What Did You Say? Dialogue

There are some really great writers out there who have amazing stories and wonderful characters but the dialogue is flat. If you're writing and what you're characters have to say is dull or unrealistic your readers are going to give up. If you want your characters to come alive for your readers you need to make sure what they're saying is believable.

WARNING!!! Be careful when writing your dialogue that you don't fall into the stereotype traps out there. When you're writing about characters that are from a specific area you want to make sure that the dialects match bu it's easy to make everyone sound like the stereotype. A good example is the Maine accent. A lot of people who write about Maine give all of us Mainers that thick Maine accent with no "r's" and a lot of auyhs. It's true we say these things but not all of us and not everywhere. This accent is strongest Downeast and with an older generation. So just be careful that you don't stereotype.

If you're having trouble gtting your dialogue to sound realistic there's a good trick to try. Go somewhere, anywhere where there's people and park yourself. Once you're settled just listen. One of the best ways to write good dialogue is to listen  to how people talk. If you are writing about a specific area listen to how they talk and write it the way you hear it. by writing certain words phonetically rather than correctly you help your readers make the characters come alive. 

Also remember when writing dialogue you don't always have to put "said Joe," "Joe said," etc. that's what quotation marks are for. if you d this to much it becomes repetitious and will bore your readers. Keep in mind too, to add some description because your readers may not pick up on some of the subtleties like sarcasm, anger, and other emotions. Even though you want to make sure you don't over use said and other like words you also want to make sure that your readers know who's talking so they're not constantly having to go back and reread passages to keep the dialogue straight, it's a tricky balance but gets easier the more you practice.

Dialogue is tricky but if you just listen t people it'll get easier to pick up.