Are you unsure about how to write dialogue?Learning how to write dialogue is much easier than you might imagine. Every single day we find ourselves conversing with others, asking questions, and answering in smart, sweet, sarcastic, or even creative ways. We enjoy using words that make us sound as if we know what we're talking about, and words that prove we really are the writers we claim to be. Figuring out just how to write dialogue is as simple as imagining yourself in a conversation, or watching a conversation occur. Whether you think about something you talked about during the day, or the way your favorite characters conversed on a television show or in a movie, you are already more than halfway to writing dialogue that is at least a bit more fulfilling than the age-old "he said, she said" conundrum. Click here for some other words for said that will help add some variety to your writing. Before you know it, you'll be out of that repertoire of writing dialogues that you have been in for so long, and the concept of how to write dialogue will seem clearer and more practical than ever. Click for Free Writer's Block Help E-Zine and Free E-Book The first step to crafting sincere, creative, personal dialogue is to connect with the people you have saying the things. My favorite character in the book I am working on right now is the mother of the boy (Walter) who likes my main character (Margot), but Margot doesn't like Walter, at least not like that. When something happens between the two of them and Walter's mom is around to see it, the results are hilariously disastrous. Even though Walter's mom is the one causing the pain and anguish that Margot is feeling, I can't help but love her character. She is that person who doesn't have any idea what she shouldn't say, and then proceeds to say it anyway. Of all things you want your characters to come to be during the course of a reader's perusal of your work, you want them to be memorable. Memorable characters are not always those who always do the right thing, who always achieve everything they try to do, or even those who go through intolerable conflicts on the path to the climax of your story. Now, don't get me wrong. Of course, they can be all of these things. However, they can also be types like Walter's mom, whose antics will be indelibly marked in your reader's brains since they can truly identify with how Margot must feel at that moment, but can't help laughing at the situation anyway. Allowing readers to identify with your characters is a key component of a mature, sound writing style, but make sure you accomplish this in a way that readers won't find demeaning or patronizing.
The next step is to take those thoughts you've written down in your journal and pretend as if two people were the ones discussing them. Separate the words and formulate sentences that can stand on their own, but that do not take away too much from the original meaning of your internal monologue that is now succinctly on paper. Take my poem on what it means to be a writer, for example -- see Creative Poetry Starter #2 ("I write because..."). At first I had a paragraph through which this poem was revealed to me. I didn't expect to write a poem at first. I just saw the ability to adapt my original paragraph into what you are able to read today. This is exactly the way in which you begin writing dialogue. Consider the key words and phrases that make up the monologue, paragraph, or other piece of writing you have done, and mold it into something new -- it is in this way you begin to actually internalize how to write dialogue. You can make your singular thoughts turn into those of two or more people, or you can use what you wrote in your journal as one side of the conversation, and imagine how someone would respond if you said your journaled thoughts to them. Test these ideas out and see what results you create. You may be surprised at your own creativity and adaptability to changing something familiar into something not so familiar. Once you do this, you will appreciate how to write dialogue all the more.
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How to write dialogue stems from writing a monologue. We all have come up with monologues. I can almost guarantee it. Even if you haven't jotted it down on paper, I am sure that you have spent time contemplating something in your own mind, going back and forth about a topic, or just considering all the sides that there are to consider. This is an internal monologue. It is something that we all do, because even though it may seem out of place to talk to ourselves out loud, it's not as strange to sit with our thoughts and ponder them for a while. Start writing down your musings in a