Writing tips & tricks

Diolauge

Here's a tip for beginner writers. Take it how you will.

A mistake a see in a lot of writers when they're first starting out is their dialogue. They haven't yet mastered the etiquette of characters communicating with each other in a story. The reason I'm phrasing it like this instead of simply saying "talking" is because it's different.

Let's take this situation. You're writing a story, and you want your characters to have a snappy conversation. You make them talk naturally. They don't pause in their sentences, because who orally uses commas anyway? Their subordinate clauses are separated by periods because that's how people speak. They use slang, colloquialisms.

Here's the thing. With their first language, mostly people don't talk in a grammatically correct fashion. I myself would never address a friend like I am writing right now. This much is apparent. You want your dialogue to be natural. However, when writing, there are certain unsaid rules you need to follow. Good grammar in sentence structure is one. Punctuation is another. You can say, orally, "Goodnight, Tux!" and roll the two words together on your tongue. You won't pause. You have no reason to dramatically pause when talking to your dog. It's a dog. It won't care. But when you write, don't forget that comma, no matter who's saying it or how it's said. The reader will know how to read it (or they won't, in some cases, which happens).

Here's another thing; the word "like". Do you know how many people say that in casual conversation nowadays? Like, a lot. It's a filler word, simple as. So like, if I were to actually to write how I talked, I would sound like really bratty and my sentences wouldn't grammatically work. Even that sentence ignored my previous comma rule; note how it just read badly. "But," you say, "that's how the character sounds like! It's their personality!" Yes, I understand this. And if you want to reinforce a characters speech with the filler words, hums and haws that we all say, go ahead. But keep in mind that it will read as being grossly exaggerated to natural speech.

So yes, in conclusion, use grammar in dialogue and try and sound professional. It's better to overdo the professionalism than to not achieve it at all.

Good luck to all in their writing!