Questions tagged [dialogue]
He said, she said, or what your characters are saying.
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Would an equals sign as secondary language exact quotes be misinterpreted in literary fiction?
I have chosen to show an accented English that is only comprehensible to speakers of the secondary language.
The topic of translated sign language has been beat up and I accept that there is no ...
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How to give more space to a dialogue?
I've read the "On writing" and other valuable positions. I've learnt all about unnecessary adverbs and repetitions. I can make words of my characters sound strong and natural.
Whereas most ...
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Should ending punctuation be put before or after an ellipsis? Compare ?..., ...?, !... and ...!
Through reading some self-published novels, I have noticed some writers in their character dialogue put an exclamation mark or question mark before an ellipsis and sometimes after. However I am not ...
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Interrupting action beats with dialogue?
Are you allowed to interrupt an action beat with dialogue? For example:
I push off from the pole on which I was leaning, “I’m sorry, but I
have to go.” then start jogging away before anyone can ...
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How to depict alien thoughts when color/pattern is primary language?
Searched through questions, googled around, and couldn't find anything helpful so here I am.
I am trying to find an interesting way to write out the thought patterns of an alien species that's primary ...
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Is dialogue necessary for a good story to be told? [duplicate]
When I write, I often write in a way that is very descriptive of the scenery and the way the scenery flows, and often never focus on character development. As a result of this, dialogue usually never ...
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How to write a protagonist in 1st POV, who is talkative?
My character is very talkative. As the narrator, how is she to balance her talkativeness in dialogue, narration, and description without making it boring, too long, or make it seem like she's dumping ...
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When do you break a paragraph when transitioning from dialogue back to prose?
Dialogue can get messy, jumping from character to character with beats and prose mixed in here and there. How do you handle all the paragraph breaks? Obviously anytime a new character speaks you have ...
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What do you call these specific phrases used to introduce a dialogue?
"Hey, look at this. Why isn't it working?" John said, passing the remote to Sam.
"You didn't press play," Sam said, snapping up the remote.
"Hi everyone! My name is John, and ...
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How do you make characters sound like non-native English speakers without using any grammar error in their dialogues?
How do you make characters sound like non-native English speakers without using any grammar error in their dialogues? I don't want to make people uncomfortable by having a character speak like an ...
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Is there a way to add noises that don't have an onomatopoeia?
"Brrrrrr, it's cold, brrrrr!" said Emanuel
"teeth grinding noise" it's cold, teeth grinding noise" said
Emanuel.
Is there a way to add noises that don't have an onomatopoeia? ...
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Characters' tone/pitch in dialogue
How does one go about showing a characters tone/pitch while talking?
For example, if someone said something that someone else doesn't believe and they reacted like:
bullsHIIt
or
whaAATt
Where the ...
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What are some tricks you can use to write a good story if you don't know how people talk and behave?
What are some tricks you can use to write a good story if you don't know how people talk and behave? Are there some tips and tricks on how to be able to still write a good story if you try to avoid ...
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How to write a gatekeeper yelling "Ooooooi" before asking who goes there?
The title sums it up. I would like advice on how to write the yell of a gatekeeper calling to attention the people approaching the gate.
Pretty much like some scenes where they go: "OOOOiiii, who ...
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Type of dialogues?
I was writing a short story about characters. I have a problem with the dialogue style I wrote it in. It is like this:
Karan: Hey Piyush! How are you?
Piyush: Hey, I'm good. What about you?
Karan: I ...
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MC has selective mutism; what to do with dialogue?
In a book I’m writing, the main character (a 15-year-old girl) has/struggles with selective mutism. I’ve quickly run into the problem where she is in a “mute situation” where she doesn’t talk. I’ve ...
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How to format dialogue about a playing video?
So let's say I have characters A and B who are chatting about a video that Character A recorded of themselves. In between their chatting, the dialogue of the video can also be heard, for example:
&...
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How does one put text messages in a novel?
I want to add sections within my novel where multiple characters are sending text messages to each other, but don't how to format it or if there's a certain way of doing it. For example, would I do it ...
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Punctuation in a dialogue where a character says their nickname, followed by their full name
I've been wondering about this rule for a while now, and I haven't seem to get what the 'correct' answer is.
For example, there are times where I want a character (let's say the full name is Chris ...
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How to format dialog mixed with non-dialog?
You normally break dialog up into separate paragraphs, but how are you supposed to format it when it's intermixed with non-dialog? Below is an example.
Is it correct to write the following exchange ...
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How to format italicized internal thoughts intermixed with other text?
I'm writing a story in the 3rd person, but there are parts where I use italicized text in the 1st person to tell what the protagonist is thinking. This works pretty well most of the time, but there ...
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How do I change the person a character addresses in a screenplay?
I was formatting my screenplay, and I wondered how to specify that the speaker changes who they are addressing. I figured it would simply be stated in a parenthetical:
DUIRE
What? I'm ...
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Can I link a dialogue tag to dialogue using a colon
Can I introduce dialogue as follows -
The headmaster entered the room: "Everybody sit down now!"
or -
"Everybody sit down now": The headmaster had entered the room
I know I could ...
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Trying to decide on writing style and format for dialogue. Looking for Grammatical advice and suggestions. Native British English spearker
I am new to this forum and writing and I am trying to decide on my preferred writing style. I am currently working on dialogue and looking for ideas and suggestions for grammatically correct and 'good ...
