Zen…

Dialogues are very important in every story, they help you as a writer build a strong fictional world where your readers don’t just feel the story but find themselves in it.

However, if your dialogues are boring your readers will have a hard time sifting through your story. They may give up eventually.

Whether your story possess a strong message or not, dialogues are important ingredients so many writers neglect or forget to use effectively and it comes back to bite them in the ass.

How about we start with clear cut examples.

“I hate you!” She screamed. We know she did. The exclamation mark, duh.

“What are you doing?” He asked.

“Kim fainted” she said (obviously)

You have to give the readers some credit. I know you want us to know who said or did and who didn’t.

Instead of resorting to unattributed dialogues which some writers use (it’s not off the list when it’s applied in the right way) and most times it confuses the readers.

How about you write your dialogues this way; let’s use the previous examples.

1. “I hate you!” She hit his desk clenching her teeth.

2. “What are you doing?” Michael walked into the kitchen ignoring the knife on her hand and the black smear on her face.

3. “Kim fainted” Lisa spoke through breath, everything seemed to be happening so fast…

Now you might want to use different contexts for the dialogues, what I tried to do is give the readers a sense of belonging. I helped them figure things out, who did and who didn’t.

Attributed dialogues like the examples I gave above are very effective when the writers know what type of action to add (pending on the situation at hand)

It could be a gesture eg “I love her so much man” Jason raked a hand through his dark curls and licked his lips.

An emotion like when I used “Kim fainted” she couldn’t control her breath, everything seemed to be happening so fast. (The last line – the narrator gave more hint about the mood)

Now the reader could tell this person is worried and scared.

Or you could simply describe a thought or a physical action; “you’re dead!” She bared her teeth, her hands clenched into fists of rage.

What you are doing with these dialogue strategy is, avoiding to tell us what is not happening.

And that’s beautiful. You’re giving the readers a picture, a chance to be in the moment with you.

To conclude, always use a new paragraph for each time a new character will speak. To avoid confusing the readers.

Don’t over write or try to bore your readers with too much descriptions, it will shift the focus of the readers and you may end up not passing the message correctly.

Good luck with your manuscripts.