1. Dialogue should be brief.
\n2. It should add to the reader’s present knowledge.
\n3. It should eliminate the routine exchanges of ordinary conversation.
\n4. It should convey a sense of spontaneity but eliminate the repetitiveness of real talk.
\n5. It should keep the story moving forward.
\n6. It should be revelatory of the speaker’s character, both directly and indirectly.
\n7. It should show the relationships among people.
\n\u2014 Elizabeth Bowen<\/p>\n
Dialogue has to show not only something about the speaker that is its own revelation but also maybe something about the speaker that he doesn’t know but the other character does know.
\n\u2014 Eudora Welty<\/p>\n
Dialogue in fiction should be reserved for the culminating moments and regarded as the spray into which the great wave of narrative breaks in curving toward the watcher on the shore.
\n\u2014 Edith Wharton<\/p>\n
Good writers do not litter their sentences with adverbial garbage. They do not hold up signs reading \u201claughter!\u201d or \u201capplause!\u201d The content of dialogue ought to suggest the mood.
\n\u2014 James J. Kilpatrick<\/p>\n
Nouns, verbs, are the workhorses of language. Especially in dialogue, don’t say, \u201cshe said mincingly,\u201d or \u201che said boisterously.\u201d Just say, \u201che said, she said.\u201d
\n\u2014 John P. Marquand<\/p>\n
The dialogue which does not move the story along, or add to the mood of the story, or have an easily definable reason for being there at all (such as to establish important characterization), should be considered superfluous and therefore cut.
\n\u2014 Bill Pronzini<\/p>\n
To write successful dialogue the author must have access to the mind of all his characters, but the reader must not perceive any more than he would in real life.
\n\u2014 William Sloane<\/p>\n
Don’t write stage directions. If it is not apparent what the character is trying to accomplish by saying the line, telling us how the character said it, or whether or not she moved to the couch isn’t going to aid the case. We might understand better what the character means, but we aren’t particularly going to care.
\n\u2014 David Mamet<\/p>\n
Remember that you should be able to identify each character by what he or she says. Each one must sound different from the others. And they should not all sound like you.
\n\u2014 Anne Lamott<\/p>\n
Which one is your favorite? Do you have other tips to add?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
1. Dialogue should be brief. 2. It should add to the reader’s present knowledge. 3. It should eliminate the routine exchanges of ordinary conversation. 4. It should convey a sense of spontaneity but eliminate the repetitiveness of real talk. 5. It should keep the story moving forward. 6. It should be revelatory of the speaker’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[117],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n