Dialogue

Heya, it's Kate again, coming back to chat with you about dialogue.

As you all know, dialogue in reality is chatting with one of your buddies or flirting with your future guy/girl (or anything else that involves words). But, in writing there's two kinds of dialogue. Indirect, which is not a quotation but rather a rephrasing or summary of another person's words. Example: Mrs. Isles, a local medical examiner, reported that she saw a man dressed in black enter her home.

See? The lack of quotation marks hints at the indirect quotation. It's telling your audience something a character is saying, without actually having them say it.

Now direct quotation is the kind you usually see. Example: "He jumped through the window," Mrs. Isles reported to WFM news, "he was in all black." This one really doesn't need an explanation.

In your poem, short story, or novel you should have a nice balance of both direct and indirect. It's the plot to a good book. If you are having trouble with dialogue then try some of these hints:

1. Stay with your stream of consciousness. Meaning if something comes to you, no matter how cheesy or stupid it may sound, write it down. There is always room for revision.

2. Don't force your characters dialogue. If you can't come up with anything, don't write anything just to put it there. Reread what you already have until you get a spark.

3. Make it relevant. If your novel is talking about lightening striking down on them, don't write something totally out of character like "I wonder if Stacy is cooking dinner again tonight. I'm starving." It just doesn't make sense.

I hope these tips help in any way shape or form, if it doesn't tell me. If it does, tell me.

Later,

Kate.