogue but it seems like it's missing something doesn't it? I'll show you some different thins you can do.

Ex 1: "Hi!" She cheered, waving at her approaching friend.

Ex 2: Her eyes lit up as she saw her friend walking towards her. "Hi!"

See how you can even add things before or after the dialogue? This is really where you can play with different styles and find what you like best. Some writers have just a sentence or two of description and action like I did above while others might have a paragraph followed by one line of speech. It's really up to you on how you want to do it.

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Here's my finished example of dialogue:

"Hi!" Kate cheered as Anna ran towards her.

"Hey Kate! Did we have math homework? I completely forgot." She panted.

"Yeah. I finished it in class, Mr Jones helped me."

"You did?" Anna exclaimed, her eyes wide. "Can you help me?"

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In summery:

- Quotations go around the dialogue.
- Punctuation goes inside the quotations.
- Have a new paragraph in between different people speaking.
- Use tags to distinguish who's saying what.
- Said isn't always bad!
- Add description or action around dialogue to break it up.
- Try to mimic real conversations. Just get rid of the boring parts!

If you have any questions at all or you're having trouble with a practice please ask me through comments or PM! I'd love to help you!

This week's practice is a nice little dialogue between family members.

- At least 5 lines minimum.
- 10 lines maximum.
- Must have 3 (minimum) varied tags/description.
- Must have 2 characters. (Or more)

Out of 5 marks.