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SheltieLover

(59,504 posts)
Fri May 21, 2021, 07:43 AM May 2021

Writer's Digest: 4 Tips on Writing Dialogue

https://www.writersdigest.com/.amp/write-better-fiction/4-tips-on-writing-dialogue

4 Tips on Writing Dialogue
Write like a game of tug-of-war.

Snip

Make your dialogue into a game of table tennis. Or non-table tennis.

Snip

Ditch the tags—and then rewrite.

Snip

Shift the tone and the motivation.

This is a great article. Much more at link.
6 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Writer's Digest: 4 Tips on Writing Dialogue (Original Post) SheltieLover May 2021 OP
I try to follow Ursula K. Le Guin's advice to always have action with dialogue nuxvomica May 2021 #1
Excellent tip! SheltieLover May 2021 #2
A related tip... Orrex Jun 2021 #4
I read the short article and I think the tips are useful nuxvomica May 2021 #3
A friend self-published a fantasy novel a few years back Orrex Jun 2021 #5
thank you for this! Chili Jun 2021 #6

nuxvomica

(12,855 posts)
1. I try to follow Ursula K. Le Guin's advice to always have action with dialogue
Mon May 24, 2021, 10:38 AM
May 2021

But I'll check out the article later. Thanks for posting! I've been playing with an interesting writing tip lately: Never start a sentence with the word "the". Especially the first one in a paragraph. It's not that such sentences are bad but the tip forces you to be more imaginative in sentence structure; basically an anti-laziness remedy.

Orrex

(64,059 posts)
4. A related tip...
Sat Jun 19, 2021, 02:36 PM
Jun 2021

Don’t start the story or a chapter with a character’s name, a]or at least be very sparing in doing so. Arthur C Clarke was absolutely terrible about this, and I believe Asimov was likewise. Regardless of their vast knowledge and enormous bodies of work, this remains a lazy trick that simply sucked the life from the page.

nuxvomica

(12,855 posts)
3. I read the short article and I think the tips are useful
Mon May 24, 2021, 06:01 PM
May 2021

Especially "ditch the tags." I think a lot of people feel they must describe how someone's saying something, that that is more imaginative writing. It's often called for but when it's not, a simple "he/she said" is fine. I find dialogue fairly easy to write but I have to restrain myself from writing pure dialogue by breaking in with description, often about what a character is thinking. My general rule about dialogue is to keep in mind that every conversation between two people is actually two different conversions, with different issues, different rhythms, and even different outcomes.

Orrex

(64,059 posts)
5. A friend self-published a fantasy novel a few years back
Sat Jun 19, 2021, 02:41 PM
Jun 2021

Cool story and engaging characters, but I don’t believe that a single one of them ever “said” anything. It was always “Bob exclaimed” or “Maria expressed” or “Paula queried” or “Larry remarked.” It became an exhausting distraction pretty quickly.

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