1. Dialogue

2. Dialogue IS… Dialogue is a conversation between two or more people.
Dialogue is essential to fiction writing.
Dialogue brings characters to life and adds interest.
Dialogue must do more than just duplicate real speech.
Writing dialogue consists of the most exciting, most interesting, most emotional, and most dramatic words.

3. Dialogue should be EMOTIONAL
Parent--Teacher: How much money would it take for Billy to get a C? Friend-Friend: Gossip: Who’s dating whom? Girlfriend catching Boyfriend with another girl, and Boyfriend claims it was his sister!-- Why were you kissing your sister?? Parent-Teenager: What could you possibly have been doing out until 3 AM?

4. Partner Work
Create two characters/people who would have an emotional conversation. Make them talk to each other, and make something happen! You must go back and forth at least 5 times. Write your dialogue in “play format”: Character A: (Dialogue) Character B: (Dialogue)

5. Character Types Who is this character? How does he speak?
Dialogue helps a reader understand what a character is like.
Who is this character?
How does he speak?
What should he say?

6. Character types Who is this character? How does he speak?
What should he say?

7. Dialogue brings characters to life.
When writers use dialogue, they’re letting the characters speak for themselves. They use words and phrases that the character would use. Good writers use dialogue to bring their characters to life.

8. Bringing characters to life
Go back to your dialogue. Who are these characters? Each partner: Add a phrase, figure of speech, or manner of speaking that shows the reader who your characters are and what they sound like.

9. Putting it together
When fiction writers use dialogue, they have to follow paragraphing rules.
First rule: dialogue is always in quotation marks.
“Ew. Gross. I can’t believe Neva is going out with Frank.”
Quotation marks touch periods and commas, and are always on the outsides of those punctuation marks.
Look at your dialogue.
Add quotation marks to the beginnings and ends of your sentences.

10. Putting it together
Second rule: Writers use dialogue tags to show who said something.
“Ew. Gross. I can’t believe Neva is going out with Frank,” said Tara.
Use a comma between the quotation marks and the word, “said.”
Dialogue tags can go at the end of a piece of dialogue, or in the middle.
“Ew. Gross,” said Tara. “I can’t believe Neva is going out with Frank.”
Add dialogue tags to your dialogue.

11. Putting it together
Third rule: Writers use dialogue tags to show how something was said.
“Ew. Gross,” said Tara. I can’t believe Neva is going out with Frank.” VS
“Ew. Gross,” sneered Tara. “I can’t believe Neva is going out with Frank.”
“Ew. Gross,” shouted Tara. “I can’t believe Neva is going out with Frank.”
Change at least 2 “saids” in your dialogue to a more vivid verb.