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How to create a scene for a dialogue?
Everybody knows how an important part of writing is the ability to compose proper dialogue. I've even heard that publishers tend to jump to the first conversation in a received draft and see if it ...
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How can I flavour quote-only dialogue?
When writing dialogue, I know it's sometimes normal/useful to drop attribution and provide only the direct quotes during dialogue, like so:
"Like we used to Mamma?"
"Einmitt, my little ...
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Ways to show someone is whispering without using "he whispered"
I've seen a lot of advice that says you should scrap all non-'said' dialogue tags. I can see the value of this, but I'm not sure how to make it work in every instance.
It's pretty easy to show things ...
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How do I describe an accent from our world in a non-Earth fictional world?
In my writing, I feel it can give a character distinction if they have an accent; our main character(s) have an American accent, but the newly-introduced one of them has an Irish accent.
My problem, ...
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Writing unique character-based dialogue?
I have read this on many sites and articles: "When writing dialogue, you should give every character their own unique dialogue so that it would be recognizable without writing their names."
...
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Action between dialogue
I've noticed I've been putting lots of action between someone's dialogue and have many inconsistencies and wanted to know if there was a difference between different ways of punctuating it or if it ...
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Making action between dialogue engaging?
For context, I'm writing a scene where a bunch of characters are having a serious but humorous, over-the-top argument about who should inherit a fortune.
So far, I've got a lot of dialogue but I haven'...
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I struggle to make characters emote during dialogue
I often find myself with two (or more) characters speaking, and too often my descriptions would be "he paused," "he sighed," "he rubbed the bridge of his nose," etc.
Too ...
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how to write the word "so as if it is slurred or exagerated [duplicate]
How should I write the word "so" as if it is slurred or exaggerated
for example:
I'm sooo sorry. I've been so miserable and lonely.
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Dialogues inside a descriptive part
I am wondering if there are rules on how to format dialogues. Sometimes, you see a dialogue inside a descriptive part and sometimes they have their own lines, but sometimes it's not clear if you ...
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In a novel, is it ok to truncate people's dialogues before they've finished a complete sentence?
In films, you hear people exchange a phrase or two before the camera pans to someone else and so on. Is it ok to do that in a novel? What are some ways of doing this?
Example:
"The cops came in&...
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Is it possible to do a blend of ancient epic poems and modern novels?
Is it possible to do a blend of ancient epic poems and modern novels? I was thinking of considering writing a short novel, which is a mix of ancient epic poems such as Iliad and a modern novel like ...
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How to write good dialogue?
I'm having difficulties in writing conversations between characters, especially if they are many of them. How can I write good dialogue?
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Should you avoid introducing characters that talk one time and never talk again?
Should you avoid introducing characters that talk one time and never talk again? I wrote a scene in a chapter where the main characters talks to a technician, and then the technician is never seen ...
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How to format dialogues from a non-living thing?
How to format dialogues from a non-living thing? I am wondering what's the standard way to introduce a "dialogue" from a non-living thing. I am not talking about robots or AI, in which cases ...
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Some usual military sayings [closed]
Can anyone please show me some common military sayings used in the 1800s (or 1900s)? I found some sentences but they are all new...
My story takes place before the invention of airplanes, missiles, ...
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How do you properly write a novel with very little dialogues?
How do you properly write a novel with very little dialogues? I tried doing it and it reads awful. It looks weird if you look at the format and layout if you don't insure the descriptive parts don't ...
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What do I do when I know the general summary of how a scene goes but I cannot figure out precisely what the character say?
I have a number of scenes in my story that involve two or more characters talking to each other about various issues, many of which wander into semi-philosophical discussion regarding some of the ...
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When can you stop using "he said"?
"Hey, this is dumb," one of the men replied.
"You're right, it's dumb," another man replied.
"Yes, I know," the other replied.
"Yeah.." the other man replied.
...
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Italicizing for emphasis
I've noticed that I have had a lot of dialogue between characters with words that need to be said with a noticeable amount of emphasis, and in order to get that emphasis I have had to italicize lots ...
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When a character is mentally recalling prior dialog verbatim, how should it be quoted?
When a character is mentally recalling prior dialog verbatim, should the dialog be surrounded by double-quotes or single-quotes, be italicized, or get no special treatment at all?
For example:
O'...
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How do you format a dialogue when it is interrupted by an action verb or sound?
"I wanna be - pants the president."
How do you format a dialogue when it is interrupted by an action verb or sound? I don't think this is the proper way. I am looking for a better ...
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What should phrases like “um” or “erm” be replaced with?
It is generally considered bad practice to include these in your writing, so what should be used instead? How would you show that your character is pondering something, or unsure about something, ...
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Why are discourse markers not used when writing character dialogue?
I am not a writer, but I always wondered why characters tend to not talk using discourse markers, specifically cognitive markers to create flow in the dialogue. There aren't any "um", "...
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How do you write pause in a dialogue without making it look flat?
At times in conversations, there are pauses for various reasons; in videos, the contexts of these pauses are clear because of the characters facial expression. But while writing, at first you can use ...
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Formatting new line options with actions and dialogue in fiction
I am getting confused about whether rules determine new paragraph positions or if it's sometimes arbitrary. Some choices seem clear cut, but in the sentence: 'I regarded...' it reads fine to me in ...
