Writing Dialogue | CCC Tutorial

╭♡ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ┈ ⿻° …↶ ♡

❀ ᭙.𝑒𝑙𝑐𖦹𝑚𝑒 𝑡𖦹 𝑚𝑦 𝑏𝑙𖦹𝑔   ̖́-

⿻ 𝟏. Intro

⿻ 𝟐. Grammatical Rules

⿻ 𝟑. Tag Alternatives

⿻ 𝟒. Outro

─ׅ─ׅ─ׅ──ׅ─ׅ─ׅ──ׅ─ׅ─ׅ──ׅ─ׅ─ׅ─

⇅ Welcome to the next installment

⇅ of the CCC's tutorials. I'm back

⇅ to give you some writing tips

⇅ and rules you might not have

⇅ learned, or have forgotten.

⇅ Today, I'll be covering dialogue.

⇅ Art is by citrus-sours

───♡─────────────

Anybody who writes on a regular

basis probably knows the rules of

writing dialogue, but there are

some details that are easily

overlooked or forgotten by people

who don't write very often. Let's

cover a few of them.

Breaking Up Dialogue

One of the most important rules of

writing is mixing up sentences and

paragraph structure. Reading a

paragraph full of short sentences

feels stiffy and staccato, and reading

a paragraph full of long sentences

can get overwhelming and confusing.

Paragraphs containing dialogue are

no different. Putting all the dialogue

in the beginning or at the end of a

paragraph not only potentially

bores the reader, but also restricts

your creative freedom in that

paragraph. Things happen while

people are speaking, both in the

environment and in the actions of

the speaker themself. The easiest

way to show this is by interrupting

the speaker for some narration.

"Look around you." Shigaraki

opened his arms in a grand

gesture, revealing his allies

at his side. "You're greatly

outnumbered."

Easy, everybody's read something

like this, where something happens

during the speaker's words. But

interrupting dialogue isn't as easy

or simple as ending a sentence

then starting a new one later. The

punctuation of the dialogue is

dependent on the content of the

narration interrupting it. The most

common occurrence is when the

dialogue is interrupted by a tag.

A tag is not necessarily an action

being taken or something happening,

but is included for a variety of reasons,

from reminding the reader who is

speaking to just shaking up the

paragraph structure. Tags are

interjections that have to do with

speech or voice, such as "he said,"

"she whispered," or "I answered."

"I'm worried about him," Ochacko

muttered. "I haven't seen him in

weeks.

In this sentence, even though

"I'm worried about him" is a

complete sentence, it doesn't

end in a period. When followed

by a tag, the quote ends with a

comma if it would normally end

in a period. Keep in mind that

this doesn't apply to any other

punctuation. Question marks

and exclamation points remain

at the end of a quoted sentence

even if it's interrupted by a tag.

"Do you think he's hurt?" Shouto

asked. "I believe in him, but still..."

"Stop worrying about that idiot!"

Bakugou said, exasperated. "He

isn't our responsibility."

The punctuation of the narration

can also be influenced by the

content of the dialogue. On

occasion, writers place narration

not between two sentences, but

in the middle of one sentence.

When this is done, the narration

follows similar rules as the dialogue,

ending in a comma rather than a

period. Keep in mind the second

part of the dialogue isn't capitalized

since it's not a new sentence.

"I think," Ochacko announced,

turning to the other two, "that

we should do something about

it."

All of the rules we discussed also

apply when somebody is quoting

somebody else in their dialogue.

Only difference is you only use

one quotation mark when somebody

is quoting something else in their

dialogue. For the purpose of typing,

just use the apostrophe.

"Aizawa was really upset with you.

He said, 'Next time I see him,' in that

angry tone he has, 'he's getting

detention.' What did you do?"

Mina asked.

Switching Speakers

Nothing is more confusing than

not knowing who's talking. There

are pretty strict rules when it

comes to switching speakers,

which make it easier to keep

track of who's saying what.

The most obvious indicator of

who's speaking is in the tag

following the dialogue. We just

discussed tags, but they're the

"he said," "she mumbled" stuff.

"What's your favorite color? I

really like dark colors," Tokoyami

said.

Obviously, Tokoyami is speaking.

But not every dialogue has a tag,

or says the speaker's name. It's

easy to keep track of who's speaking

when there's only one person talking.

Adding another, however, makes it

more confusing. Unlike real life,

readers can't just look or listen

to know who's talking, and adding

tags with the speaker's name after

each sentence is a pain and becomes

repetitive for both the reader and

writer. To make it more obvious

when the next person speaks,

it's necessary to create a new

paragraph every time somebody

new is speaking.

