Dialogue: The Emotion Within My Story
ERIN N. SIMON
Inspired, In-Spirit Publishing
Dialogue: The Emotion Within My Story
Dialogue brings your characters to life. It is the expression of their personalities. Dialogue is extremely important within your nonfiction work. There are some important things to know about dialogue.
Dialogue is always a new paragraph. It belongs on the next line, indented and preceded by an open quote. When dialogue for the first person is completed, it needs a closed quote. When the next character speaks, follow the same pattern.
Example:
"How dare you accuse me of being suspicious of Amanda! She and I have been friends since kindergarten! I've always trusted her!"
"Heather, everyone knows how much you can't stand Amanda. You've never cared about her! If you and she are friends, I'd hate to see how you treat family."
Dialogue has a purpose. It's not placed in writing to provide filler or small talk. Your character is speaking to reveal something to you, the reader. It is used to demonstrate character personalities during their interactions with each other and the adventures you send them on.
Do not repeat dialogue. If a character reveals something to one character, do not have that character or any other character repeat it. Whatever detail has been revealed, the reader now knows. It doesn't need to be repeated.
Also, do not use dialogue to describe a scene that has already been narrated. (i.e., You describe a bank robbery in detail. Say your character was present during the bank robbery. Do not have your character now describe the bank robbery in detail to another character. The reader already was present during the robbery. While the character can express the stress and fear associated with the robbery, to go back into the same detail used during narration, is redundant).
Don't try to be too fancy with accents, speech impediments, and diction. While it sounds great in our head, it can potentially be confusing to your reader. Certain accents and dictions could be difficult to execute and may disinterest your reader.
Use dialogue tags or creative ways to let the reader know who is talking. Utilize transitions or names, so the reader can follow what is going on. Also, too many characters engaging in dialogue can potentially be confusing to the reader. This could disinterest them and prevent them from further reading.
Ensure your dialogue is realistic. When you have life altering situations occurring in your story, is the character(s) responding or reacting appropriately? Does their reaction or response move the reader? Is it flat? Is it consistent with their personality?
Perform your dialogue out loud. The auditory reinforcement allows you to capture the proper emotion required for dialogue. Does the response or reaction require exclamation points, questions marks, or a period.
The goal to capture the proper emotion and character personality. Be consistent with this method and eventually, your story should be completed.
Re-view
Re-read
Re-vision
Re-write
Repeat, until your manuscript is complete!
Keep an eye out for my YouTube videos, which can be found on the Petite Dialogues Tab of my website. They can also be found on my YouTube page, Inspired, In-Spirit Publishing. Please share and subscribe!
I believe in you!
ERIN N. SIMON
Inspired, In-Spirit Publishing
ERIN N. SIMON is a writer, blogger, and visionary in raising the conscious level within her Community. One of her passions is to create a Black Media that truly matters, is promotable, and shared with as many people as possible. In 2013, She and her husband started Inspired, In-Spirit Ministries where they have a real estate arm in Detroit, Michigan. They have recently started a Publishing Company called Inspired, In-Spirit Publishing which have four published books on their shelves: In September of 2013, her first book within a series, Interruption: Shae's Search was published; followed up in May 2014 by the sequel, Interruption: Interlude; the series finale, Interruption: Alter Ego, was published August 2015; Under Cover & Under The Covers: Starring Detective Aja Anderson, published December 2016
Her husband has a company known as GS Investments in which financial freedom is gained one investment at a time. She currently resides in Florida with her husband and four handsome sons...
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