Hi WestWorders,
Would you like to knock your teacher’s socks off? (Not literally, as it might become a bit smelly in the classroom.)
Fear not! Writing awesome dialogue is a great way to impress your teacher – socks and all.
The first trick is to have your characters reveal only necessary information. Try to avoid long greetings and small talk. The following passage is a good example of necessary dialogue.
“Mum will kill me if I don’t pass the exam.”
“Perhaps you should spend more time studying.”
“I don’t have the energy … not with my tennis and all.”
Now that we have our important dialogue in place, let’s build around it. Let’s start by letting the reader know who is talking.
“Mum will kill me if I don’t pass the exam,” said Sarah.
“Perhaps you should spend more time studying,” replied Tom.
“I don’t have the energy … not with my tennis and all,” said Sarah.
Things are looking good. Our dialogue is sharp, the paragraphs are sorted out and so is the punctuation. But we can keep on building around the dialogue to let the reader know more about our characters and setting. Let’s move the conversation into a library. And let’s give Sarah a dislike of math.
“Mum will kill me if I don’t pass the exam,” said Sarah. She sighed, scanning the double page of sums that tormented her on the library desk.
“Perhaps you should spend more time studying,” replied Tom.
“I don’t have the energy … not with my tennis and all,” said Sarah.
But there is still more we can do. Let’s give Tom more to say. Let’s add some more dialogue to split what he says into two small chunks. Let’s create a supportive friend and likeable character in the process.
“Mum will kill me if I don’t pass the exam,” said Sarah. She sighed, scanning the double page of sums that tormented her on the library desk.
“Perhaps you should spend more time studying,” replied Tom, smiling assuredly. “You can do it. I know you can.”
“I don’t have the energy … not with my tennis and all,” said Sarah.
Notice the cool structure in Tom’s paragraph – Dialogue-Action-Dialogue. I wish I had a friend as supportive as Tom. Now that we’ve done that, let’s play around with the structure in Sarah’s last paragraph. Let’s move her dialogue to the end of the paragraph instead of the beginning.
“Mum will kill me if I don’t pass the exam,” said Sarah. She sighed, scanning the double page of sums that tormented her on the library desk.
“Perhaps you should spend more time studying,” replied Tom, smiling assuredly. “You can do it. I know you can.”
Sarah closed the book and shoved it into her blue duffle bag. “I don’t have the energy … not with my tennis and all.”
Now, we have some truly awesome dialogue. It reads smoothly because the structures are varied and there is some extra action and description in place.
Try writing some awesome dialogue of your own. You can build it up slowly like the example above. Feel free to share your work in the comments below!
Tim
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