"What do you think of the new

school uniform?" he asked.

"I don't like the material," she

answered. "It's too itchy."

Obviously, we already had tags to

differentiate between the two

speakers, but that's not always

the case. In longer conversations,

specifically between two people,

once the two participants are

identified, adding tags becomes

unnecessary unless something or

someone interrupts the flow of

conversation, and the reader

is trusted to assume the

conversation is going back and

forth unless stated otherwise.

"Do you know where Deku is?"

Ochacko asked, catching up

with Katsuki in the hallway.

"Don't know, don't care,"

the blonde shrugged it off.

"It's not like him to skip class,"

Ochacko mused.

"More power to him."

"Did he mention anything

to you?"

"I already told you I don't

know or care. Now leave me

alone."

Even though halfway through

the conversation, I stopped

telling you who was saying

each individual thing, you were

able to tell who's saying what.

Never have two people speaking

in the same paragraph, even if

you state that the speaker has

changed.

While it's required that you use

a paragraph break to switch

speakers, that doesn't necessarily

mean each paragraph break

is a change in speaker. You have

the option to have the same speaker

saying things over various paragraphs.

When doing this, you have to make

sure you let the readers know that

the back-and-forth has been broken.

"It's dangerous out here," Shouto

warned as he ed Ochacko on

the roof.

"What are you doing here?" Ochacko

asked, surprised by his presence.

"I was gonna ask you the same thing."

"I'm just looking at the stars."

"Oh, are you into astrology or something?"

"No, it's just a clear night. Look, you can

see the Big Dipper."

A moment of silence fell as the two looked

at the stars. Once it ed, Ochacko

sighed, continuing. "I wanted to

clear my head."

In that example, at the end, Ochacko

continues speaking even after the

paragraph break, but you can tell

she's still the one speaking because

the narration set it up. This is a

useful mechanic when you want

there to be a pause in the

conversation. A character can

also talk over multiple paragraphs

even if there isn't a break in

the conversation. Dialogue can

stretch over a paragraph break

when the speech is rather long,

such as a monologue or soliloquy.

When this is done, you don't put

an end quotation a the end of the

paragraph, but you put one at

the beginning of the next to let the

readers know that the dialogue is

still going and the break was

intentional.

"There will be no mercy from the

villains in a real fight," Aizawa

reminded his students. "I don't

care how tired you are, how much

you've already trained. If you

can't complete this exercise,

you'll die in a real fight. Villains

won't wait for you to be well-rested.

You need to learn how to push

through fatigue.

"When in doubt, try your best

to retreat. Even if you're useless

in combat, you're even more

useless dead, so don't let

that happen."

: include an opening

quotation mark at the beginning

of each included paragraph, but

only use the end quotation mark

when the speaker is finishing

talking.

───♡─────────────

Constantly reading "he said,"

"she said," "he asked," "they

yelled" can get dry and repetitive.

Vocabulary is important even in

dialogue tags. They help keep

the dialogue fresh, and can even

help portray the emotion and

scene more accurately. Here

are some alternatives to the

most-used dialogue tags.

Said

➴Chided

➴Snapped

➴Comforted

➴Demanded

➴Spat

➴Muttered/Mumbled

➴Declared

➴Blurted

➴Gushed

➴Agonized

➴Sighed

➴Revealed

➴Affirmed

➴335 alternatives

This link leads to the blog of a

children's book writer and

editor. It has a list of 335

alternatives to the word "said,"

all separated by what emotion

it's meant to portray. Consult

it often to bring more emotion

to your writing.

Asked

➴Inquired

➴Grilled

➴Interrogated

➴Pleaded

➴Begged

➴Entreated

➴Appealed

➴Wondered

➴Considered

➴Challenged

➴Probed

➴Scrutinized

Shouted

➴Exclaimed

➴Cheered

➴Clamored

➴Roared

➴Screeched

➴Bellowed

➴Yapped

➴Boomed

➴Snapped

➴Scolded

➴Spat

────────────────

⇅ I hope this post either reminded

⇅ you of some of the rules of

⇅ writing dialogue or helped you

⇅ in some other way. Keep in mind

⇅ that when trying to find alternative

⇅ words for anything, dialogue tags

⇅ included, a thesaurus can do

⇅ wonders. Thank you so much

⇅ for reading!

#CCCWritingReview

───────── 𑁍 ─────────