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 Writing Effective Dialogue
Writing compelling dialogue is truly an exercise in contradiction. Dialogue is meticulously written,but most appear natural, smooth and spontaneous. In some situations, the proper use of dialoguemust contain the same errors people make in daily conversations. Every line of dialogue shouldhave a specific purpose within your narrative, but that purpose is often implied and subtle. Writingeffective dialogue that appeals to your readers is a balancing act of creating natural andnecessary conversations. If you’re tripping over your words, consider these helpful ideas:
Listen Up
If you’re struggling to create authentic dialogue, get out and find a good spot in town to listen topeople as they interact and talk around you. Pay attention to how people converse, the wordsthey use and how they play off each other throughout a conversation. Incorporate these detailsinto your writing, and model the pace and progression of your dialogue after real conversations.Don’t forget to notice the things people
don’t 
say but reveal with body language and gestures.These physical descriptions are a perfect technique to break up lines of dialogue and create whitespace on the page.
Develop Originality
Each character should have a distinct personality and voice, just like each of your friends orfamily members. Dialogue is the perfect opportunity to cultivate a character’s individual style andmannerisms. Often times you can accomplish more with a few lines of dialogue than you couldwith paragraphs of description. By developing their own vocabulary, accent and catch phrases,your characters will come alive and make a lasting impression on your readers.
Just Say It Already
Some writers spend time creating new and inappropriate tags for every phrase of dialogue. Instead ofhaving your character proclaim, quip, or announce, let the tone and content of the dialogue speak for itself.Garish tags distract the reader’s attention from the importance of the character’s words. If using “said”becomes too repetitive, leave the tag out all together. If your dialogue is engaging and each character isdistinctive, readers won’t miss it anyway.
Read it Aloud
One tried and true method of evaluating your dialogue, or any text you’re editing, is to read it outloud. When you silently read your work, your brain naturally tends to fill in holes and fix errors inspeech and grammar. When you read it aloud, the places where you trip over your tongue areobvious. You can read the dialogue to yourself, but you can really get it down if you can convinceothers to read it aloud as well. Not only will they stumble where you’ve slipped up, but they canstop when they’re confused or need more details.
Cut the Fat
Have you ever listened to a co-worker go on and on until you finally had a chance to change thesubject? Your readers won’t wait for you to finish. Well-written dialogue should reflect realconversations, but people ramble, forget their point and use an array of sounds and commentsthat would be distracting on the page. Not only should every line of dialogue have a purpose, but
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