What are some tips for writing good dialogue?
- Listen. Hear how people really talk. Go someplace filled with people — a restaurant, mall, holiday venue, wherever — and close your eyes and listen. Don’t worry about the actual words at first (you can do that later), just get a feel for how people talk to each other.
- Hear the words. After you feel the rhythm of talk, listen to the words. How do people phrase questions? Statements? Suggestions?
- Write. Scribble (or use a recorder) and later, figure out how to do the same thing in your writing.
- Edit. Now for the most important part. Some writers would say the ONLY important part. Take a big, fat, red pen and cross out every single word that’s not essential to getting the point across that the speaker is trying to make.
- Enjoy. Look back over your dialogue and you’ll find that it flows well and easily and gets the gist of things across without boring your reader with tons of unnecessary words.
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